New 'Cinderella' Illustrations Give The Fairy Tale A Darker Edge

This Dark Version Of Cinderella Gives The Fairy Tale New Meaning

Cinderella, perhaps the sweetest and blandest of our most popular fairy tales, has always seemed to inspire a pastel-hued vision among readers and illustrators. The iconic Disney cartoon, of course, most memorably features the delicate blonde Cinderella in a pale blue, shimmering ballgown, her soft, neat curves and girlish wardrobe contrasted with the sharp-featured evil stepmother and stepsisters. The new live-action film, which Disney is releasing this spring, follows the same playbook, juxtaposing innocent Cinderella's flaxen curls and soft blue garments with her evil stepfamily's rigid updos and jewel-toned gowns.

A new edition of Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault explores familiar territory, but with a refreshingly new aesthetic thanks to illustrator Camille Rose Garcia. Though the morally-minded Perrault version of the fairy tale has more in common with the sanitized Disney films than the rather gory earlier versions, Garcia's whimsical, gothic-inflected artwork brings a darker edge to the typically sugar-sweet story. In comparison to the twisty-necked, gargoyle-ish stepfamily, her Cinderella may still seem conventionally lovely, but her cobwebby eyelashes, red-rimmed and narrow-pupiled eyes, and darkly angular features provide a whole new vision for how a goodhearted and deserving heroine might look. And while she still ends up happy with the prince, the eerie illustrations emphasize the darker elements of the story -- her abuse at the hands of her stepmother and her fear of being caught disobeying -- rather than the usually rosy-spectacled view of her romance with Prince Charming.

Here are a several stunning excerpts from Camille Rose Garcia's illustrations from Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper:

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Excerpted with permission from Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper (Harper Design, Jan. 20).

Before You Go

William Blake
Albert Camus
Emily Dickinson
Gustave Flaubert
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Jack Kerouac
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Voltaire

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