NEW YORK — The novels of Stephen King may not seem designed for bedtime reading, at least if you value a good night’s sleep, but the author has always had a fondness for fairy tales.
Especially when they get a little dark.
“Fairy tales are supposed to be scary,” he said during a recent telephone interview. “I think because they give children a taste of adult emotions. That’s the hard part. The good part is that you give them a happy ending. We all hope things turn out well.”
The creator of such horror classics as “Carrie” and “The Shining” even called one of his books “Fairy Tale,” but he had never published one until he was contacted by the estate of a literary giant with a dark streak of his own, Maurice Sendak. Representatives for the late author-illustrator of such subversive favorites for young people as “Where the Wild Things Are” asked King to collaborate on a special project — a retelling of “Hansel and Gretel” combining King’s words and unpublished drawings by Sendak that were intended for a 1990s opera production of the Brothers Grimm story. Sendak died in 2012.
The 77-year-old King said working on “Hansel and Gretel,” which comes out this week, was almost literally healing.
“I had just had rather painful hip replacement operation that really didn’t go that well, because there was a lot of damage from a car accident I had 25 years ago,” King explained, recalling a near-fatal collision from 1999, when a minivan hit him while he was walking near his Maine home. “I was in a lot of pain and discomfort. This took me out of it. It was something fresh. Writing has always been my escape hatch, in a way.”
The Grimms’ “Hansel and Gretel,” first published in the 1810s, is the world famous story of two siblings forced to fend for themselves in the forest. Many plot points have remained over the past two centuries — the father is a kindly, but poor woodcutter who struggles to support his family; the children use breadcrumbs to help trace their path back home and they’re held captive by an evil witch who initially pretends to be a kindly old woman.
In other ways, the fairy tale has evolved, even in the Grimms’ lifetime. The wicked mother of the first editions becomes a wicked stepmother, and the narrative becomes more openly religious, invoking God as the children’s ultimate protector. King’s adaptation is largely faithful to the basic story, save for adding a dream sequence and removing a plot turn about a duck carrying the siblings across a pond.
“I didn’t see the point of that,” he said. “The duck just shows up. There isn’t any foreboding.”
During his interview, King also discussed his approach to writing “Hansel and Gretel,” his interpretation of it and how he’s open to new challenges.
Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
AP: What were some of your favorite fairy tales growing up?
KING: I loved “Hansel and Gretel,” I think it’s probably my favorite fairy tale. And there’s a Dr. Seuss book called “The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins,” where the kid kept trying different hats [to please the king]. I liked the way he kept trying to do the right thing. He’s eventually taken to the guillotine. And I remember as a kid how the headsman had a black hood on his head, and it was very, very scary.
AP: Did you have any particular goals when writing ‘Hansel and Gretel’?
KING: I just wanted to make the words fit the illustrations. The Sendak pictures were for an opera, and I don’t have any record of what the characters said. And I thought this would be a very exciting challenge, to find ways to make the fairy tales fit the pictures, to make it as seamless as possible.
AP: And that’s why you added the dream sequence where Hansel imagines a flying witch?
KING: That was, in some ways because that’s what the pictures called for, that sort of interpretation. There’s a picture of the witch, flying across the moon, flying across the sky with her broomstick, with a bagful of screaming children. And I didn’t know what to do other than write about a dream Hansel had about a wicked witch.
AP: Some versions of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ have the mother as the villain, others the stepmother. Yours has her as the stepmother.
KING: The wicked stepmother is like a trope in fairy tales. You don’t want to think that two parents would leave their kids out in the woods. I made the stepmother a little more wicked than the Grimm brothers did. She has food that she squirreled away. Even the father has some problems, his being so simple-minded that he would actually agree with the stepmother’s arguments.
AP: There’s a reference in the new book to God protecting the children. Did you see this as a kind of religious parable?
KING: No, I don’t, really. I see it as a case of children who are forced to be very strategic in their thinking and wise beyond their years and brave. But they’re also masters of their own fates, and I like that better.
AP: Could you imagine working on another fairy tale?
KING: I would never say never. There are fairy stories like “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” that move me to this day. I would be tempted to do it. But I’m a little elderly now, so to speak, although I wouldn’t say I’m older than dirt. And I get the sense, in the time I have left, that I would like to do as many things as possible. This was an exciting adventure, writing this fairy tale. I’ve been writing about brave and thoughtful children for a long time and this was like going back to the source.
AP: Is it important for you now to take chances, try new things?
KING: I think there is. I don’t talk a lot about it, but I have some things I want to try. I did a play with John Mellencamp (the musical “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County”), and I worked on a record with Scooter Jennings (the album “Black Ribbons”). All those things — it was interesting and fun to take the talent you have in a different direction.
Story by Hillel Italie.
