Zoetermeers Dagblad | VIDEO: Start of exhibition ‘The real story?’ in House of the Book

The exhibition ‘The real story?’ on display in the House of the Book in The Hague.

The exhibition is about twelve well-known and lesser-known characters from world literature and how they have been adapted to the times over the years. Various shapes can be seen, including Anansi, Bambi, Huckleberry Finn, Pinocchio, Heidi and the Little Mermaid. Over time, these stories underwent major changes under the influence of politics, commerce and changing pedagogical ideas, fashion and gender roles.

With this exhibition, the museum wants to provide context to the sometimes heated discussions about changing texts and illustrations of classic books. This creates an investigation into the different forms of the stories: from the date of publication to the present. The exhibition is based on the recently published book ‘Springlevend. How classic books change meaning’ by Saskia de Bodt. The author is guest curator of the exhibition together with co-author Annemiek Overbeek.

Volunteers from the city news Haagse Dingen were present at the opening of the exhibition and made a video report, which you can watch at the top of this page. Haagse Dingen is a non-profit organization with an independent editorial team, without commercial interest.