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The Laughing Apples

by Ruth Manning-Sanders

This week on the book club we will be reading 'The Laughing Apples' by Ruth Manning-Sanders. This story is an old Sicilian Fairy Tale and can be found in the somewhat rare book by Manning-Sanders called 'A Book of Heroes and Heroines'. 

The story tells of a father of Three Daughters, the youngest and most beautiful of which is called Zafarana. However, each the father finds rich king who wishes to marry Zarfarana, on the journey to meet the Daughter a misterious voice calls out 'Do not touch Zafarana, for Zafarana is mine'. The king in turn is put off by this, and picks instead one of the other daughters. Twice this happens until Zafarana is left alone in her father’s house. At this point she is kidnapped by a cloud a taken away to the old man who had been calling to the other kings! Zafarana goes on to face three trials and a final quest before she will reach the end of her tale, it is in this final quest that she must find the three 'Laughing Apples'.

A strange fairy tale with many elements to consider. Think about the rule of three when reading and consider what we are to take from this; Three daughters, three kings, three tests, three states of storm and three apples, yet the story is divided into four chapters?

Fairy tales of this type speak of another world, not only in the form of the one of myth and legend, but the one of our own pasts, as these tales where most likely pasted down by spoken word over generations, why has this tale lasted the test of time? what is it that we find so intriguing about it and what are the morals and messages we are to take?

It is also worth considering the context of older fairy tales and how the sit within our now modern world, with vastly different social structures and attitudes, not only towards class, but wealth, women, marriage and servitude. All of which are within this tale, how do they sit with you as a modern reader?

Read the book online: The Laughing Apples

About the Author

Ruth Manning-Sanders (21 August 1886 – 12 October 1988) was a Welsh-born English poet and author, well known for a series of children's books in which she collected and related fairy tales from all over the world. All told, she published more than 90 books during her lifetime. Ruth Vernon Manning was the youngest of three daughters of John Manning, an English Unitarian minister. She was born in Swansea, Wales, but the family moved to Cheshire when she was three.

"There can be no new fairy tales. They are records of the time when the world was very young; and never, in these latter days, can they, or anything like them, be told again. Should you try to invent a new fairy tale you will not succeed the tale rings false, the magic is spurious. For the true world of magic is ringed round with high, high walls that cannot be broken down. There is but one little door in the high walls which surround that world – the little door of "once upon a time and never again." And so it must suffice that we can enter through that little door into the fairy world and take our choice of all its magic."

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

How to join the club to chat

The zoom link to join will apear above on this page at 3PM on Thursday. To join you will need a phone/tablet or laptop with a built in camera and microphone (most modern devices come with this) you may need to download the zoom app onto your phone if you are using a phone to join.

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