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279th out of 920 books
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5,229 voters
Perrault's Fairy Tales
Original versions of "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," "Little Red Riding Hood," and more. With 34magnificent illustrations by Gustave Doré....more
Paperback, 117 pages
Published
June 1st 1969
by Dover Publications
(first published 1694)
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Dec 28, 2012
K.D. Oliveros
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to K.D. by:
501 Must Read Books (Children's)
The original fairy tales of Charles Perrault (1628-1703) before they were bastardized or sanitized (depending on your view) by Disney. Perrault, however, did not invent most of these stories himself. He also based some of them on existing French folklores. Perrault was said to be the one who laid the foundations for a new literary genre: the fairy tale. Many of Perrault’s stories were rewritten by the Brothers Grimm, continue to be printed and have been adapted to opera, ballet (such as Tchaikov...more
In addition to the usual list of difficulties encountered when learning any foreign language, French has a few specific wrinkles of its own. In particular, there are certain verb tenses that have fallen into disuse, so that they are no longer used when speaking, but may still be encountered in written French, particularly in older texts.
Most intermediate French students will have seen at least one of these, the so-called "simple past tense", or passé simple. Although it has been completely repla...more
Most intermediate French students will have seen at least one of these, the so-called "simple past tense", or passé simple. Although it has been completely repla...more
9 likes · like · see review
Not having read any of Perrault's fairytales before, I didn't quite realise what I was in for... And people say that Grimm's fairytales are gruesome - huh, think again and read Perrault's!
There's an ogre appearing in about almost every single one of the eight tales in this edition, and, of course, they love eating fresh flesh (i.e. little people) and do so without delay. Yet in a strange way, I found these tales delightful and just so different to the Grimm's; in fact, they made me laugh out lou...more
There's an ogre appearing in about almost every single one of the eight tales in this edition, and, of course, they love eating fresh flesh (i.e. little people) and do so without delay. Yet in a strange way, I found these tales delightful and just so different to the Grimm's; in fact, they made me laugh out lou...more
SLEEPING BEAUTY
(I've not yet read the other tales in this collection)
Overall I found this an enjoyable telling of Sleeping Beauty. Much more detail is included, and the flow and completeness of the story is very decent. The illustrations are quite nice, mostly for their use of colors.
Here, there are 7 fairies of the kingdom that are invited to Sleeping Beauty's celebration, and a golden, bejeweled set of dinnerware is created for all 7 fairies. The "evil" fairy is not invited for the simple reas...more
(I've not yet read the other tales in this collection)
Overall I found this an enjoyable telling of Sleeping Beauty. Much more detail is included, and the flow and completeness of the story is very decent. The illustrations are quite nice, mostly for their use of colors.
Here, there are 7 fairies of the kingdom that are invited to Sleeping Beauty's celebration, and a golden, bejeweled set of dinnerware is created for all 7 fairies. The "evil" fairy is not invited for the simple reas...more
1 like · like · see review
When I was very young, my grandmother had a set of very small books with uncut pages. One of the books was an early edition of Charles Perrault's fairy tales with hand-printed woodblock prints. Naturally I cut the pages and read the stories which were bloody and didn't always have nice endings and at least one of the ugly sisters tumbled into a well to be devoured by snakes. These stories, before Disney got them, were wonderful. Children like blood and guts as much as they like marshmallows and...more
4 likes · like · see review
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...more
10 likes · like · see review
En realidad lo que he leído es la edición española de Alianza, pero no la he visto por GoodReads.
Siempre hay bastante discusión sobre los "verdaderos" cuentos de hadas. Que si Grimm, que si Andersen, comparaciones con las adaptaciones posteriores de Disney o Tv... y Perrault. Pero siempre que se habla de estos temas me da la sensación de que Perrault queda como en un 2º plano.
Charles Perrault fue un recopilador francés del siglo XVII. Sus narraciones están enfocadas a varios sectores nobles de l...more
Siempre hay bastante discusión sobre los "verdaderos" cuentos de hadas. Que si Grimm, que si Andersen, comparaciones con las adaptaciones posteriores de Disney o Tv... y Perrault. Pero siempre que se habla de estos temas me da la sensación de que Perrault queda como en un 2º plano.
Charles Perrault fue un recopilador francés del siglo XVII. Sus narraciones están enfocadas a varios sectores nobles de l...more
Apr 09, 2012
Ann E
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
parents, grandparents and children
Recommended to Ann E by:
my grandmother read it to me as a child
My nana read these tales to me as a child. My daughter recently bought herself a copy. She loaned it to me to read to see if I like them as much as when nana read them to me as bedtime stories. Well I did and I fell in love with them again. There is something magical about revisiting those special memories from early childhood but it's even better when you find some more reasons to build on them. I delighted in reading these wonderful tales to my students in free read time.
I like these tales fo...more
I like these tales fo...more
This book was a bit of a struggle, however, it was enjoyable.
At the beginning you need to get through the preface, introduction, translation notes and more, it made me feel this was a study into Charles rather than an enjoyable book to read, I consider it more of a theses than a story. That said, Christopher Betts is extremely knowledgeable about Mr Perrault and does go into a lot of detail setting the scene, explaining the history and also looking at Charles's life, seeing how these came about,...more
At the beginning you need to get through the preface, introduction, translation notes and more, it made me feel this was a study into Charles rather than an enjoyable book to read, I consider it more of a theses than a story. That said, Christopher Betts is extremely knowledgeable about Mr Perrault and does go into a lot of detail setting the scene, explaining the history and also looking at Charles's life, seeing how these came about,...more
This is a review-in-progress(view spoiler)...more
Giving this 5 stars simply because I'm a huge sucker for fairy tales. However, don't let the term "fairy tale" fool you, as the stories in this book are the original French "conte de fées" versions of many Disney adaptations. I'm not sure if I would suggest this for children, however the ambiguity will most likely be lost on them anyway so what could it hurt? As the description says and as I've already pointed out, this is a compilation of fairy tales in their original French form (Cinderella, S...more
When you hear fairy tales, what first comes into your mind? Most probably like anybody else, you would associate it with princesses yearning for true love and godmothers or fairies helping them to achieve that. While most fairy tales do have such plot, it is not all true. In this translation of Perrault’s eight beloved classic (the original was written in French), you will see for yourself that there’s more to ‘fairy tales’ than what its name suggests.
Perrault’s Fairy Tales contains some tales w...more
Perrault’s Fairy Tales contains some tales w...more
After reading Grimm Tales compiled by Philip Pullman, I was interested to read more fairy tales. Angela Carter’s name is synonym with fairy tales and her inspiration begins when she translated Charles Perrault’s classical collection of fairy tales.
If I am right (because I was just born then), the feminists thinking gave birth in the 1970′s and when Angela Carter translated these fairy tales, she gave it a feminist twist and write an excerpt that carries the title “Moral” at the end of the 10 fai...more
If I am right (because I was just born then), the feminists thinking gave birth in the 1970′s and when Angela Carter translated these fairy tales, she gave it a feminist twist and write an excerpt that carries the title “Moral” at the end of the 10 fai...more
Hilarious. Completely hilarious. I especially loved how the version of the book I had mentioned the history of each fairy tale. It was neat to read that this was the first published book of fairy tales in 1697, and that Perrault was writing for a very jaded French court. Perrault is a wry, sarcastic bastard with a pretty sick/imaginative mind (depending on the fairy tale). I also enjoyed his moral poems at the end of each tale. My favorite moral was for Hop O' My Thumb:
"Boys who are bright and l...more
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...more
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...more
Completely baffled by how some of the fairy tale stories I watched, like Beauty and the Beast, when I was a kid isn't really how the author wrote it and some of them I never heard of was so shocking to read that I can't believe is a children's story like Blue Beard. Absolutely loved all the stories though and I would definitely want to read it to my children to either read a good story to them or to teach them a story. After reading these stories, it makes me want to read other the other fairy t...more
This was the first time I read any of Perrault's fairy tales and I really enjoyed them. They tale's themselves are not very long and so I finished this book in a day. The are written in easily understandable english with the exception of a few seldom words. The picture in the book are lovely they depict a place in time that makes the stories easier to imagen in your head. So all in all I really liked this book, however I would suggest that if your looking for a book to read to your childeren and...more
Tous les contes qui ont berceau presque tout le monde, tant à l’école qu’à la maison. Il y a Le Petit Chapeau Roue, La Barbe Bleue, Le Chat Botté, Les Fées, Cendrillon, Le Petit Poucet. C’était un pur moment de pouvoir se remémorer tous les instants de ces contes que tous le monde connait presque par cœur, surtout pour l’intrigue.
Dans ces contes, l’écriture est fluide, et aucun mot inconnu arrête notre lecture si douce et si enfantine. Je vous conseille de lire ces contes pour seulement vous rap...more
Dans ces contes, l’écriture est fluide, et aucun mot inconnu arrête notre lecture si douce et si enfantine. Je vous conseille de lire ces contes pour seulement vous rap...more
This book is one of my favorite book from my childhood : Charles Perrault's stories are some of the most famous fairy tales known, and especially in France, where it's a must-read for children.
I own the french version of this book, which contains eight fairy tales : Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Diamonds and Toads, Cinderella, Riquet with the Tuft and Hop o' My Thumb.
Like in most fairy tales, the characters are heavily stereotyped (the sweet and innocent pr...more
I own the french version of this book, which contains eight fairy tales : Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Diamonds and Toads, Cinderella, Riquet with the Tuft and Hop o' My Thumb.
Like in most fairy tales, the characters are heavily stereotyped (the sweet and innocent pr...more
This was a disappointing book, but that isn't the fault of Angela Carter... I've wanted to read Carter for a long time, ever since a writer I admire recommended her to me. Unfortunately I chose the wrong Carter to begin with. That's because this book isn't really Carter at all, but her own adjusted translations of a set of fairy tales written by Charles Perrault.
I've never really been a fan of fairy tales, and I didn't even enjoy Calvino's collection of Italian folk tales (and Calvino is my favo...more
I've never really been a fan of fairy tales, and I didn't even enjoy Calvino's collection of Italian folk tales (and Calvino is my favo...more
During my Uni years they said, read Perrault, think about politically correct fairytale. So most of my childhood memories have been ruined. It really is true. Every time now when I think about Little Red Riding Hood, I think about her period and about rape. And I do think people don't give enough credit to Perrault, like at all. He is never quoted as being one of the most important writers in this field. He's always in the shadow, with Anderson and Grimms being in the spotlight.
The story Cinderella is about a girl who her step mother does not let her do anything but clean the house. The prince of their town is going to have ball so he can find himself a wife, but Cinderella step mother says that she can not to the ball. Animals from the forest help Cinderella get a dress and to make her look beautiful. When she was at the ball she lose a shoes and the Prince goes around town to find who it belongs too.
This book is a perfect square with pictures on one side of the page...more
This book is a perfect square with pictures on one side of the page...more
These fairy tales, seem to also be steered toward adult readers. Perrault took tales that he had heard and re-visioned them and made them his own. Some tales could be child friendly, some like Blue Beard, are not quite so. Good tales none-the-less.
This edition I had included his morals at the end of the story. Had story background and author information included. Enjoyed the illustrations and the extra information. Only eleven tales, so makes a quick read if you want one.
This edition I had included his morals at the end of the story. Had story background and author information included. Enjoyed the illustrations and the extra information. Only eleven tales, so makes a quick read if you want one.
I love the original versions of fairy tales. Knowing the unedited versions makes it so much more interesting when you're reading the re-tellings.
When I read Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber, I was a bit surprised at the "Little Red Riding Hood" retelling that had erotic overtones. But in Perrault's version, the wolf has the girl undress before asking her to come into bed with him - which is when she flees. Carter's version is less out of the blue when you are aware of Perraut's rendition.
When I read Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber, I was a bit surprised at the "Little Red Riding Hood" retelling that had erotic overtones. But in Perrault's version, the wolf has the girl undress before asking her to come into bed with him - which is when she flees. Carter's version is less out of the blue when you are aware of Perraut's rendition.
I purchased this book many years ago at the Book Alcove (now Wonderbooks.) I was in a fairy tale appreciation stage that I never truly got out of. This book, from 1968, is utterly delightful. The illustrations, while definitely showing the time the book was printed, are still beautiful - and in the case of Puss in Boots - purely amusing.
I enjoyed the way that these books were told. While it lacked a framing story (something I did enjoy in Old Peter's Russian Tales) it still carries a distinct ta...more
I enjoyed the way that these books were told. While it lacked a framing story (something I did enjoy in Old Peter's Russian Tales) it still carries a distinct ta...more
It was pretty interesting to hear a lot of the fairy tales we've gotten used to over the years as they were told in the past. A lot of the changes have definitely made them more palatable. And the ones that haven't stood the test of time and were new to me were curious for all their own sets of reasons. Worth checking out, because it's a pretty quick read on the whole.
You just can't beat the classics. Perrault and the earlier folk tales that most modern fairytales are based on are invariably pitch-perfect. The more modern the retelling then more saccharine it tends to get, but this book of vividly drawn morality tales is uncompromising and beautiful. A must for adults and children everywhere, this should be staple reading for everyone before they get to read any other books! My favourite bonus to this edition is the Mme Le Prince de Beaumont version of Beauty...more
For grades 4 and up, ages 9 and up
Review:
Beautiful collection of traditional oral French fairytales such as "Cinderella" and "Red Riding Hood". The illustrations help to bring the fairytales to life. Great book for bedtime stories for young readers and for fun reading. May easily become a family tradition to be passed down through the generations.
Review:
Beautiful collection of traditional oral French fairytales such as "Cinderella" and "Red Riding Hood". The illustrations help to bring the fairytales to life. Great book for bedtime stories for young readers and for fun reading. May easily become a family tradition to be passed down through the generations.
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.
In Sasha Moorsom's translations of Perrault's fairy tales, it was VERY interesting to compare and contrast each traditional tale. Using one story for example, the story of "Sleeping Beauty" has by far the most grim ending I've associated to the book! As if there is part 2 of the book, the mother of the prince is an ogre that enjoys eating children and therefore Sleeping Beauty and her children are hidden by the Prince. It has been said that cannibalism runs through many traditional fairy tales b...more
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Charles Perrault was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, and whose best known tales, offered as if they were pre-existing folk tales, include: Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Hop o' My Thumb), Diamonds and Toads, Patient Griselda, The Ridiculous Wishes...
Perrault's most famous stories are still in print today...more
More about Charles Perrault...
Perrault's most famous stories are still in print today...more
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1 trivia question
More quizzes & trivia...
“FIRST MORAL
Good manners are not easy
They need a little care,
But when we least expect it
Bring rewards both rich and rare.
SECOND MORAL
Brute force or bribes of diamonds
Bend others to your will,
But gentle words have greater power
And gain more conquests still.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
Good manners are not easy
They need a little care,
But when we least expect it
Bring rewards both rich and rare.
SECOND MORAL
Brute force or bribes of diamonds
Bend others to your will,
But gentle words have greater power
And gain more conquests still.”
Jan 01, 2013 05:14pm
Jan 02, 2013 04:28am