Publishers Weekly
05/27/2024
Pollard (Delphi) delivers a delightfully raunchy romp through the court of Louis XIV in 1682 Paris. A group of women led by Madame Marie d’Aulnoy meet regularly to discuss 25 fairy tales, which lend themselves to the title and themes of each chapter, beginning with “The Tale of Donkey-Skin,” about a king who seeks to marry his daughter. Soon men start joining the gatherings, and the group is dubbed the Modern Fairies by others at court. As the members discuss the tales of Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Prince Charming, the women note how their own husbands could have them banished for infidelity—indeed, one of them has been sleeping with a bachelor member of the Modern Fairies while her husband is away. In “The Tales of Anguillete and Red Riding Hood,” Pollard’s omniscient narrator suggests there’s a “wolf” monitoring the group for Louis XIV, who fears the political power of storytelling. Pollard’s ribald prose is addictively amusing, as in her depiction of the king as “short, pockmarked, always some problem with his arsehole... his little dick florid with some new sexually transmitted infection... such a pathetic little horn-dog.” This magnetic revisionist historical deserves a wide readership. Agent: Lucy Carson, Friedrich Agency. (July)
From the Publisher
"Pollard’s ribald prose is addictively amusing. . . This magnetic revisionist historical deserves a wide readership." —Publishers Weekly
“Pollard vividly and powerfully evokes the tumult, passion, and creativity of this bygone era, crafting a tale that's both timeless and timely.” —Booklist (*starred*)
"Clever and glittering, this beautiful novel resembles both the court and the stories it depicts." —Kirkus Reviews
"Clare Pollard has done it again! I loved this book. I was enthralled by the cast of characters and the vivid descriptions of the Sun King’s court. What really stuck out to me was the historical context of the origins of 'fairy tales' and the weight that context (the drama and machinations of Louis XIV’s France) gives them. It will dazzle you then send you down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Highly recommended!” —The Southern Bookseller Review
“An unconventional work of historical fiction to say the least, this tale of the voluble, voracious royal court of Louis XIV of France makes for an often sidesplitting, and always bawdy, read.” —The Millions, "The Great Summer 2024 Preview"
“Those in search of a bawdy fairy tale should look no further than Pollard’s novel set during the reign of Louis XIV.” —Los Angeles Times, "20 new books you need to read this summer"
"Original, fantastical, historical, and unputdownable." —Karen Joy Fowler, Booker shortlisted author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
“Elegant and decadent, vulgar and clever, enchanting and dark. The love child of Angel Carter and Anaïs Nin—the book I really, really needed.” —Sarah Perry, New York Times bestselling author of The Essex Serpent
“Funny, filthy, dancingly clever, The Modern Fairies is a delectable confection of many-layered pleasures. A story of stories, storytellers, and the lurking dangers of fairy tales, set against the lavish decadence of 1600s Versailles. I gobbled it all up.” —Joanna Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Whalebone Theatre
"Those in search of a bawdy fairy tale should look no further than Pollard’s novel." —Los Angeles Times, "20 New Books You Need to Read this Summer"
Kirkus Reviews
2024-05-17
Not fantasy fiction or a collection of fairy tales, but a historical novel about the people who told them.
Pollard, a poet, sets her second novel for adults in the Parisian salon of Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy during the reign of Louis XIV, with Charles Perrault as a frequent point-of-view character. D’Aulnoy’s salon and Perrault’s stories are still famous for their role in literary history. There intellectuals, mostly noblewomen, gathered to share fairy tales, some literary elaborations of folktales and some inventions of their own. Pollard draws on a rich lode of source material: “I must tell you, an almost unbelievable amount of this is true,” she writes in her author’s note. Each chapter in the novel is named after a fairy tale, some (“The Tale of Bluebeard”) more familiar to contemporary readers than others (“The Tale of the Ram”). In most chapters a member of the salon tells the tale in question. These stories are a safe way for the characters to examine and criticize the world of the Sun King’s court without—they hope—falling afoul of the power-greedy monarch and his bloodthirsty spies. Not coincidentally, the lives of the salon members, with their poisonings, forced marriages, dead spouses and parents, cruel rulers, illegitimate princesses, secret affairs, hints of incest, and horrifying punishments, sound like the fairy tales themselves.
Cold, clever, and glittering, this beautiful novel resembles both the court and the stories it depicts.
