Gretchen Schultz is professor of French studies at Brown University. Her recent books include Sapphic Fathers: Discourses of Same-Sex Desire from Nineteenth-Century France and An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century Women's Poetry from France. Lewis Seifert is professor of French studies at Brown University. He is the author of Fairy Tales, Sexuality, and Gender in France, 1690–1715 and Manning the Margins: Masculinity and Writing in Seventeenth-Century France.

"Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned brings together translations of 36 stories by French authors of the nineteenth-century decadent literary movement, beginning with Baudelaire. Troubling, cynical, often perverse, yet often enchanting, these twisted tales draw on old stories and myths to explore such topics as gender definitions, industrialism, the demise of magic, and the bleak future of civilization. We must marvel at the endless generativity of traditional stories."---Jo Radner, Storytelling Magazine --- "Both useful and delightful."---Ephraim Nissan, Fabula --- "Besides being a thoroughly engaging read, Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned is an extraordinary contribution to the fairy-tale canon. As with the last fairy and the genie in Veber’s tale, waiting patiently in the last remnant of enchanted forest, by translating many of these stories, and retrieving countless others long out of print, Schultz and Seifert have managed to recover a little bit of the magic so necessary for modern life."---Victoria Leslie, Gramarye Journal --- "Schultz and Seifert's volume is both useful and delightful."---Ephraim Nissan, Avocetta --- "This is a beautiful book that features a wide range of decadent fairy tales from France that fills a large gap in English readers' access to such texts. Gretchen Schultz and Lewis Seifert have done a wonderful job in bringing these together."---Richard Marshall, 3AM Magazine --- "Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned, as a whole, is a powerful and incisive exemplar of the world of the adult fairy tale, in all its historical relevance, and should serve as a worthy introduction to the very best in the subject."---Lois C. Henderson, Bookpleasures.com --- "This is a valuable collection of 36 tales, originally written from 1870-1914, by 19 French authors. Most, though not all, were well-known writers associated with the decadent movement. . . . This is a wonderful resource for scholars of fairy tales and decadent literature and a timely, thought-provoking collection for nonspecialists." --- "In these deliberately tarnished tales . . . wondrousness mainly shines through in their often beautiful imagery."---Michael Dirda, Washington Post --- "It's easy to see why Fairy Tales For the Disillusioned is capturing rave reviews. Our cultural climate is ripe for such a round of stories and, as the series from which it appears states, these are, indeed Oddly Modern Fairy Tales." --- "[S]ometimes sardonic, sometimes brutal, often blackly funny and possessed of a peculiarly modern sensibility."---Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald --- "[F]un and intriguing . . . . [E]xcellent windows into a period in history, especially in France, when politics and world strife . . . made it hard to embrace the [happily ever after] of the popular fairy tales."---Heidi Anne Heiner, SurLaLune Fairy Tales