Mary Alice Downie
Auteur de And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World
A propos de l'auteur
Crédit image: youngkingston.ca
Œuvres de Mary Alice Downie
Early Voices: Portraits of Canada by Women Writers, 1639-1914 (2010) — Directeur de publication — 9 exemplaires
Oeuvres associées
This Land : A Cross-Country Anthology of Canadian Fiction for Young Readers (1998) — Contributeur — 29 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1934-02-12
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- Canada
- Lieu de naissance
- Illinois, USA
- Lieux de résidence
- Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA - Études
- University of Toronto
- Professions
- writer
editor - Organisations
- Maclean Hunter Publishing
- Courte biographie
- Mary Alice Downie was born in Illinois to Canadian parents and grew up in Toronto. She graduated from the University of Toronto in English, despite spending most of her time at The Varsity. She had the usual range of jobs: steno pool, editorial assistant for a medical journal, and publicity management for a publisher. In 1959 she married John Downie; they moved to Pittsburgh where she produced film, play, and book reviews, and two daughters, Christine and Jocelyn. In 1962, they moved to Kingston, Alexandra was born in 1967. She hopes to continue writing and editing in a 103-year-old house in Kingston and 107-year-old cottage on an island on the Rideau, and to travel to as many places as possible.
Membres
Critiques
Listes
Prix et récompenses
Vous aimerez peut-être aussi
Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 24
- Aussi par
- 1
- Membres
- 212
- Popularité
- #104,834
- Évaluation
- 3.6
- Critiques
- 5
- ISBN
- 47
- Langues
- 1
The Wicked Fairy-Wife is an interesting selection, from a folkloric perspective, as it combines so many familiar elements in an unfamiliar and intricate tale that switches focus, midway through. Beginning as a classic rags-to-riches story, in which a poor but beautiful girl becomes a queen, but then loses her bridegroom, it also has elements of Snow White (Josette being 'spared' by the hangmen) in it. Then, once Jean-Paul enters the scene, it becomes a quest tale, in which the hero enlists the aid of a seemingly humble (but obviously magical) friend, and completes a number of near-impossible tasks, before triumphing.
As my friend Gundula - who very kindly loaned me her copy of the book - has pointed out, there are a great many European elements to this story, with only one or two Canadian elements thrown in, which makes me wonder whether it is a story unique to the French Canadian tradition, or a Canadian variant of a French story, retold so many times in the Americas that it picked up a little bit of local flavor. Whatever the case may be, I enjoyed reading it! Downie's telling is text heavy, despite the full-page illustrations by Kim Price, so I would recommend it primarily to older children who are independent readers, as well as to any adult readers looking for folktales from the French Canadian tradition.… (plus d'informations)