Histoires ou contes du temps passé avec des moralités (Stories or Tales of Past Times, with Morals, 1697) is the best‐known French fairy‐tale collection today. It includes ‘La Belle au bois dormant’ (‘Sleeping Beauty’), ‘Le Petit Chaperon rouge’ (‘Little Red Riding Hood’), ‘La Barbe‐bleue’ (‘Bluebeard’), ‘Cendrillon ou La Petite Pantoufle de verre’ (‘Cinderella’), ‘Le Petit Poucet’ (‘Little Tom Thumb’), ‘Riquet à la houppe’ (‘Riquet with the Tuft’), ‘Le Maître chat ou Le Chat botté’ (‘Puss‐in‐Boots’), and ‘Les Fées’ (‘The Fairies’). Later editions were called Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose Tales) and included the previously published verse fairy tales ‘Grisélidis’, ‘Les Souhaits ridicules’ (‘The Foolish Wishes’) and ‘Peau d'âne’ (‘Donkey‐Skin’). Published under the name of P[ierre Perrault] Darmancour, the 1697 stories are also attributed to his father, Charles Perrault.
Which Perrault wrote the Tales? The uneven levels of style between the prose stories and verse morals suggest the 19‐year‐old prodigy and not the French Academy polemicist. And yet, this stylistic inconsistency plus worldly social commentary on the court, fashion, and marriage may indicate a father–son collaboration. Then again, the Tales were not mentioned in Pierre's obituary, and Charles was the acknowledged author of the verse fables and rumoured author of the collection. For these reasons, critics now champion his literary paternity. The dedicatory preface by ‘P. Darmancour’ to Mademoiselle (Elisabeth‐Charlotte d'Orléans) was therefore a trick to present the son to society and to curry favour with her uncle, Louis XIV. Similarly, his change in publisher (to Claude Barbin) was a way to sidestep authorship and avoid reinvolvement in the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns (which debated the merits of classical over contemporary literature). Despite these ruses, the ‘Ancient’ partisan Boileau still derided these ‘trifles’ as the work of the ‘Modern’ Perrault.
Like La Fontaine's Fables, these moralizing Tales were unabashedly modern, and reflected the preoccupations of a widower rearing four sons. They were to ‘civilize’ a new public (children) of a new social class (the emerging bourgeoisie) in what he deemed the accepted political, social, and moral codes of 17th‐century France. In short, the progressive Perrault was continuing the kind of cultural absolutism that he had enforced during 20 years as secretary to finance minister Jean‐Baptiste Colbert.
Situated between the earliest literary fairy tales by Straparola and Basile and those of the Brothers Grimm and Andersen, the Tales are at the historical and literary crossroads of lower‐class vs. upper‐class culture. They were written when the rigid classical hierarchies were beginning to dissolve, and thus they incarnated the social and artistic hybridization characteristic of the period. The voguish appropriation of peasant tales by aristocratic women in literary salons is a case in point. Just as Mme d' Aulnoy and other women were transforming oral folk tales into written fairy tales, so did Perrault refine his sources by respecting bienséance (propriety). He eliminated gore, obscenity, and paganism that would have frightened children or offended sensibilities: for example, a werewolf no longer seduced Little Red Riding Hood into drinking grandma's blood, stripping and joining him in bed. He also polished language, upgraded social status, and added touches of realism. He named fairies and introduced contemporary themes, such as famine or the scores of widowed mothers with dowry‐dependent daughters. He anchored allegorical portraits in history as well, and patterned ogres on aristocrats like Gilles de Rais (Bluebeard). Finally, by including references to Versailles, he provided social commentary ranging from the necessity of appearances and the shallowness of courtiers to women's fashions and gourmet sauces. In short, at every juncture Perrault added ‘civilizing’ social references to please and educate the salon public and emerging bourgeoisie.
What could youngsters learn from this nascent genre of children's literature? The tales presented the same information as period manner books and pamphlets, offering models of social comportment that were broadly divided along gender lines. Questionably moral boys' stories like ‘Little Tom Thumb’ and ‘Puss‐in‐Boots’ had active heroes who used their wits to trick opponents: small size and low birth were no obstacles to achieving social success if one knew how to present oneself. Likewise, passive heroines like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella taught girls the virtues of patience, grace, and charity, while Little Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard's bride showed the importance of filial and spousal obedience. Perrault also stressed these qualities in his writings in defence of women. Indeed, the humble Grisélidis and incest‐fleeing Donkey‐Skin were feminist role models for their time, although they are not considered so today.
Why are Perrault's handful of tales still popular, whereas the hundreds by female authors dominated the 18th century? In general, children's literature has become a consumer market. Youngsters can more easily understand his shorter, linear, timeless narratives—as opposed to the longer, minutely detailed sub‐plots that preoccupied women two centuries ago. French children also enjoy his tongue twisters, like ‘tire la chevillette, la bobinette cherra’ (‘pull the cord and the latch will fall’, from ‘Little Red Riding Hood’). Moreover, from a psychoanalytic viewpoint, his tales of conflict resolution—from famine, war, and social oppression to sibling rivalry, adolescent sexuality, and Oedipus complexes—offer a cathartic experience, while women's stories did not always end happily. Finally, the increasing availability during the 19th century of cheaper paper and inks made illustrated tales more available, and the tri‐colour Épinal cartoons favoured tales like ‘Little Tom Thumb’. Nor can the influence of Gustave Doré's 1864 edition of Perrault be stressed enough. His 36 engravings of pop‐eyed ogres and baroque decor defined Perrault for generations, so well did they complement his moral and ‘bourgeoisified’—yet timeless—stories. Today, there are hundreds of editions of Perrault's Tales in scores of languages, while the fairy tales by 17th‐century Frenchwomen comprise a relatively limited and erudite market.
Bibliography
- Barchilon, Jacques, and Flinders, Peter, Charles Perrault (1981).
- Lewis, Philip, Seeing through the Mother Goose Tales: Visual Turns in the Writings of Charles Perrault (1996).
- Malarte‐Feldman, Claire‐Lise, “‘Perrault's Contes: An Irregular Pearl of Classical Literature’”, in Out of the Woods: The Origins of the Literary Fairy Tale in Italy and France (1996).
- Seifert, Lewis, Fairy Tales, Gender, and Sexuality in France, 1690–1715 (1996).
- Soriano, Marc, Les Contes de Perrault: Culture savante et traditions populaires (1968).
- Zipes, Jack, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (1983).
— Mary Louise Ennis
