reading group questions for the wild girl by kate forsyth
DESCRIPTION
One of the great untold love stories - how the Grimm brothers discovered their famous fairy tales - filled with drama and passion, and taking place during the Napoleonic Wars.The Wild Girl tells the story of Dortchen Wild. Growing up next door to the Grimm brothers in Hesse-Cassel, a small German kingdom, Dortchen told Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in the famous fairytale collection.TRANSCRIPT
THE WILD GIRL by Kate Forsyth Format: Trade Paperback ISBN: 9781741668490 Imprint: Vintage Australia Released 18 March 2013
Reading Group Questions
• Why do you think fairy tales are so fundamental to our lives? Is it how we learn right from wrong as children? How we glean social structures – those that work, and those that don’t?
• The recent rejuvenation of the Grimm Brothers’ tales has seen them returned to their earlier, darker tellings. Are you comfortable with the bloodletting, neglect and cruelty they now reveal, or do you believe the shined up versions most of us experienced as children are more useful in the lives of children?
• The Napoleonic Wars set the background, tone and pace for The Wild Girl, and Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm did meet and conduct their extended courtship over the period detailed in the novel. Solidly established around factual evidence, The Wild Girl remains a work of fiction. Do you have any objections to the melding of fact and fiction to create historical novels?
• Writing historical novels, is there a risk that the real story will always be more interesting than the fictional?
• How did you feel about Dortchen Wild through the various phases of the novel? Is she our hero? Or did you feel otherwise about her?
• Wilhelm Grimm, with his devotion to his scholarly progression, reluctance to leave his brother or run off with his true love, is not your traditional hero. Did you struggle with Wilhelm? Or does it not matter as The Wild Girl is not a romance novel? Or is it?
• Which fairy tale do you think Kate Forsyth should take on for her next novel?
Reading Group Questions for The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth Available in bookshops and ebook retailers 18 March 2013
The Wild Girl: Print ISBN: 9781741668490 | ebook ISBN: 9781742758060 Imprint: Vintage Australia | Publisher: Random House Australia
Copyright © Kate Forsyth 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.