Charles Perrault's tale ‘Les Fées’ (‘The Fairies’) appeared in his collection Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Stories or Tales of Past Times, 1697). An early version of this tale occurs in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where the goddess Latona transforms into frogs a group of mean‐spirited peasants. Other antecedents include stories found in Giovan Francesco Straparola's Le piacevoli notti (The Pleasant Nights, 1550–3) and Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone (1634–6). Perrault's tale portrays an unnamed younger sister who kindly does the bidding of a good fairy, disguised as a crone, and receives the gift of flowers and precious jewels issuing from her mouth. Her older sister, Fanchon, encounters the same fairy, this time magnificently apparelled, but rudely rebuffs her. The fairy ordains that toads and snakes pour from her mouth, and the exiled Fanchon dies alone in the forest. The tale's first moral extols the persuasive power of elegant discourse and addresses adult readers of French salon society, which cultivated a highly stylized form of polite conversation. The second moral emphasizes the rewards of courtesy and targets Perrault's young audience. Perrault's niece and fairy‐tale author, Marie‐Jeanne Lhéritier, composed a longer, embellished variation, ‘Les Enchantements de l'éloquence’, published in Œuvres meslées (Assorted Works, 1695).
Bibliography
- Fumaroli, Marc, “‘Les Enchantements de l'éloquence: “Les Fées” de Charles Perrault ou De la littérature,’” in Marc Fumaroli (ed.), Le Statut de la littérature: mélanges offerts à Paul Bénichou (1982).
- Soriano, Marc, Les Contes de Perrault: culture savante et traditions populaires (1968).
— Adrienne E. Zuerner
