Rapunzel (book)

Rapunzel

Author	Brothers Grimm
Illustrator	Paul O. Zelinsky
Genre	Children's picture book
Publisher	Dutton Press
Publication date	1997
Publication place	United States
ISBN	978-0-525-45607-0
OCLC	36041635
Dewey Decimal	398.22 21
LC Class	PZ8.Z38 Rap 1997

Rapunzel is a book by Paul O. Zelinsky retelling the Grimm brothers' "Rapunzel" story. Released by Dutton Press, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1998.

The story is a retelling of the original 1812 version, which leaves in details not present in later versions, such as Rapunzel giving birth to twins by the prince.

In 1998 a film version made by Weston Woods Studios was released, narrated by Maureen Anderman.

Synopsis

After several years without children, the wife of a married couple expects a daughter. As a result of her pregnancy, the wife develops an intense craving for a bed of rapunzel in a walled garden near their home, belonging to a sorceress. When the wife grows deathly ill over being unable to taste the herb, her husband sneaks into the garden and retrieves the rapunzel, but is forced to do so again the next day when the wife's craving for it grows. There, he is confronted by the sorceress; after the husband explains his plight, the sorceress agrees to let him take the rapunzel in exchange for his child. Unwilling to lose his wife, the husband agrees, and the sorceress takes the couple's newborn daughter with her after she is born and names her Rapunzel.

As she grows, Rapunzel's hair grows to an excessive length. The sorceress fills the role of a stepmother to Rapunzel, and after twelve years, she takes her to live in an enclosed tower in the forest. By the time she grows into a young woman, Rapunzel uses her hair as a means of passage for the sorceress, who climbs up the hair to enter the tower through a window at the top.

One day, a prince riding by the tower overhears Rapunzel singing and falls deeply in love. After days of failing to enter the tower, the prince, after he sees the sorceress pleading for Rapunzel to let down her hair, does the same and meets Rapunzel inside. She soon returns his affections when they meet, and she agrees to marry the prince. For days, the prince visits his wife each night, while the sorceress, who visits only by day, is unaware of his visits until she notices Rapunzel is pregnant. Furious at Rapunzel's betrayal, the sorceress cuts her hair and exiles her to a nearby wilderness to live by herself, and there Rapunzel gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl.

When the prince arrives, the sorceress tricks him into climbing a rope made of the cut hair and reveals to him what she has done. Devastated, the prince falls to the ground, blinding him; after spending at least a year wandering aimlessly, he overhears Rapunzel's singing once more and they reunite. The prince's sight is restored when Rapunzel's tears of joy fall into his eyes. The prince returns to his home with his family, where they live a long, happy life.