Myth Symbol and Meaning in Mary Poppins

<p>The Mary Poppins that many people know of today--a stern but sweet loveable and reassuring British nanny--is a far cry from the character created by Pamela Lyndon Travers in the 1930's. Instead this is the Mary Poppins reinvented by Disney in the eponymous movie. This book sheds light on the original Mary Poppins </p><p><em>Myth</em> <em>Symbol and Meaning in Mary Poppins </em>is the only full-length study that covers all the Mary Poppins books exposing just how subversive the pre-Disney Mary Poppins character truly was. Drawing important parallels between the character and the life of her creator who worked as a governess herself Grilli reveals the ways in which Mary Poppins came to unsettle the rigid and rigorous rules of Victorian and Edwardian society that most governesses embodied taught and passed on to their charges.</p>