The contents also offers the opening lines of each story — each “Once upon a time,” if you will. In this way you may find a favorite writer or tale type, or simply a sentence that attracts your attention. Take these as signposts into your own, private hundred-acre woods — if that helps you. You may, of course, read the book in order — or backward! All you need to know is that no special expertise is required to appreciate any story in here — only an interest in reading.

I hope this book comprises not only a fantastic reading experience for you — a reintroduction to these stories with vintage and thrilling appeal — but also a call to preserve fairy tales for future generations. For in a fairy tale, you find the most wonderful world. Yes, it is violent; and yes, there is loss. There is murder, incest, famine, and rot — all of these haunt the stories, as they haunt us. The fairy-tale world is a real world. Fairy tales contain a spell that is not false: an invocation to protect those most endangered on this earth. The meek shall inherit. went one of the very first stories I heard as a child. I believed it then, and still do.

Fairy tales, fairy-tale readers: This book belongs to you.

DRAWING THE CURTAIN by Gregory Maguire

WE’RE HERE. WE BRAVED THE CROWDS AND BUCKED THE TRENDS AND overcame the obstacles (we located correct change for the crosstown bus) and we made it on time.

No need to try to smuggle a split of champagne past the usher. We won’t need it. We have in our hands only mezzanine-seat tickets to an everyday hullabaloo. No red carpet. This isn’t going to be featured on Entertainment Tonight. It’s not a once-in-a-lifetime event. The domestic fairy tale, never having indulged in a farewell tour, is in no need of a comeback.

Why, then, are our hearts racing?

The excited murmur from the foyer, the boxes, the stalls, the orchestra seats, is contagious.