"Beauty is a fine thing in a woman; it will always be admired. But charm is beyond price and worth more, in a long run. When her godmother dressed Cinderella up and told her how to behave at the ball, she instructed her in charm. Lovely ladies, this gift is worth more than a fancy hairdo; to win a heart, to reach a happy ending, charm is the true gift of the fairies. Without it, one can achieve nothing; with it, everything." Such words are true to its form but were ignored. The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault is a wonder of its own but some thing that may not be the liking to others. While we all heard the popular fairy tales of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood, these are the true origins from Charles Perrault stories with others like Bluebeard, Ricky with a Turf and a few others in this book. But this... is actually Angela Carter's translated with her view of his stories that is mix with modern perspective. One can say while reading it, the moral values written for each story is just like the above. Its not that isn't true, but some of the stories like Cinderella moral value can be quite stirring. I still love the stories here, but given a 3 out of 5 star is because I know these stories some how and its nothing new that we do not know about and there are some I have not heard of. While the moral values written as a end story is interesting, I do enjoy her views of each story that she finds Perrault's fairy tales can be some thing she feel a defying moment during she translates them to her liking. Short and simple, it's a children's story for adults even though its meant for children but its seriously, written for adults.

I love fairy tales, but mostly I've been reading retellings of them since forever - I don't even know if I've ever gone through the heavier, more original stuff before.

 

They're awesome. Predictably, some of the spellings and grammar and word usages are odd, but then, they were written and translated hundreds of years ago. One interesting thing that I didn't know was in Cinderella's (or Cinderilla's) case - people actually think that she didn't have glass slippers at all in the original version, and that was added in later because no one could agree on how to translate the words Perrault used. People even argue that maybe she had a grey squirrel or two instead of glass slippers.

 

I don't know, I thought it was funny. I can't help but imagine Cinderella swirling around at the ball with her prince, a pair of fuzzy bright-eyed little squirrels perched somewhere on her person. Needless to say, I think maybe the glass slippers are an improvement.

 

But anyway. Fairy tales are awesome because they kind of get what a lot of modern-day books don't - sometimes I don't care about the characters or the world-building or the pretty phrasing. Sometimes I just want to hear a good story.

 

And these are good stories. So. I guess the brothers Grimm are next, eh?

Once upon a time, long before farmboys arose to defeat Dark Lords and even longer before the rise of imagined histories attempting to be gritty in a way that removed most moral compasses from fantasy, there was the fairytale. A simple little literary beast masquerading as a story with a morality play contained within its fascinating bounds. A little creation marketed for children but one which contained deeper adult themes. Fairytales did not need to attempt to be gritty, they simply were in how they conveyed themes that clearly indicated that incest, rape, cannibalism and other heinous deeds were abhorrent and that. Nowadays, as the epic form seems to have merged with fairytales thanks to the meddling of Hobbits, fairytales are becoming less relevant. Yet I still believe that the old classic fairytales are relevant to modern audiences. Except perhaps Rumpelstiltskin. In today's social media environment it makes no sense for no one to know that imp's name. If he were around today the prince would hunt down his name on Facebook or Twitter. Speaking of which can you imagine the tweets?

The fairytales in this volume include the classic: Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderilla and Sleeping Beauty. However they are not the fairytales you may have heard or read as a child. While both Cinderilla and Sleeping Beauty avoid the greater horrors that were part of their genesis (according to other sources in the Cinderilla (or Cinderella) tale the stepsisters attempted to put on the glass slipper by cutting their toes and heels off. As for the real Sleeping Beauty story, apparently there are references to the prince of the tale taking advantage of the sleeping princess. The Little Red Riding Hood story remains in its classic form however, with the wolf ending up eating everyone. There is a reason behind the plots of these stories however, with the tale of the wolf being a symbol for predatory men who would take advantage of a young girl's virtue.

In fact each of these stories is accompanied with a moral at the end. These morals reveal the underlying message as indicated by the author. However, there appears to be room in each story for anyone else to enjoy other messages they can observe. Whether you like fantasy stories and want to see some of the older tales in that format, or if you merely like short stories and fairytales I recommend giving this collection a read. It's not particularly long with around 100 pages and you should be able to get through it in around an hour or so.

I often feel like Perrault is being overlooked and underestimated when it comes to fairy tales. He is not nearly as famous as the Brothers Grimm or H.C. Andersen, however I do think his fairy-tales are equally as powerful as theirs.

The stories are well composed, and truly terrifying in some aspects. It's definitely not the happy disneyfied stories as we know today, but grim and raw tales dealing with problems everyone - even adults - can relate to, and written with a specific point or morale in mind. Each fairy tale ends with a moral poem, that holds the key to unlocking the true meaning of the story.

Perrault's version of "Cinderella" is my all-time favorite fairy tale. It is the work of a true artist, and I can only regret that so few people are aware of it.

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.