ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine (1997)

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Oct 12, 2024

∙ Paid

“Inside the box was a book of fairy tales. I had never seen such beautiful illustrations. They were almost alive. I turned the pages, marveling.
   ‘When you look at it, you can remember me and take comfort.’
   ‘I’Il save it until I leave, so the stories will be new.’
   Mandy chuckled. ‘You won't finish it so fast. It grows on you.’”

TITLE—Ella Enchanted

AUTHOR—Gail Carson Levine

PUBLISHED—1997

PUBLISHER—HarperCollins & Scholastic Books & Quill Tree Books

GENRE—middle grade fantasy—Cinderella retelling

SETTING—the kingdom of Kyrria

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—Cinderella retelling, a fairy’s “gift” (/“curse”), compulsory obedience, expectations dictated by gender & status, magic worlds & abilities, freedom, true love, found family, friendship, intercultural relationships, language, diplomacy, coming of age, m/f romance

Premise:

Ella Enchanted was one of the first YA fairy tale retellings I ever read when I was very wee. I’ve never been a fan of Cinderella, but when the story is brought to life in a retelling & the characters & themes fleshed out beyond the flat translation of the collected “original” tale—much like the story of the Elves & the Shoemaker in Ella’s fairy book—a whole new world & understanding emerges.

At Ella’s birth, the (somewhat rogue) fairy Lucinda—annoyed by Ella’s loud crying—gave her the “gift” of obedience so that she would always do what she was told. For the first fourteen years of her life, Ella’s mother was her protector, raising Ella in such a way that her curse wouldn’t bring her too much harm while allowing her the freedom to live as she pleased & grow into her own, very well-realized & complex self. But when Ella’s mother dies, everything changes.

“What would the book show me next?
A real fairy tale this time, "The Shoemaker and the Elves." In this version, though, each elf had a personality, and I came to know them better than the shoemaker. And I finally understood why the elves disappeared after the shoemaker made clothes for them. They went away to help a giant rid herself of a swarm of mosquitoes, too small for her to see. Although the elves left a thank-you note for the shoemaker, he put his coffee cup down on it, and it stuck to the cup's damp bottom.
The story made sense now.”

My thoughts:

My issue with the “original” Cinderella tales is the reasoning behind why the MC makes the choices she inevitably makes in these stories. The message seems to be that perpetual submissiveness, kindness & obedience in the face of literal abuse will “reward” her (i.e. she’ll marry a prince) in the end—a sort of sinister, superficial version of the “nice always wins” mentality. Which is neither believable nor relatable because no matter the era in which this story is being told, there was never a time when the world “worked” that way. To my mind it has always been one of the most blatant examples of patriarchal propaganda & sitting as it did between Sleeping Beauty & Beauty & the Beast—whose messages were at least a bit more useful as a jumping off point for some subversive meaning to be found—I never found one in Cinderella.

My father is a theological philosopher & my upbringing, while in the Lutheran church, was full of my father’s interpretation of the stories in the Bible. Listening to his explanations of the creation story (as just one example of the mythological origin story) & the commandments (their historical context), to the gospel (a parsing of Jesus’s parables & lessons for one that was nearly the inverse of what is considered “canon” in Christian doctrine) was my first experience with reading beyond just the words on the page, & I immediately recognized in Levine’s Cinderella retelling that she had learned how to do the same thing with those “original” fairy tales.

“Slannen patted my arm. "Elves will help. In the morning you will see. But you must spend the night as our guest." He smiled, showing pale-green teeth.
I smiled back, reassured—although one wouldn't expect green teeth to be reassuring. The elves were the same height as humans. With their mossy hair and green skin tinged with orange for the coming autumn, they were no more frightening than a pumpkin vine.”

What I especially loved in my recent reread of Ella Enchanted were all the clever subversions Levine brought to the heroine’s character. While Ella could not choose to disobey a direct order, she did choose to be fierce & rebellious in whichever way she could (i.e. by exaggerating or underperforming her response to an order until the person issuing it was as specific as possible about what they were trying to get her to do). She was also extremely clever having a knack for languages & speaking Gnomish, Orgresse, & Ayorthaian among others. In fact, I thought her commitment to developing her polyglot skills was really brave considering that she puts herself at risk as she can be ordered around in multiple different languages since she’d be able to understand what anyone said to her, showing a level of courage & humility that makes her a far more complex, sympathetic, & admirable character than her original counterparts.

The worldbuilding was excellent: cozy, original, & imaginative while still utilizing familiar creatures & fairy tale motifs to create a highly accessible yet diverse space. Though there was a bit of fatphobia & cishetero normativity (this book was pub’d in the mid-90’s) I was actually happy to see how well it still held up even to today’s zeitgeist.

I would recommend this book to readers who love cozy fantasy, coming of age, fairy tale retelling stories or want a really good “Cinderella” alternative to read with / outloud to younguns. This book is best read cozy in bed with your favorite pajamas & cuddle-buddy.

Final note: Now I need to go reread all my favorite Gail Carson Levine books. I remember enjoying her Princess Tales series a lot when I was little too.

“…I hurried inside to find Mandy… She hugged me so tight, I could barely breathe. ‘Ella! Ella, my sweet.’
I wished she'd never stop squeezing me. I wished I could spend the rest of my life as a child, being slightly crushed by someone who loved me.”

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

CW // fatphobia & fat-shaming, manipulation & abuse

Season: Spring

Music pairing: the Ever After soundtrack or

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ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine (1997)

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

TITLE—Ella Enchanted

GENRE—middle grade fantasy—Cinderella retelling

Premise:

My thoughts:

Further Reading—

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