About this title: A version of the Cinderella story from the point of view of one of the ugly stepsisters, in this case young Iris, who blossoms into an interesting person in her own right, even as the beautiful Clara wins the hand of the prince.
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Headline Review
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780755341672ISBN:0755341678
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780060392826ISBN:0060392827
Description: Good. * BOOKS DISPATCHED WITHIN 24 HOURS * SATISFACTION GUARANTEED * ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED PROMPTLY * SHIPPED FROM UK * USA DELIVERY IN 3-5 DAYS * SHIPPED FROM UK: USA & EUROPE SPECIALISTS DELIVERY IN 3-5 DAYS. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780060987527ISBN:0060987529
Description: Very Good. Minor shelf wear with ffaint age toning. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780060987527ISBN:0060987529
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780060987527ISBN:0060987529
Description: Acceptable. A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (the dust cover may be missing). Pages can include considerable notes-in pen or highlighter-but the notes cannot obscure the text. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Date Published: 2000-10-01
ISBN-13:9780060987527ISBN:0060987529
Description: Good. This is a used book in good condition with normal wear and tear and may contain some writing, minor shelf wear and creases. Items are uploaded via ISBN and stock photo may be different from actual book cover. read more
"My latest conquest is the retelling of the Cinderella story by Gregory Maguire. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is told from the point of view of one of the stepsisters of the "cinder-girl". While not my favorite of his books, it certainly had its moments.
The novel's set in 16th century (iirc) Holland (not my favorite historical time period,) and the plot varies widely from the typical Disney-esque telling (which is to be expected.) Unlike Wicked (his retelling of "The Wizard of Oz" story) the plot was somewhat predictable and, I felt, the characters a little less rich. Despite that, I remained engaged through the whole book and was even mildly surprised by a twist at the end.
I would say that this is a book that makes for great summer reading. His writing style is often conversational, easy to read, although he does occasionally use a vocabulary I'm not familiar with, usually relating to the myths or customs of the time period. This book is one that in hindsight I would rather have borrowed from a library than bought, as I don't think I'll pick it up again soon."
"Maguire is best known for WICKED, and he continues with his dark interpretations of childhood tales with this book, based on Cinderella. But what a difference this story tells! Iris is one of the most engaging heroines I've met--much like Elphaba, she is independent and not beautiful in the eyes of the world around her. However, this book is more compelling in depicting the terrible struggle to endure the pain of life, love, and loss. The review on Amazon says it best:
"Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful retelling of Cinderella is a study in contrasts. Love and hate, beauty and ugliness, cruelty and charity--each idea is stripped of its ethical trappings, smashed up against its opposite number, and laid bare for our examination. CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER begins in 17th-century Holland, where the two Fisher sisters and their mother have fled to escape a hostile England. Maguire's characters are at once more human and more fanciful than their fairy-tale originals. Plain but smart Iris and her sister, Ruth, a hulking simpleton, are dazed and terrified as their mother, Margarethe, urges them into the strange Dutch streets. Within days, purposeful Margarethe has secured the family a place in the home of an aspiring painter, where for a short time, they find happiness.
But this is Cinderella, after all, and tragedy is inevitable. When a wealthy tulip speculator commissions the painter to capture his blindingly lovely daughter, Clara, on canvas, Margarethe jumps at the chance to better their lot. "Give me room to cast my eel spear, and let follow what may," she crows, and the Fisher family abandons the artist for the upper-crust Van den Meers.
When Van den Meer's wife dies during childbirth, the stage is set for Margarethe to take over the household and for Clara to adopt the role of "Cinderling" in order to survive. What follows is an adventure, and of course a ball, a handsome prince, a lost slipper.
But beyond these familiar elements, Maguire's second novel becomes something else altogether--a morality play, a psychological study, a feminist manifesto, or perhaps a plain explanation of what it is to be human. The story's narrator wryly observes, "In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats.""
"I like this version of the Cinderella story much better than the one we all know.
synopsis: "Confessions" is set in Holland of the 17th century, and begins with Margarethe Fisher & her daughters Iris who is plain and Ruth who has been referred to her mother as an ox who can't speak well arriving in Haarlem seeking the home of Margarethe's father. Margarethe's husband has died back in England, and the three have to flee to Holland. They are poorer than poor; no one will take them in after Margarethe's discovery that her father had died ten years earlier. Finally they are taken in by The Master, a painter named Schoonmaker and eventually meet with the father of Clara, Cornelius. They live there as domestic help, but when Cornelius' wife Henrika dies, Margarethe, who is the most unpleasant character I've come across in a while, steps in to fill the void left by her death. She ultimately causes the financial downfall of the family.
Clara suffers from her beauty. She is painted as The Girl With the Tulips by the Master; she is to serve basically as an ad for tulip bulbs that Cornelius and his investors hope to sell. The painting ties her to being the Girl with the tulips; she fears no one will ever see her as she really is. She moves to the kitchen and takes on the persona of ashgirl, cinderling; and will not go out into the world.
A terrible tragedy occurs that brings out Clara's true, transformed nature; indeed, that was this book is about, in part. Transforming, beauty, truth.
I really really enjoyed this book and its characters.
Recommended for people who enjoyed this author's other works (especially Wicked); and also recommended for those readers who enjoy a good fantasy."
"A Cinderella retelling in the perspective of an ugly stepsister, from the author of Wicked. Hmm. Okay, this book is just "not quite." Which I need to put in the proper scale -- the set-up is brilliant, as Maguire's generally are, and the follow-through is good, and the denouement is fine. But I didn't want fine. I wanted this book to walk up to me and knock me on my ass with a right hook to the gut. Instead it came up, dazzled me with some fancy footwork, and then asked me for a sedate waltz. Parts of this book are sheer genius -- the cleverness of the title which you don't realize until the very last page, the autistic ugly stepsister, the treatment of beauty in art and in life, Clara/Cinderella as a voluntary shut-in, the setting in sixteenth-century Holland, the reality of a prince searching for a wife. And the writing itself is outstanding, the sentence-by-sentence pace intricate and beautiful. But this book, which was excellent by the standards of fiction everywhere, fell just that tragic bit short of the extraordinary thing that it could have been, that feeling when you read a book and it's as if the whole thing rings like a bell, the note perfect and clear and dazzling. And this sounded as if the author left his finger on the bell when he struck it, to over-extend the metaphor. I'm glad I read it, but I'm beginning to suspect this is Maguire's shortfall, and it makes me sad to see this beautifully conceived idea land in the realms of good and not blow-your-mind."
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