Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota - Jack Zipes
Nancy Canepa has superbly translated and edited a complete collection of the most significant Italian tales from Roman times to the present. Her translations and choice of tales reveal the enchantment of Italian storytellers who deserve to be better known in the English-speaking world.
Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor of Western Civilization, University of Chicago - Armando Maggi
Nancy Canepa's splendid selection of Italian fairy tales is a precious gift to all readers interested in this literary genre. Not only does this volume reveal the persistent beauty of the Italian tradition, it also offers a rigorous analysis of its historical and cultural evolution.
Professor Emerita, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, and Coeditor of Marvels & Tales: a Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies - Cristina Bacchilega
What a timely and marvelous volume this is! The Enchanted Boot traces a much-needed trajectory for the Italian fairy-tale tradition, mapping a long and distinctive history for this unruly genre that highlights how intertwined its fantastic flights and ironies are with harsh social realities as well as with the Italian peoples' often conflicting regional and national sensibilities. Canepa's breadth and insight as a scholar of literary fairy tales and Italian culture is matched by her genuine talent as a translator keenly tuned into the brio, moods, and multiple registers of the genre in Italy from the fourteenth century to the present. Finally, a collection in English that allows for Italian fairy tales to take their rightful place in the transnational history of the genre rather than playing cameo roles in it, and it is such a pleasure to read.
