Mary Beard on the Paper Bag Princess in The Guardian
Mary Beard, the great classicist, Cambridge professor, and BBC program host, of The Paper Bag Princess in The Guardian last month.
Fresh off with 2016-Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton, she cited the subversive empowerment of the Classic Munsch picture book鈥檚 famous last lines:
鈥淏ut can I put in a plea for a children鈥檚 book? One of my children鈥檚 favourites was always Robert Munsch鈥檚 The Paper Bag Princess, which I have read out loud hundreds of times. There is nothing more subversively empowering than reciting from memory those great last lines, when the enterprising Princess Elizabeth rescues the ghastly and feeble Prince Ronald from the dragon 鈥� and then dumps him: 鈥溾�榊ou look like a nice guy, but guess what? You are a bum.鈥� And they didn鈥檛 get married after all.鈥� There鈥檚 power for you, in a nutshell.鈥�
"The book that made me a feminist" for recommendations from luminaries like Naomi Klein, Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, Reni Eddo-Lodge and more.
(With thanks to author Gillian O'Reilly for the idea!)
