The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault

This slim volume caught my eye because the author listed on the cover is Angela Carter. I didn't read the synopsis on the back really...other than that she adapted Perrault's fairy tales. Being relatively familiar with Carter's other work, I was hoping for more scintillating and perverse adaptations, but these seemed pretty much run-of-the-mill to me. In that respect, this was just OK. However, there were a few of the fairy tales with which I was not familiar, so that was nice to add to the ol' backlog. I hadn't given much thought to how long it has been since I've read any fairy tales until I read this book, and I found the sometimes-inconsistent themes and sometimes-meandering plots pretty fascinating over and above the show more sometimes-goofy morals included at the end of each story. I know that folklore was often intended to serve as some sort of mandate on behavior and moral code for children (once upon a time), but I wonder anymore if these "oldies" are just too quaint to scare a child into obeying his or her parents or to never talk to strangers. I certainly can't recall learning any real life lessons from reading fairy tales as a child--I loved them, but they were pretty much just wild entertainment for me. Of course, the wisdom intended in some of the stories is obvious, but after reading this, I am kind of tempted to read up on the psychology and sociology that might not appear so glaringly.... (*sigh* all I need is another self-imposed homework assignment) show less

I borrowed this from the library a little while ago, and I liked it.

These are some old, old Fairy Tales redone by Angela Carter. I think I was spoilt because I read The Bloody Chamber before I read this, so my expectations were pretty high. Although that being said, these fairy tales are some classic, solid fairy tales and there's nothing wrong with them at all.

I do think that Carter's interpretation of them is probably my favourite, the language is pretty accessible and she manages to weave in some of her own tone and style. I do like a good fairy tale every now and again, and I did find these readable, but some of the stories stuck with me more than others.

The writing is subtle, solid and enjoyable but I know these fairy tales almost show more too well, dare I say? Anyway, regardless, Angela Carter remains to be one of the authors I really, really like and I look forward to reading more of her work soon. c: show less

Fairy tales originate in the oral tradition of short stories which were told and handed down from generation to generation. They have apparently existed in all cultures. While some fairy tales were included or incorporated into literary form in earlier centuries, fairy tales in Western culture were not established into a literary genre until the late Seventeenth century. By writing them down, the fairy tales became fixed.

Many of the most well-known fairy tales, such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "Bluebeard", "Puss in Boots", "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella" were thus first recorded in written form by the French author Charles Perrault (1628 - 1703).

As the fairy tales circulated in spoken form, they may have varied in content and show more form. Histoires ou contes du temps passé ou Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals or Mother Goose Tales (1697) are described as "works derived from pre-existing folk tales." Recent scholarship has shown that Perrault's fairy tales were not true recordings of folklore, but rather a type of aristocratic fairy tales mixing folklore elements with Perrault's imagination and including elements from French fashion and aristocratic life and style.

More than one hundred years later, between 1812 and 1857 the Brothers Grimm, Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, rewrote Perrault's fairy tales, suggesting that they had roots in the ancient oral folk tradition.

The fairy tales written by Perrault have been translated into hundreds of editions into more than a hundred languages. They are now almost considered indistinguishable from their sources, or in fact, the source of the tales themselves.

Angela Carter was not the first or only writer to translate Perrault's fairy tales, but her translation is notable, especially in view of the development of her own later work, particularly The Bloody Chamber.

The fairy tales of Charles Perrault is a translation of Perrault's Mother Goose Tales of 1697, including all tales from that original edition. Angela Carter's translations are short but spiced with a modern touch that is unusual to readers familiar with the style of the Brothers Grimm. This makes each of the stories a light read. For each story a moral and an alternative moral are proposed at the end of the story.

In the Modern Classics Penguin edition, Angela Carter's translation is preceded by an intertesting 32-pages long introduction and afterword by Jack Zipes, editor of the The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. This edition seems especially interesting to readers interested in the development of narrative technique in the work of Angela Carter. show less