Tinder

Loosely based on Hans Andersen’s classic tale The Tinderbox, this luminously written story re-introduces all the erotic and macabre features of traditional fairy tales normally only hinted at once they became respectable and in print. So what is usually symbolic is now spelled out, with the young soldier Otto Hundebiss yearning for both the body and soul of his enigmatic princess Safire while just surviving in the brutal and bloody world of Europe’s Thirty Years War. David Roberts’s over one hundred black and white illustrations are equally memorable, once again mixing the cruel with the kind. The story itself gets a little confused at times, with the three enormous wolves, the servants of the box, constantly up against a large cast of villains while always remaining slightly ambiguous characters in their own right. But this is still rich and rewarding writing, reminding readers never to take any fairy tales, ancient or modern, simply for granted.