Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #132369 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Synopsis
The tales are translated by A. E. Johnson. Eight of the twelve tales in this book are from the master hand of Charles Perrault (1628-1703). Although Perrault enjoyed much distinction in the French literary circle of the late seventeenth century, his fame today rests upon his authorship of the traditional "Tales of Mother Goose", or "Stories of Olden Times". And it is true to say that as long as there are children to listen spellbound to the adventures of "Cinderella", "Red Riding Hood", and that arch rogue "Puss in Boots", his memory will endure. Three of the tales, "The Ridiculous Wishes", "Donkey-Skin" and "Patient Griselda", are seldom included in Perrault collections as they were written in a very florid verse form. Not only Perrault, but Boccaccio, Chaucer and others have used the story of "Patient Griselda".The last story, "Beauty and the Beast", again not by Perrault (it was penned by Mme. Leprince de Beaumont 1711-1781), has a similarity of style and celebrity which justifiably merits its inclusion.

Customer Reviews

Darker Fairy Tales Than I Remembered
I tucked myself up in bed with the delights of `The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood' imagine my horror that this was not the `Sleeping Beauty' by Ladybird that I had read when I was little. I mean back then she pricked her finger slept for a hundred years and was woken, along with the court and her parents, by a handsome prince who fought through thorns to find her... the end.

He didn't then keep it a secret from his family and travel back and forth until one day his father died and he was King, then announcing his wife and two children. He also didn't go to war and leave the mother in law Queen with Sleeping Beauty, the mother in law being half-giant and demanding she eat both her grandchildren and her daughter in law. There wasn't a nice man who saved them all and hid them only to be found out. The prince didn't return just as his mother had filled a cauldron with snakes and other delights over a fire to kill them all with, rescue them and chuck his mum in. Well do you know what in the original all that did happen, well it really did. I was shocked.

I felt like I had found `Fairy Tales: Uncut' and as an adult I felt like I had been let into a new secret. I actually like the darker twists for example the fact that Little Red Riding Hood gets eaten and that's that the wolf gets away scot free. I rediscovered Puss in Boots which I loved and Tom Thumb which I still don't like along with Cinderella these stayed true to form. I also found some new ones that I loved such as Donkey Skin, The Fairies and the gore fest that was Blue Beard. Plus some new ones I didn't like The Ridiculous Wishes which was ridiculous and Patient Griselda which Germaine Greer would hate, it makes women out to be completely stupid and that they will put up with anything.

I also liked the `moral of the story' although for some of them like `beware the words of wolves' were a bit vague and some of them should clearly have been re-written `the moral of the story is beware all mother in laws'. I have thoroughly enjoyed going back to my childhood in an odd way and discovering some more of the darker secrets surrounding some of my favourite old tales. Oh, I have just realised, I have really enjoyed some truly old classics.

Excellent book
This book is lovely, but not really suitable for younger children. The pictures are wonderful pencil drawings and the stories seem to be original tales, with no Jazzy endings thrown in.

Brilliant Horror
This is a splendid edition of Perraults Fairy Tales. However, I would suggest that it's an edition more suitable for adults interested in illustration than one for children. Dore's engavings are brilliant but horrifying. Like the picture of the ogre about to murder the children in "Tom Thumb". And those for "Little Red Riding Hood" with a very scary wolf sharing a bed with LRRH. However, those for The Sleeping Beauty are absolutely enchanting. This is a book for anyone with even the remotest interest in fairy tales, or the art of illustration.