The Gardens of Dorr

Fairy tales from the rest of Europe often hint at a more violent, tragic world than anything found in their counterparts over here. Dark forests can be truly menacing and witches unsparing in their evil and cunning. Child characters adrift in this world do not always prosper. A similar scenario got another airing in Paul Biegel’s modern fairy tale, first published in 1975 and now reissued. Along with its original Gothic black and white illustrations by the German artist Eva-Johanna Rubin, the world she and Biegel describe is sometimes downright ugly.

Details include a sadly misshapen dwarf insisting on a kiss from Melissa, a young princess. She is in search of the gardener’s boy she used to play with until he was transformed into a plant by wicked witch Sirdis. Later on a hideous toad also looks for a kiss in return for minimal services. Elsewhere a young goatherd, fed only with brown bread except for soup every Sunday, is promised a beating for every animal she loses. A dress made entirely of butterfly wings is subsequently coveted by an unprepossessing mad old lady.

British readers are certainly in for something different here, and for a while this strange and unpredictable fantasy journey has much to offer. But there is also a wandering minstrel determined to help Melissa in her quest and after a while his songs, translated onto the page in the form of short verses, rather outlive their welcome. It all ends happily enough with the witch thwarted and the gardener’s boy released from his spell. But by this time tension has slackened with too many mini-stories, paid out by characters throughout the narrative as a form of currency, taking away from the main plot. Biegel is best remembered for his classic The King of the Copper Mountains.  This story also showcases his extraordinary imagination, but overall less successfully.