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In her introduction von Franz states that the book is based on a series of lectures in which she sets out to teach how to recognize archetypal material and how to handle it from a Jungian point of view. Whilst she uses the fairy tale of ‘The Cat’ as a focus there is also much discussion of the evolution of the archetypal mythical motifs in different cultures. ‘The Cat’ is an immensely complex Romanian fairy tale dating from around the 14 th century. I cannot attempt to tell it in full but will give you a very condensed account of the contents. It is a tale of two Kingdoms; in one the Empress, thinking that she is barren, embarks on a sea journey and comes across the sea palace of the Virgin Mary; here she eats an apple and then realizes that she is 6 months pregnant. The Virgin Mary, discovering the loss of her apple, curses the unborn child who at the age of 17 years will turn into a cat. This duly happens and the princess and her retinue, now all cats, disappear into a palace in the forest. In the other Kingdom lives an old widowed Emperor and his three sons whom he sends on a journey, first to find linen material so fine that it can pass through the eye of a needle, and then to bring back a wife. The youngest son duly arrives at the palace of the Cat Princess and after many vicissitudes, including two journeys back to his father's Kingdom, redeems the Cat Princess, first by cutting off her tail, when she becomes human from the waist down, and then her head when she becomes a whole embodied woman. Given the old Emperor's response to his son's wife (he finds her so beautiful that he wants to possess her and kill his son) the Prince gathers his army and defeats the Emperor, and although the ending has ambiguities, a new unified Kingdom is established.