Traditional Literature Review #1- THE FOUR GALLANT SISTERS

The Four Gallant Sisters by Eric A. Kimmel, Illustrations by Tatyana Yuditskaya 

1.     BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kimmel, Eric A. The Four Gallant Sister. Adapted from the Brothers Grimms. Illustrated by Tatyana Yuditskaya. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1992.  ISBN 978-0-805-01901-8

2.     PLOT SUMMARY

The Four Gallant Sisters is a feminist story about four sisters who take off in the world dressed as men to find work after their mother has passed away.  They agree to meet back up at their mother’s grave in seven years.  The eldest sister becomes a tailor, the second sister becomes a hunter, the third sister becomes a magician, and the fourth sister becomes an astronomer.  The King’s mother, for some reason, think that these men are women and try to convince her son that that are not men.  The women set out to save the King’s intended princess from a dragon.  They successfully save her with the help of the princess’ brothers.  It is finally revealed that they are in fact women and they end up marrying the princess’ brothers.  The story ends with the King’s mother being the happiest because she was right all along.

3.      CRITICAL ANALYSIS

I found this story started off to be an excellent example of feminism but failed at the end to keep this story true.  These women set out to do a man’s job and they were successful.  They even slayed a dragon to save a princess.  Everyone loves a happy ending which this book gives, but at the expense of the women who marry the princess’ brothers.  They went from being strong women capable of holding men’s jobs to being picked by men to marry.  This book is for an older elementary age because of the subject matter and more difficult writing level.

The illustrations are the best part of this book. I do not know much about art but each drawing is so full of color and detail that it takes awhile to take it all in.  The artist based his pictures off of sixteenth-century Flemish and Spanish paintings. In reading some other reviews of this book, people were negative about the illustrations because they thought the women were posturing in the drawings, but I did not think that was the case. 

4.  REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

From Kirkus: “Yuditskaya, a recent Russian emigrant, depicts this good-humored update in an opulent Renaissance setting with glowing theatrical backgrounds and figures detailed in vigorously telling line.”

From Publisher’s Weekly: “Kimmel's engrossing adaptation, while deftly told, is guilty of some reverse sexism.”

5. CONNECTIONS

Gather other Eric Kimmel books to read such as:

Little Red Hot,  ISBN:  978-1-477-81638-7

The Great Texas Hamster Drive, ISBN:

978-0-761-45357-4

A good activity would be to discover which Brothers Grim tales that this book derived from and read them also.