The Stone Cage

Piggyback novels are curious things. When you’re reading about a familiar setting or character, it’s much easier to form an attachment and become hooked into the world of the novel. I suppose one can easily argue that they are a bit of a cheat technique in an author’s arsenal, but I personally quite like the creative stories, feelings, characters, and worlds that authors can concoct from another author’s character or story. Fairytales are an open avenue for this type of literature and Nicholas Stuart Gray creates a rather sweet and entertaining one off the back of the tale of Rapunzel. 

Told from the perspectives of the witch’s familiars, a raven named Marshall and a cat named Tomlyn, The Stone Cage tells the tale of Mother Gothel’s acquisition of baby Rapunzel and her attempts to raise her as a witch in an unreachable stone tower. Together Marshall and Tomlyn continually thwart Mother Gothel’s attempts to make magic stick in Rapunzel’s mind, but as her sixteenth birthday draws near, time is running out for the girl and the two seek the help of a white wizard to help her escape a terrible fate. 

Whilst Marshall and Tomlyn are not neutral characters, Gray’s choice of retelling the story through their eyes makes for a truly interesting read as they manage to create these grounded characters in both Rapunzel and the witch. Everyone goes through these lovely character arcs with the power of the story sitting within the themes of loyalty, fear, and power that it explores. The Grimm fairytale is made richer and more complex by these themes as well as the in-the-middle rather than omniscient way that it is told. Told in the first-person register which flits between the two familiars, we definitely get a stronger sense of who these characters really are; their loves, hopes, fears, and flaws, and even at the end, which you don’t quite see coming thanks to the ingrained expectation of happily ever after, there comes this lovely climactic character development that makes you view everyone in a different light. 

For the most part, the story follows the by-the-book structures of the fairytale, however some juicy modern twists do creep into the mix through some of the dialogue and the way that Gray restructures a few of the genre tropes. The biggest and undeniably most entertaining is that of the character of the handsome Prince who definitely follows the typical archetype, but is not written in as the hero. Rather funnily, the prince gets sidelined and made to be the comic relief rather than the dashing and clichéd hero *dramatic head turn* and whilst his intentions are very sweet and by-the-book in terms of fairytale heroism, you’re definitely not swooning for him. Although, the lack of swoon is aided by the fact that it’s Tomlyn and Marshall who are depicting him. 

The Stone Cage is a clever little retelling of the Grimm fairytale that brings a few modifications to the story, but also makes it richer, fuller, and gives us an insight into the world of the villain rather than focusing on the hero and heroine. The depiction of Mother Gothel is one that we have not seen and makes us even identify with her, thus making her more than the token wicked witch. Any lover of fairytales and novels that ride off the back of them should give this a read. 

Author: Nicholas Stuart Gray 

Published: Dobson Books Ltd. 1963