Ella Enchanted Reread Date: 7/26/2010

The Book: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

First Edition: 1997

My edition: 1998 Scholastic Paperback edition

Pre reread thoughts:

I decide to start with something simple, something small, but still epic. So I chose Gail Carson Levine’s fractured fairytale, Ella Enchanted. The first time I read this book I was in elementary school. I was already pretty into feminism, or what I thought was femnism. So, Levine’s quirky feminist retelling of Cinderella totally appealed to me. The book itself was even better. Ella of Frell, who is cursed by a fairy at birth to be ever obedient, is funny and whip smart. Her prince, Prince Charmont (French, for Charming) is her match in wit and temperament and the pair fall in love not under the starry night sky of a ball, but over the year that Ella turns from fifteen to sixteen and Char to seventeen to eighteen. This is also the year that Ella’s mother dies. It’s not your average Cinderella story.

Ella Enchanted is one of my comfort books, which is why it made this list. To paraphrase the other Ella, no matter how my heart is grieving, Ella manages to give me a little lift. I read the book every year or two, just to make sure that it still hits me the same way. So far it always has. But, like every book that I reread I find something new in it every time I read it. I haven’t read it again since I really took on feminism. So that’s what I’m looking for. Also, it has the added benefit of being a fantasy story, that takes place in a medieval fictitious country, so there’s none of that messy dated pop culture feeling to it that some children’s and teen books get. Anyway, we’ll see.

Post Reread thoughts:

Well I was right about it not taking long. Four hours later, I’d laughed, cried and fallen in love with Ella and Char and their story of magic, fairies, ogres all over again. I was also right about the feminism. My God! If we’re worried about what Bella Swann is going to do to the feminist possibilities of young girls who love to read from now on, we’re just going to have to count on heroines like Ella to counter act them. I have to confess, I did sort of take this simple children’s story and read it as a feminist allegory. It was just so easy. After all Ella fights against her patriarchal father, saves herself, rather than waiting for Char to save her, and creates her own happily ever after.

The romance between Ella and Char is perhaps the biggest revelation at this point in my life. The two form a friendship, a “we like each other but don’t know what it means,” kind of relationship and then fall in love. It’s remarkably mature for a romance meant for little girls. It teaches the steps for building a healthy relationship. Plus in the end, the choose each other. A beautiful sentiment. Oh, and did I mention the part, where he falls in love with her all over again, when she’s disguised at the ball? I love that part.

Ella’s evil step family in this version aren’t portrayed as outwardly wicked. No, they are instead shown as foolish, greedy and mean spirited. Her step mother Dame Olga and her two daughters, Hattie and Olive are like mean girls in a middle school. They use Ella’s curse against her, but never in the ways that Ella most fears. Hattie controls Ella while the girls are at school, banning her from speaking to her only friend, a girl named Arieda. Dame Olga uses it to force her to be a servant in her own home when her father loses all of her money. Olive uses it to take money from Ella. Eventually, Hattie tries to use it to steal Char. But our stalwart, feminist era prince will have none of it. No, he sees right through Hattie and wants only Ella.

I’m not crazy. I swear, I mean, a lot of fictional characters have helped me become a feminist. But I think Ella’s a major one. I’m not saying I’m looking for my Prince Char and that’s why I’m so terminally single. Or maybe I am. Is it so wrong to want a guy who laughs at my jokes, and would catch me a centaur colt (which Char does for Ella before she leaves for finishing school) or put up with my crazy family. I’d settle for life without the centaur. Because if Harry Potter is to be believed, centaurs are kind of douchey. But I don’t think it’s wrong to strive for that kind of relationship. Or that delusional. I mean, expecting him to be the crown prince of a mystical country would be delusional, but not unacceptable, if it turns out that Narnia or something is real, and some guy I’m totally compatible with is the prince of it, that’s cool. Or even if say, I make really good friends with Prince Harry, or one of Grace Kelly’s grandsons, I’d absolutely do the marriage thing with them. If we were right for each other, the way that Ella and Char are. I’m not saying I’d marry them just because they were Royal. (Her Serene Highness Princess Irene Brady Nayden Renaldo does sound super nice though)

So, basically after rereading it, with more education and life experience behind me, Ella Enchanted still gets a huge thumbs up from me. I still adore everything about the book. It’s well written and funny, and gives a real look at what a real heroine could be. Even if she does still end up with the totally cute guy at the end, Ella gets much more than just that. And that is what makes her special. Or at least what makes her special to me.