Mary Alice Downie
Autore di And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World
Sull'Autore
Fonte dell'immagine: youngkingston.ca
Opere di Mary Alice Downie
Opere correlate
This Land : A Cross-Country Anthology of Canadian Fiction for Young Readers (1998) — Collaboratore — 29 copie
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Data di nascita
- 1934-02-12
- Sesso
- female
- Nazionalità
- Canada
- Luogo di nascita
- Illinois, USA
- Luogo di residenza
- Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA - Istruzione
- University of Toronto
- Attività lavorative
- writer
editor - Organizzazioni
- Maclean Hunter Publishing
- Breve biografia
- Mary Alice Downie was born in Illinois to Canadian parents and grew up in Toronto. She graduated from the University of Toronto in English, despite spending most of her time at The Varsity. She had the usual range of jobs: steno pool, editorial assistant for a medical journal, and publicity management for a publisher. In 1959 she married John Downie; they moved to Pittsburgh where she produced film, play, and book reviews, and two daughters, Christine and Jocelyn. In 1962, they moved to Kingston, Alexandra was born in 1967. She hopes to continue writing and editing in a 103-year-old house in Kingston and 107-year-old cottage on an island on the Rideau, and to travel to as many places as possible.
Utenti
Recensioni
Liste
Premi e riconoscimenti
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Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 24
- Opere correlate
- 1
- Utenti
- 212
- Popolarità
- #104,834
- Voto
- 3.6
- Recensioni
- 5
- ISBN
- 47
- Lingue
- 1
The Wicked Fairy-Wife is an interesting selection, from a folkloric perspective, as it combines so many familiar elements in an unfamiliar and intricate tale that switches focus, midway through. Beginning as a classic rags-to-riches story, in which a poor but beautiful girl becomes a queen, but then loses her bridegroom, it also has elements of Snow White (Josette being 'spared' by the hangmen) in it. Then, once Jean-Paul enters the scene, it becomes a quest tale, in which the hero enlists the aid of a seemingly humble (but obviously magical) friend, and completes a number of near-impossible tasks, before triumphing.
As my friend Gundula - who very kindly loaned me her copy of the book - has pointed out, there are a great many European elements to this story, with only one or two Canadian elements thrown in, which makes me wonder whether it is a story unique to the French Canadian tradition, or a Canadian variant of a French story, retold so many times in the Americas that it picked up a little bit of local flavor. Whatever the case may be, I enjoyed reading it! Downie's telling is text heavy, despite the full-page illustrations by Kim Price, so I would recommend it primarily to older children who are independent readers, as well as to any adult readers looking for folktales from the French Canadian tradition.… (altro)