Grimm Tales Made Gay

The Brothers Grimm gave us tales of cruelty and moral instruction. Guy Wetmore Carryl gave us something better: revenge in verse. This turn-of-the-century gem takes the bloodthirsty originals and transforms them into gleeful comic poetry, where princesses get what's coming to them, wolves meet their match, and every tale ends with a moral sharp enough to draw blood. Carryl, a Harvard-educated humorist who died tragically young at 28, brings impeccable wordplay to familiar stories. "Cinderella" becomes a meditation on the practical difficulties of glass slippers. "Little Red Riding Hood" gets a narrative twist that would make the wolf blush. The titles themselves are rendered in verse, because of course they are. Each retelling plays the straight man to Carryl's comic genius, delivering lessons that are as wickedly funny as they are unexpectedly wise. For readers who loved Frank L. Percal's "A Modest Proposal" or anyone who thinks fairy tales could use a good roasting.