"happily ever after" is a fairly recent invention meant to sanitize old folk tales, and it's already going out of style.

This line popped into my head today, a couple weeks after reading this review. It bothers me. Now, granted 1) I am NOT a lit scholar at all and 2) maybe we just have different definitions of "recent" (even with that weasely qualifier), but I am pretty sure you're wrong.

Examples from my own particular obsessions:

The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. -100ish years old

Pride and Prejudice [and every other Jane Austen novel] -200ish years old

Twelfth Night [and other Shakespeare comedies] -400ish years old

The Wife of Bath's Tale [and some others from the Canterbury Tales, I think] -700ish years old.

Shit, I think even some parts of the Bible had happy endings. Am I missing something? 'Cause it seems to me that Happily Ever After has been around a long-ass time.