Marie Louise was eight years old when she discovered the meaning of murder. She remembers specifically because it was her birthday and everybody in her family was out at her grandmother's and before she could blow out the candles and Grandmere could cut the cake, her uncle Royal fell into the old well and drowned. My cousin Henry said it was a terrible accident, but my cousin Philip said it was no accident -- it was murder.

The Collected Works of Marie-Louise von Franz is a 28 volume Magnum Opus from one of the leading minds in Jungian Psychology. Volume 3 turns to the Maiden’s Quest within fairytales. The maiden/heroine navigates a complicated maze of inner and outer relationships as she builds a bridge to the unconscious. The heroine contends with the animus in many forms like a devouring and incestuous father, demonic groom, the beautiful prince, an androgenous mother, a cold dark tower, and through conflict with the evil stepmother. Dangers and pitfalls await her as the conscious feminine strives to make connections with the unconscious masculine. The maiden is the undeveloped feminine and the promised fruit of her struggle with the animus is the coniunctio. Volume 3 is a masterwork of cross-cultural scholarship, penetrating psychological insight, and a strikingly illuminating treatise. With her usual perspicacity and thoroughness, von Franz gathers countless fairytale motifs revealing a myriad of facets to the maiden’s quest.