Perrault's Complete Fairy Tales

Charles Perrault, a minor government official in 17th century France, is best remembered today for the collection of fairy tales he published in 1697, just six years before his death. Perrault, however, was not the author of any of the tales collected in his book. Rather, he rewrote various folk tales, tales of unknown origin snatched from the oral tradition of his time, and published those stories in the versions that most closely resemble the ones children grow up on today.

This new Christopher Betts translation of Perrault’s work presents a few of the stories in simple verse, the rest in prose, and it includes an all-star list of fairy tales. Among the stories in “The Complete Fairy Tales” are: “Little Red Riding-Hood,” show more “Sleeping Beauty,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” “Cinderella,” and a story very similar to that of ”Hansel and Gretel.” But make no mistake about it – these are not the fairy tales you heard from your mother and they are, most definitely, not the ones made famous by Mr. Disney.

Nevertheless, Perrault did intend that his stories be read to small children by their parents. For that reason, his versions of the folk tales are shorter than the stories with which adults of the period would have been more familiar, they encompass a limited number of characters and motivations, and much of the most obvious sexual content has been removed or, at the least, disguised. In addition, within his stories, Perrault emphasizes lessons and warnings about the process of growing up and he attaches at least one moral to the end of each tale. The attached morals, however, do seem to be aimed more at the parent/reader than at the listening children.

Adult readers will be intrigued by the editing process to which Perrault subjected his chosen tales and probably a little shocked by some of the details he excluded. Perrault clearly felt it necessary to clean up the old folk tales before publishing them as children’s entertainment. Who might have imagined, for instance, that Snow White would be raped by her prince and would give birth to twins before she was awakened? Or that Little Red Riding-Hood would be forced by the wolf to eat part of her dismembered grandmother? Or that incest would play a prominent role in some of the tales?

“The Complete Fairy Tales” includes twenty-six remarkable illustrations by 19th century French literary illustrator Gustave Doré (including the book’s cover and the “Cinderella” illustration shown here) and it is amply footnoted. Most intriguing, though, is the book’s presentation of alternate versions of several of today’s most beloved fairy tales, versions that make it obvious why Perrault felt obliged to edit the tales to fit his intended audience. Readers preferring their history in unexpurgated form will much appreciate “The Complete Fairy Tales” as translated by Christopher Betts.

Rated at: 5.0 show less

I actually read these while I was in France, but I reread a couple of them this week while my online group was discussing them. The online discussion reminded me how dark these stories were, full of violence and terror and unpredictability. The things we face in life, in other words. The things we seek out in books.

i didn't realize that perrault had written so few stories. anderson and grimm have huge volumes. it's interesting to see the differences in stories. an interesting history by betts. i chose this book because it was illustrated by dore. we saw his great summer exhibition at the nag this past summer.

Perrault’s Complete Fairy Tales totaled fourteen in the Puffin Classics volume, including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Puss in Boots. I much preferred reading Perrault’s fairy tales to reading those by the brothers Grimm. Perrault’s were gentler. While they did were more didactic (with “morals” at the end), they also tended toward happy endings. They also seemed to be written directly for children, even though they claim to be a direct translation from the French.

The complete fairy tales of Charles Perrault
Liked hearing of the stories and also about the author who wrote these in the 1670's.
Some of them are quite scary and gruesome and they all come with a moral or two at the end.
Had never heard of Bluebeard and Hop of My Thumb and Donkeyskin.
About the author and translations done are included at the end.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

Not the most enchanting edition (Clarion, 1993) of these tales I would have thought, but it gets the job done.

Charles Perrault's fairy tales with a moral at the end of each one along with three additional tales by Mme. Leprince de Beaumont and Mme. Aulnoy are included. Whether the last three are each by both writers or one is by one and two by the other is left unclear in the dust jacket comments. Nor does it say who the "others' are who also translated the stories. The Prefatory Note explains that "The Ridiculous Wishes," "Donkey-Skin" and "Patient Griselda" were originally written in "a rather florid and diffuse verse form" and, hence, not usually included in collections of Perrault's fairy tales; they have been "paraphrased" here by the other translators, who also did the morals. The preface's unattributed author notes that "Patient show more Griselda" appears in works by Boccaccio and Chaucer. Mme. Leprince de Beaumont wrote "Beauty and the Beast" and Mme. Aulnoy the final two stories.
The reviews in LibraryThing mention illustrations by Dore. This book does not have them. It also does not have comments at the end.
It contains:
The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods
Puss in Boots
Little Tom Thumb
The Fairies
Ricky of the Tuft
Cinderella
Little Red Riding Hood
Blue Beard
The Ridiculous Wishes
Donkey-Skin
Patient Griselda
Beauty and the Beast
The Friendly Frog
Princess Rosette show less