Fairy Tales by the Countess d’Aulnoy

by Madame d'Aulnoy, James Robinson Planché (Editor and Translator), John Gilbert (Illustrator)

In this book, James Robinson Planché faithfully translates twenty-two fairy tales from the French of Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, or the Countess d’Aulnoy. These tales include,

1. Gracieuse and Percinet
2. The Fair With Golden Hair
3. The Blue Bird
4. Prince Sprite
5. Princess Printaniere
6. Princess Rosette
7. The Golden Branch
8. The Bee and the Orange Tree
9. The Good Little Mouse
10. The Ram
11. Finette Cendron
12. Fortunée
13. Babiole
14. The Yellow Dwarf
15. Green-Serpent
16. The Princess Carpillon
17. The Beneficent Frog
18. The Hind in the Wood
19. The White Cat
20. Belle-Belle; or, The Chevalier Fortuné
21. The Pigeon and the Dove
22. Princess Belle-Etoile and Prince Cheri

Planché also contributes his own research to the volume, to help his readers understand.

619 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1855

About the author

Madame d'Aulnoy (Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy) (1650/1651–4 January 1705) was a French writer known for her fairy tales. When she termed her works contes de fées (fairy tales, or literally, "Tales of the Fairies."), she originated the term that is now generally used for the genre. Her 'fairy tales' were written in a style suitable for entertaining in adult salon gatherings, and not with a child audience in mind.

d'Aulnoy also wrote works of history (although not using modern attitudes to historical accuracy), pseudo-memoirs, and a few historical novels.

Born a member of the noble Le Jumel de Barneville family, she was known as the baronne d'Aulnoy by marriage.

Reviews

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fairy Tales is a classic collection of French stories. It is on the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read list. This is the only copy of these stories that I could find. Be warned that this version is poorly translated into English from the French, with many errors in verb tenses, in use of pronouns, and in vocabulary. In addition, many pages are poorly scanned, and the resulting pages are unreadable.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read The Blue Bird for my Cornerstone Series retelling, A Noble Solace!