World-renowned folkloristMaria Tatarreveals an astonishing but long-buried history ofheroines, taking us fromCassandra&ScheherazadetoNancy Drew&Wonder Woman.The Heroine with 1,001 Facesdismantles the cult of warrior heroes, revealing a secret history of heroinism at the very heart of our collective cultural imagination.Maria Tatar, a leading authority on fairy tales & folklore, explores how heroines, rarely wielding a sword & often deprived of a pen, have flown beneath the radar even as they have been bent on redemptive missions. Deploying the domestic crafts & using words as weapons, they have found ways to survive assaults & rescue others from harm, all while repairing the fraying edges in the fabric of their social worlds. Like the tonguelessPhilomela, who spins the tale of her rape into a tapestry, orArachne, who portrays the misdeeds of the gods, they have discovered instruments for securing fairness in the storytelling circles where so-called women’s work—spinning, mending, & weaving—is carried out.Tatarchallenges the canonical models of heroism inJoseph Campbell’sThe Hero with a Thousand Faces, with their male-centric emphases on achieving glory & immortality. Finding the women missing from his account & defining their own heroic trajectories is no easy task, forCampbellcreated the playbook forHollywooddirectors.Audiences around the world have willingly surrendered to the lure of quest narratives & charismatic heroes. Whether in the form ofFrodo,Luke Skywalker, orHarry Potter,Campbell’sarchetypical hero has dominated more than the box office. In a broad-ranging volume that moves with ease from the local to the global,Tatardemonstrates how our new heroines wear their curiosity as a badge of honor rather than a mark of shame, & how their “mischief making” evidences compassion & concern. FromBluebeard’swife toNancy Drew, & fromJane EyretoJanie Crawford, w