The story retells the famous fairy tale of Snow White from the point of view of Snow White's stepmother, who is traditionally the villain of the piece. The stepmother is depicted as struggling desperately to save the kingdom from her unnatural and monstrous stepdaughter. Ultimately she is unsuccessful, as the "happy ending" of the original story still takes place despite her best efforts to prevent it. The story incorporates themes of vampirism, incest, pedophilia, and necrophilia. The story is told by the stepmother who is revealed to have had magical powers from a very young age, including visions of the future. She later marries a king and describes his daughter, Snow White, as a mysterious, vampiric young girl. The king ultimately dies from abuse, both physical and sexual, by Snow White and leaves the stepmother to reign as queen. The stepmother eventually has her huntsmen murder Snow White and cut out her heart, which still beats continuously even after being removed and is hung in the queen's private chambers. Following large numbers of disappearances and murders in the kingdom, the queen uses magic and her own blood to create enchanted apples which she brings into the woods to a still-living Snow White. The queen becomes scared and flees but knows that the creature ate the apples when Snow White's removed heart finally stops beating. Two years later, a prince visits the queen and she plans to marry him and unite their kingdoms. However the queen is unable to sexually satisfy the prince, who is clearly a necrophiliac, and he leaves. On his way home to his kingdom, the prince encounters the dead body of Snow White being guarded by seven dwarves. Indulging his necrophilia, the prince rapes Snow White and unwittingly dislodges the piece of apple stuck in Snow White's throat, resurrecting her. The prince and Snow White eventually return to the queen's kingdom and sentence her to death for witchcraft. The queen is incinerated in a kiln and the story is revealed to be her final thoughts and reflections as she begins to burn to death.
Publication
"Snow, Glass, Apples" was written in 1994, and was first published by Dreamhaven Press as benefit book for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. It was included in Gaiman's short story collectionSmoke and Mirrors. The story was adapted by the author into an audio drama, which was produced by Seeing Ear Theatre in 2001, starring Bebe Neuwirth. This was the second of two collaborations between Gaiman and Seeing Ear Theatre, following Murder Mysteries, and the two adaptations have been released together on CD under the title Two Plays for Voices. In 2012 it was adapted into a play by the Edinburgh University Theatre Company. In 2019 it was adapted in collaboration with Colleen Doran into a graphic novel published by Dark Horse Comics. The adaptation won the 2020 Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium.
