Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire is the retelling of Cinderella. Maguire sets the familiar tale in an unexpected setting, making the story of the stepmother's family a paradigm for the rise of the middle class in seventeenth century Holland. While the trappings of magic are always just around the corner—the fairy godmother, the pumpkin coach, the beautiful gown—Maguire resists making a fairy tale out of what is really a story of economic distress and the threat of starvation.