[Banger]

Hey folks! I'm looking for variations on the "Jack and the Beanstalk" story, but so far I'm having trouble finding them.

One that I have found through googling so far is Gregory Maguire's "Fee, Fie, Foe, etcetera" in the Green Man (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142400297/sr=8-1/qid=1150378679/ref=sr_1_1/104-0611826-3151900?%5Fencoding=UTF8) anthology by Datlow/Windling. I haven't read it yet, but will be looking into it the next time I get to a bookstore. Has anyone here read it? How is it?

Does anyone know of any others? There are several Datlow/Windling fairy tale anthologies (Black Swan, White Raven, etc.), but I haven't been able to locate which of these, if any, contain Jack and the Beanstalk stories. Are there any other anthologies, short story collections, or novels containing Jack and the Beanstalk stories?

I'm looking specifically for Jack and the Beanstalk, not for fairy tale anthologies in general. I know that there are many fairy tale anthologies out there, but many of them do not appear to have versions of Jack and the Beanstalk (e.g., I don't believe that Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber contains any), and for many more I just can't find a complete story listing.

If you have read any such stories and can comment on what they were about and what you thought of them, that would also be greatly appreciated.

I have put this thread in the Fantasy section, but the stories can be of any genre.

Thanks :)

[kcf]

Jack of Kinrowan by Charles de Lint.

I haven't read it yet, but my understanding is that it is a variation of Jack and the Beanstalk and a well done one at that.

[Banger]

You know, I was looking into that book, but I wasn't clear on whether it was about Jack and the Beanstalk or Jack the Giant-Killer.

[Yobmod]

Roald Dahl's brilliant Revolting Rhymes has a version of Jack and the Beanstalk. Hilarious for all ages IMO, and more subversive than any literary re-writing i can think of.

Should be easy to find at a library - I assume kids still read these? If not, then parents are doing a bad job!

Mary Pope Osborne has a kids feminist retelling: Kate and the Beanstalk (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0689825501/002-0523593-8560016?v=glance&n=283155), Dr. Alvin Grawowsky has Giants Have Feelings, Too/Jack and the Beanstalk (Another Point of View) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811466361/ref=pd_sim_b_1/002-0523593-8560016?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155). Just searching amazon gives dozens of versions, but most are for kids, so the stiry usually seems not much changed.


Wikipedia has a few film adaptions and other info. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk)

[Banger]

Thanks, Yobmod. I haven't read the Dahl yet, although I have read his version of "Little Red Riding Hood," which is great.

The others you mention are also interesting, particularly in their points of view.

I am taking a class in folklore this semester and I have the option of either writing my own version of a well-known fairy tale or comparing a traditional (Perrault/Grimm/Jacobs etc.) version with a modern retelling. I'm leaning towards doing the former, and have started work on a story. However, I would like to see if my idea has already been done, in which case I'll probably use that story to write a comparative essay.

I spotted another at the bookstore yesterday: "Stalking Beans" by Nancy Kress, published in Datlow/Windling's Snow White, Blood Red. In it, Jack lives with his wife, not his mother, but is having an affair with the giant/ogre's wife :D

[beenorthern]

Mary Norton followed up on several classic wondertales in *Are All the Giants Dead?* (illustrated by Brian Froud) and Jack & the Beanstalk was one of the major threads ...

[Rob B]

Pick up the latest issue of Fables (http://www.vertigo.com/fables), the monthly comic from Vertigo Comics. Issue #50 plays on the Jack and the Beanstalk story.

[Banger]

Thanks for the tips, beenorthern, Rob. I'll definitely pick up the issue of Fables, and see if I can scare up a copy of the Norton book.