This is a very helpful and up-to-date examination of both a brief history of the fairy tale and a brief history of the fairy tale scholars. The book delineates the various interpretations and emphases that fairy tale scholars and the collectors and writers of fairy tales have had since the 1600s with special emphasis on the ways the 18th and 19th centuries changed our perceptions of the tales and the way the 20th and 21st centuries have brought re-evaluations of the tales and differences in the way the tales are received both by the general public and by scholars in Europe and in the United States in particular. It explains in some detail the main theories about fairy tales and the main criticisms each theory has elicited. There is also an explanation of how the term fairy tale has been conceived by different scholars and by the public, how the term is generally perceived today, and the ways in which the fairy tale both differs from myth, legend, folktale, and tales of the fairies, and yet shares elements with them. All the prominent names and theories are included in some detail and the many less well-known scholars are brought to the reader's attention.