The White Cat

[Jalilah]

For January 15- March 14 The White Cat by Marie-Catharine d'Aulnoy tied with The Death of Koschei the Deathless for our Original Tale!
The White Cat can be found in this book The White Cat and Other Old French Fairy Tales and also The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. I am certain it can be found other places too. Please feel free to post any other links as well as your impressions and comments in this thread!

[Mary]

Here's the tale online:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/au...

[Jalilah]

Thanks Mary! I looked too, but obviously not carefully enough!

[Margaret]

I also found this in print in the anthology Folk & Fairy Tales: An Introductory Anthology.

[[deleted user]]

I downloaded the Andrew Lang version on my Kindle since it's free. I read the story while walking on the treadmill, and it's very creative! I can't wait to read Deathless, because it's been on my wishlist a while.

[Melanti]

I have a copy in Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture, translated by Zipes.

There's a translation by John Ashbury in Wonder Tales: Six French Stories of Enchantment.

[Jalilah]

This pretty picture reminds me ot the White Cat
http://www.juxtapoz.com/media/k2/gall...

[Mary]

Yeah, that's one reason why it's not my favorite variant of this. Puddocky or one of the Frog Princess folk variants are less -- overwhelmed with filigree.

[Jalilah]

This is a wonderful tale!
I don't remember the version of The White Cat that I read in the Blue Fairy book having the long detailed story of how the princess was originally turned into a white cat, but I just checked and the version is the same. It is really a story within a story. This time I was struck by the similarities of the White Cat and Rapunzel. Last months group read was Bitter Greens which is part Rapunzel and part based in the life of the woman who penned one of the earlier versions of Rapunzel, Charlotte Rose de la Force. I can't help but wonder what the relationship between the two, Marie-Catharine d'Aulnoy and Charlotte Rose de la Force was like. They were both part of a group of writers http://www.endicott-studio.com/articl....

[Melanti]

I still haven't gotten around to reading this yet (the book I own is FAR from portable).

Jalilah, that endicott article is fascinating. Until we read Bitter Greens it had never really dawned on me that the French salon writers were in any way connected to the French court pre-French Revolution and thus probably connected to those excesses but in retrospect it's obvious. They led quite colorful lives!

[Mary]

Oh, yes. Read any amount of the précieuses and you will find evidence of court life.

For one thing, even when the fairy tale requires that the heroine be of humble origin, she's a princess. And the fairy godmothers often act like ones from court that happen to have magic. There's one where the godmother refuses to intervene for her goddaughter on the grounds that she was not consulted about her marriage.

[Jalilah]

Mary wrote: "Here's the tale online:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/au..."

This is the SurLaLune version is the one I read this time.

Melanti wrote: "I still haven't gotten around to reading this yet (the book I own is FAR from portable).
Jalilah, that endicott article is fascinating. Until we read Bitter Greens it had never really dawned on m..."

When you get a chance to read tell me what you think about the White Cat's tale within the tale of how she became a cat. There are lots of similarities to Rapunzel.

[Margaret]

I had read The White Cat years ago, but I enjoyed it more this time around. And like you Jalilah, I was struck by the similarities between The White Cat and Bitter Greens and Persinette from the last group read. Definitely the "tail" within the tale (sorry, I had to do the pun) builds off of de la Force, especially after reading the article about how connected the literary salons were. I love how these tales build off of a tradition of storytelling, each writer adding their unique twists. With The White Cat, I appreciated the building of love over years--a threat-less love unlike Beauty and the Beast. And obviously The White Cat has far more power than any of the men in the story!

The article:
I had the impression Charles Perrault predated D'Aulnoy, so I'm really glad I read this article and that I now know it's otherwise! I greatly prefer D'Aulnoy and de la Force to Perrault (while a lot of fairy tales moralize, his are too heavy-handed for me). I'm amazed D'Aulonoy's works haven't been anthologized. Her life history seems so fascinating; even though I don't enjoy that time period in French history, I would be interested in reading a biography of her, or of the fairy tale literary scene from that time period. I have a few of the recommended reads at the end of the article, so eventually I'll check those out.

[Melanti]

The main part of the tale reminded me a lot of Villenueve's original version of "Beauty and the Beast" but gender reversed. So instead of lavish surroundings, theaters, books, etc, you have things that a stereotypical male would like - so lavish surroundings, hunting, etc. Active pursuits rather than cultural.

But, yes, the tale within a tale does remind me a lot of "Rapunzel" but I think it has a few interesting tweaks. First, it's the pregnant woman's bargain and not her husband's. Second, the bargain is made before the parsley is eaten. And last, the fairy promises to treat the girl well and educate her. In most versions the husband promises to hand over the daughter without any sort of assurances whatsoever.

But there's certainly a lot of signs that the salon writers were all part of a shared storytelling community!