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The Seven Wives of Bluebeard and Other Marvellous Tales
Excerpt from The Seven Wives of Bluebeard Other Marvellous Tales
The strangest, the most varied, the most erroneous opinions have been expressed with regard to the famous individual commonly known as Bluebeard. None, perhaps, was less tenable than that which made of this gentleman a personification of the Sun. For this is what a certain school of comparative mythology set itself to do, some forty years ago. It informed the world that the seven wives of Bluebeard were the Dawns, and that his two brothers-in-law were the morning and the evening Twilight, identifying them with the Dioscuri, who delivered Helena when she was rapt away by Theseus. We must remind those readers who may feel tempted to believe this that in 1817 a learned librarian of Agen, Jean-Baptiste Peres, demonstrated, in a highly plausible manner, that Napoleon had never existed, and that the story of this supposed great captain was nothing but a solar myth.
The strangest, the most varied, the most erroneous opinions have been expressed with regard to the famous individual commonly known as Bluebeard. None, perhaps, was less tenable than that which made of this gentleman a personification of the Sun. For this is what a certain school of comparative mythology set itself to do, some forty years ago. It informed the world that the seven wives of Bluebeard were the Dawns, and that his two brothers-in-law were the morning and the evening Twilight, identifying them with the Dioscuri, who delivered Helena when she was rapt away by Theseus. We must remind those readers who may feel tempted to believe this that in 1817 a learned librarian of Agen, Jean-Baptiste Peres, demonstrated, in a highly plausible manner, that Napoleon had never existed, and that the story of this supposed great captain was nothing but a solar myth.
228 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1909
6 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Anatole France
1,603 books558 followersFrench critic Anatole France, pen name of Jacques Anatole François Thibault wrote sophisticated, often satirical short stories and novels, including
Penguin Island
(1908), and won the Nobel Prize of 1921 for literature.
Anatole France began his career as a poet and a journalist. From 1867, he as a journalist composed articles and notices.
In 1869, Le Parnasse Contemporain published La Part de Madeleine of his poems. In 1875, he sat on the committee in charge of the third such compilation. He moved Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé aside.
Skeptical old scholar Sylvester Bonnard, protagonist of famous Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), embodied own personality of the author. The academy praised its elegant prose.
Anatole France in La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque (1893) ridiculed belief in the occult and in Les Opinions de Jerome Coignard (1893) captured the atmosphere of the fin de siècle.
People elected him to the Académie française in 1896.
People falsely convicted Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, of espionage. Anatole France took an important part in the affair, signed manifesto of Émile Zola to support Dreyfus, and authored Monsieur Bergeret in 1901.
After the nearsighted Abbot Mael baptized the animals in error, France in later work depicts the transformation into human nature in 1908.
People considered most profound La Revolte des Anges (1914). It tells of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu. Arcade falls in love, joins the revolutionary movement of angels, and towards the end recognizes the meaningless overthrow of God unless "in ourselves and in ourselves alone we attack and destroy Ialdabaoth."
People awarded him "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament" in 1921.
In 1922, the Catholic Church put entire works of France on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books).
He died, and people buried his body in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.
Anatole France began his career as a poet and a journalist. From 1867, he as a journalist composed articles and notices.
In 1869, Le Parnasse Contemporain published La Part de Madeleine of his poems. In 1875, he sat on the committee in charge of the third such compilation. He moved Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé aside.
Skeptical old scholar Sylvester Bonnard, protagonist of famous Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), embodied own personality of the author. The academy praised its elegant prose.
Anatole France in La Rotisserie de la Reine Pedauque (1893) ridiculed belief in the occult and in Les Opinions de Jerome Coignard (1893) captured the atmosphere of the fin de siècle.
People elected him to the Académie française in 1896.
People falsely convicted Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, of espionage. Anatole France took an important part in the affair, signed manifesto of Émile Zola to support Dreyfus, and authored Monsieur Bergeret in 1901.
After the nearsighted Abbot Mael baptized the animals in error, France in later work depicts the transformation into human nature in 1908.
People considered most profound La Revolte des Anges (1914). It tells of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu. Arcade falls in love, joins the revolutionary movement of angels, and towards the end recognizes the meaningless overthrow of God unless "in ourselves and in ourselves alone we attack and destroy Ialdabaoth."
People awarded him "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament" in 1921.
In 1922, the Catholic Church put entire works of France on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Prohibited Books).
He died, and people buried his body in the Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery near Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 20, 2024
J'ai bien aimé! Les trois premiers contes sont des contes merveilleux qui, toutefois, ne finissent pas merveilleusement. Tandis que le dernier conte pourrait presque passer pour un essai sur le bonheur.
February 10, 2019
The Seven Wives of Bluebeard
Now this is an odd version - it’s an attempt to remake Bluebeard as the poorly done by and misunderstood victim. *blinks* yeah, I know, right?
*eyes narrow* uh huh
The miracle of the Great Saint Nicolas
What the heck did I just read? Pickled children?
The story of the Duchess of Ciocne and of Monsieur De Boulingrin (who slept for a hundred years in company with the Sleeping Beauty)
Yeah, I mean what did happen to everyone else who was asleep with the princess? They wake up to find their family and their loved ones dead, and their fortune gone.
The Shirt.
The King’s doctor advises that he will be cured when he can wear the shirt of a happy man. His advisors think that such a man can’t be hard to find so, they head off to ask all the people they believe are happy; the talented, the rich, the adored. Naturally, they don’t find any, and for a year the King sickens. Until finally they find a man who lives inside a tree. They manage to communicate what they want and he would be happy to oblige … but he doesn’t wear a shirt.
***
This was one of those scanned versions and it did have a few errors but it was easy enough to work out what the words were supposed to be. The stories, on the other hand, were fairly odd even for fairy tales.
2 stars
Now this is an odd version - it’s an attempt to remake Bluebeard as the poorly done by and misunderstood victim. *blinks* yeah, I know, right?
There was so great a desire to make me believe in the man’s cruelty that it could not fail to make me doubt it. P18
*eyes narrow* uh huh
The miracle of the Great Saint Nicolas
What the heck did I just read? Pickled children?
The story of the Duchess of Ciocne and of Monsieur De Boulingrin (who slept for a hundred years in company with the Sleeping Beauty)
Yeah, I mean what did happen to everyone else who was asleep with the princess? They wake up to find their family and their loved ones dead, and their fortune gone.
The Shirt.
The King’s doctor advises that he will be cured when he can wear the shirt of a happy man. His advisors think that such a man can’t be hard to find so, they head off to ask all the people they believe are happy; the talented, the rich, the adored. Naturally, they don’t find any, and for a year the King sickens. Until finally they find a man who lives inside a tree. They manage to communicate what they want and he would be happy to oblige … but he doesn’t wear a shirt.
***
This was one of those scanned versions and it did have a few errors but it was easy enough to work out what the words were supposed to be. The stories, on the other hand, were fairly odd even for fairy tales.
2 stars
August 24, 2021
Okay... so weird I actually feel compelled to leave a comment.
The seven wives of Blue Beard - It was kind of funny and it was his own fault for repeating the same mistake for 7 times. Nope, I don't feel sorry for him .
The miracle of the Great Saint Nicolas - I'll have to quote another comment here "What the heck did I just read?". This one is beyond weird with God telling Saint Nicolas to bring back to life three pickled children. All three turn out to be pure evil and pretty much destroy Nicolas, his niece and the whole town. The only good part is that the inn keeper that picked the children learnt to be good or at least not a killer anymore.
I pretty much fail to see the lesson in this story other than no good deed goes unpunished and to not listen to bodiless voices...
The Sleeping Beauty story is almost normal compared to the first two. It could be seen as an X-Files episode with the Duchess as Mulder and Monsieur Boulingrin as Scully. He manages to sleep for 100 years and still doesn't believe in supernatural.
The Shirt. This one was my favorite story and it bumped my rating up by a star. I loved the sarcasm and the irony about each social classes' reasons for unhappiness. The ending was brilliant and funny.
The seven wives of Blue Beard - It was kind of funny and it was his own fault for repeating the same mistake for 7 times. Nope, I don't feel sorry for him .
The miracle of the Great Saint Nicolas - I'll have to quote another comment here "What the heck did I just read?". This one is beyond weird with God telling Saint Nicolas to bring back to life three pickled children. All three turn out to be pure evil and pretty much destroy Nicolas, his niece and the whole town. The only good part is that the inn keeper that picked the children learnt to be good or at least not a killer anymore.
I pretty much fail to see the lesson in this story other than no good deed goes unpunished and to not listen to bodiless voices...
The Sleeping Beauty story is almost normal compared to the first two. It could be seen as an X-Files episode with the Duchess as Mulder and Monsieur Boulingrin as Scully. He manages to sleep for 100 years and still doesn't believe in supernatural.
The Shirt. This one was my favorite story and it bumped my rating up by a star. I loved the sarcasm and the irony about each social classes' reasons for unhappiness. The ending was brilliant and funny.
July 13, 2020
Voilà une version bien raffraichie de Barbe Bleue.
March 29, 2014
je ne m'attendais pas lire une version défendant cette "pauvre victime" qu'était Barbe bleue. ce fut intéressant
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews