Orenstein, Catherine

PERSONAL:

Female. Education: Harvard University, B.A. (magna cum laude); Columbia University, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Basic Books, 387 Park Ave. S., 17th Fl., New York, NY 10016-8810.

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her book Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale, Catherine Orenstein analyzes the familiar fairy tale and illustrates the transformations its plot and moral have undergone throughout the years. The first known version of the story, written by Charles Perrault in 1697, featured Red Riding Hood tricked by the wolf into eating the flesh of her own grandmother, as well as climbing into bed with the wolf. She is saved by her own resourcefulness, however, in a tale that is meant to urge young women to remain chaste. In later versions, the story was transformed into a moralistic narrative for children, warning of the importance of keeping to the proper path. Orenstein's "revelatory" book "traces the tale's makeovers and what they reveal about each culture that produced them," noted Susannah Meadows in Newsweek. Lorraine Adams, a reviewer for the Washington Post Book World, found the book marred by the author's attempt to inflate the fairy tale, "in an uneven postmodernist oven, into a soufflé of madly multiplying meanings." Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked was praised by a Booklist contributor for its "wit and insight," as well as its ability to take a fresh look at an old story and to understand how the changes in the narrative reflect changes in human culture. A similar assessment was offered by Michiko Kakutani, who, in her New York Times review, praised Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked as "lucid and often entertaining."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale, p. 1653.

Choice, January, 2003, E.R. Baer, review of Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, p. 810.

Newsweek, August 26, 2002, Susannah Meadows, review of Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, p. 57.

New York Times, August 23, 2002, Michiko Kakutani, review of Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, p. E35.

Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2002, review of Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, p. D14.

Washington Post, April 10, 2002, Lorraine Adams, review of Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked, p. 5.