THE RESTLESS GIRLS by Jessie Burton

It seems to me that in recent years people have been unable to decide whether before (“before” mostly means “when we were children”) we were better or worse.

Apparently we were better because the air was cleaner, the food “more organic” (I often hear “Yeah, well, we ate cracklings and bacon, but at least they were homemade.”), The kids were more cultured and better brought up, and so on.

On the other hand, it used to be much worse for us because, among other things, we had aggressive cartoons in which the actors soldered pans, chased rifles, waited with dynamite and mutilated each other in many other creative ways.

Today we supposedly have better cartoons. They are so much better and more meaningful that children, if they intend to grow up to be normal people, are not allowed to watch them even 10% of the time we probably watched them as soon as our parents got our first video recorders and enrolled in video stores.

Apparently there was something wrong with the fairy tales we grew up with, because today we have new, improved, softened, enlightened, corrected, politically correct, etc.

I’m not complaining. While reading some of the stories from the booklets “Fairy Tales in the Picture”, I found myself simultaneously inventing some more digestible details of the story. Also, books inspired by classic fairy tales have been among my favorite books to read this year.

I have been really looking forward to every book by Jessie Burton so far; because of “The Miniaturist” and “The Muse” she became one of those authors whose books I will faithfully buy while I am alive.

When I learned that this third title is a re-told fairy tale that the Brothers Grimm had long ago included in their collection, my happiness had no end.

The book “The Restless Girls” is the author’s attempt to correct many injustices that seem to sting us more and more in these classic fairy tales that are perverted, cruel, dishonest, mostly towards their female characters.

All the king ever wanted was for his girls to go to sleep, because he believed that only in their dreams could they be safe. (That, and they were easier to manage than when they were awake.)

THE RESTLESS GIRLS by Jessie Burton

The fairy tale known as “The Worn-out Dancing Shoes” or “Die zertanzten Schuhe”, in short, tells of twelve daughters, all more beautiful than each other, who slept in the same room whose the king would lock the door in the evening – for who knows what reason (it is not written in the original fairy tale). Every morning, though the princesses were locked up and could go nowhere, the king found their shoes completely worn out.

As it was by no means clear to the king how this was possible, he offered the next reward – anyone who reveals the secret of these worn-out shoes will be offered the hand of any of his daughters and the whole kingdom, of course, once he dies. If the unfortunate man fails to reveal the secret behind the destroyed shoes in three days, he faces the death penalty.

The young men lined up one after the other and lost their hopeful heads, but no one could reveal the secret hidden by the princesses.

One day an elderly wounded soldier who could no longer serve was passing through the kingdom when an older woman met him and asked him where he was going, and he jokingly replied, “I am going to find out where and how the king’s daughters go dancing so that I can become king. “

The woman replied, “Well, that’s no problem! When one of the princesses offers you wine, don’t drink it. ” In addition, give him a magic cloak that will make him invisible.

And so the soldier went to the king and, like everyone before him, was given three days to try to unravel the secret of the worn shoes.

To cut a long story short (it’s not a spoiler because I’m not revealing details about the book “The Restless Girls”, but I remind you, like myself, of the original version of the fairy tale), the soldier tricked the princesses and for three days he followed them on their expeditions to the ball in the underground castle.

Eventually, taking out the broken twigs of the magic trees and the golden goblet he stole at the ball in the underground castle, he denounced them to their father and revealed their well-kept secret. The king kept his promise and allowed him to choose any of his daughters as a reward, so he, a cavalier, taking into account his age, chose the eldest daughter for himself.

You can only imagine the avalanche of objections that the modern feminist soul could enumerate to this story. The king treats his daughters as slaves, physically restricts their freedom of movement, threatens them with forced marriage and robs them of their future.

In one of the interviews about this book, Jessie Burton mentioned that in the original version of the fairy tale, princesses do not have their freedom, their will, they have no power, and – worst of all – they do not have their different identities. We only know that there are twelve of them and that they are beautiful.

The first thing she said that The Restless Girls dealt with was the collective identity of the princesses. In her version of the book, each princess has a name and each has a very specific set of talents and interests.

In the original fairy tale, we don’t know why the king locks his daughters in a room at night, so in The Restless Girls Jessie Burton gives us a reason that doesn’t justify the king, but gives us readers a little more context, such as “because” to our “why” “.

In the original fairy tale, too, the princesses have no power over their own destiny and the story ends the way it ends. In the book “The Restless Girls”, the author prepared something completely different for the princesses.

It is time to stand on your twenty-two feet, my loves., whether your shoes have holes in them or not.

THE RESTLESS GIRLS by Jessie Burton

In this way, it is rumored on the Internet, Jessie Burton corrected some injustice done to the identities of the princesses, leveled some kind of scale that was not in balance in a classic fairy tale.

I really understand the need to “clean up” some things for a certain audience, and it’s great that some classic stories get a newer version. It only bothers me, for some reason, that somehow between the lines there is a kind of belittling of the classic version of the fairy tale. If you local feminist doesn’t approve, it seems, it should all be discarded.

If I could, I would ask her why, in order to offer the princesses an equal position in the book in relation to male characters, she decided to completely erase from the fairy tale the twelve princes, also nameless, with whom the princesses went to the ball in the underground castle? Not only did she not give them names and professions and interests and talents, but she completely erased them from the story?

Besides, why was it forgotten that just one woman helped a soldier outwit a princess? Without her, the soldier would never have succeeded in his intention and one of the sisters would never have had to marry against his will and the eleven other sisters would not have had to give up their midnight adventures with the mysterious princes forever.

I even read a number of outrages over the fact that a man – our soldier in this case – was following (sounds creepier when I write “was stalking” right?) our poor princess. But nowhere did I read the outrage over the fact that the princesses had poisoned the young men’s drinks, knowing that they would be sentenced to certain death in three days. Yeah, where are we now?

Just because I had fun with questions like this doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the book – I did; that doesn’t mean I blame her very much – I don’t blame her at all. The story is positive and inspiring and beautifully written and I really enjoyed the author’s descriptions of the magical landscapes that the princesses went through on their way to the mysterious underground castle. I liked that in her version of the fairy tale she somehow brought their mother back to them and that she added a few more character dimensions to their father.

Do I experience “The Restless Girls” necessarily as a better version of the original fairy tale? Well, I can’t say that, especially because I feel that Burton’s version misses the idea of equality a bit and that, in a way, Jessie Burton tells one story, but that by rewriting it and throwing out some elements, she sent a completely opposite message.

“We must keep walking, ” said Frida. “The adventure isn’t over yet.”

THE RESTLESS GIRLS by Jessie Burton

I think each of these versions can trigger its own storm of questions and debates and that these two storms can only partially overlap.

Still, despite everything, I think I know which version of the fairy tale will live longer and continue to be recognized as “the real one” although some future children will be able to show exactly which parts of it would, in the context of their reality, be completely absurd.

“The girls weren’t alone in this: the world is full of children picking up their parents’ crumbs.”

THE RESTLESS GIRLS by Jessie Burton

At least I hope that they will be able to.