Spells of Enchantment brings together the best literary fairy tales ever written, arranged to provide a sense of the history and evolution of this ancient genre. Focusing on the work of the most gifted writers of the great Western literary movements from classical times to the present. Jack Zipes's collection shows how some of literature's most creative minds have tried their hand at mixing the magic ingredients of the fairy tale-and how the genre has been marvelously transformed according to each writer's particular genius.

Including more than sixty tales by such master practitioners of the art as Perrault, Voltaire, Goethe, Hoffmann, Hawthorne, Wilde, Yeats, Hesse, Thurber, Calvino, Philip K. Dick, Robert Coover, and Angela Carter, this authoritative, original, and unique volume is sure to bewitch readers of all ages.