Ella Enchanted is your basic twisted story of Cinderella, but definitely my favorite so far. The story takes place in the imaginary land of Frell, ruled by King Jerrold and Queen Daria. This book starts off with Ella being given a gift of obedience by the fairy Lucinda. Lucinda does not realize what a curse this truly was,("That fool of a fairy did not intend to lay a curse on me. She meant to bestow a gift.")and when Ella's mother and cook Mandy beg her to take it back she simply laughs at them, thinking she's given a wonderful gift.
Ella, for having to be obidient, is a rather stubborn girl. She tries to see how far she can get before having to comply with the curse many times.
Sadly Ella's mother dies when she is 15. Her father remarries, and her step-mother brings along with her two obnoxious daughters. Ella meets the prince Char and befriends him and a unspoken romance begins to kindle between the two. Then Ella is sent off with her step sisters-Hattie and Olive-to finishing school. Ella becomes friends an Aythorian, Areida, but Hattie figures out Ella's secret and forbids her to talk to Areida again. Ella is devastated and runs away to try to find the fairy Lucinda. She battles ogres and goes to a giant's wedding and finally does find Lucinda, but to no avail.
Her father is there and brings her back home and tries to marry her off. He is unsuccessful and goes on a long business trip. The evil stepmother of course treats Ella like a servant now that her husband is gone. Ella and Char begin to exchange letters, but she hides the fact that she is now a servant in her own household. They fall in love of course but Ella realizes what a threat she would be to the kingdom with her curse so she sends a letter to Char saying that she is married. He returns to Frell from an extended trip, and 3 masked balls are thrown in his honor. Mandy, who we discover is a fairy herself, helps Ella go to the balls. She goes under the name of Lela, and the prince is quite taken with her. As all the Cinderella stories go, on the third night she wears a glass slipper and loses it while running home. Char chases after her and the normal scene plays out and he asks her to marry him. The curse of obedience battles her good sense, and she ends up defeating the curse and saying no. Rid of the curse, she marries Char, and they of course live happily ever after.
I do recommend this book, for I've read it many times and never grown tired of it. I do not however recommend the movie because it was poorly done, and the only things that hadn't changed were the names.
1 comment:
The movie's pretty bad... -_-
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