Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories

by Charles Perrault, W. Heath Robinson (Illustrator), Mrs. A.E. Johnson (Translator)

"Puss in Boots," "Blue Beard," "Tom Thumb," and other beloved fairy tale classics, as set down by the man who first rescued them from the oral tradition in the 17th century. Contains six color plates and 30 black-and-white illustrations.

A collection of eight classic children's stories.

Genres: Classics, Childrens, Fiction, Fantasy

146 pages, Hardcover

Published November 5, 1996

About the author

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 and have been made into operas, ballets (e.g., Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty), plays, musicals, and films, both live-action and animation.

The Brothers Grimm retold their own versions of some of Perrault's fairy tales.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I was lucky enough to find a couple more of the Everymans Childrens Classics and so set about reading them.

Now this is an intriguing book in that I am sure I have read these (or at least most of them) in other forms from other authors before. It turns out that they represent classic tales which have been around for a very long time (in some cases hundreds of years) and as such have had numerous tellings (and re-tellings).

As such there often arises several versions of the same story or at least the same general story. The is the case for example of the story of Cinderella which is one of the tales in this book.

Now I find these sorts of books fun to read as you can start to see where the modern versions of the tales arise from and what has been taken from this version and what has been taken from that.

So apart from learning about the classic tales I also get to see the history of these stories and where they all came from. Its fascinating to see how some stories and elements of them you thought you knew actually are of something completely different.

[Gabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

INSANE (ly good)

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Cross-posted from Nightjar's Jar of Books.]

A collection of classic fairytales of varying length and entertainment value. I enjoyed Perrault’s matter-of-fact writing style (or should I say A.E. Johnson’s translation style?) quite a lot, as well as the quirky illustrations by W. Heath Robinson, and if I were to recommend this collection to somebody, it would definitely be in this form – that said, I’m not likely to hold onto this book for re-reading purposes…

I don’t have a huge amount to say about any of the stories in this book individually, but I was surprised by how little they seem to moralise, given my experience with other fairytales (i.e. the Brothers Grimm & Hans Christian Andersen); though there are a few gruesome notes to some of them, most of these tales read more like just… weird little bedtime stories.

SOME AWARDS:

My favourite: Puss in Boots

Most obscure: Ricky of the Tuft

Most unexpected: The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods

Least unexpected: Little Red Riding Hood

Most memorable: The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods

Least memorable: The Fairies

Goriest: Blue Beard

Prettiest pictures: Puss in Boots

Also ran: Cinderella & Little Tom Thumb

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations by William Heath Robinson did not disappoint. The misogyny in the telling of the stories is surprisingly arch, and I don't recall ever having read "Ricky (Riquet) of the Tuft" before

[K Morlando · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story