Literary Fairy tales from Italy and France

In class we talked about the development of the Literary Fairy Tale. If we read both of these stores (Sun, Moon, and Talia & Bluebeard) you can go on to the next page.

This first story is from the writer Giambattista Basile, whose collection known as Il Penteramone (subtitled: Lo cunto de li cunti, “The Tale of Tales”) which set down many tales being told around Europe and marks some of the oldest versions of these type of stories to be written down. The collection wasn’t published until after his death by his sister Adriana, in Naples, in 1634. The collection served as inspiration for the Grimms’ project nearly two hundred years later.

It is an old saying, that he who seeks what he should not, finds what he would not.

“How the Tales Came to be Told” – the first line of Basile’s Il Penteramone

The story you’ll be reading from this collection is called, “Sun, Moon, and Talia” and is a form of a “Sleeping Beauty” story.

This is a very different story than you might know from Disney and has some extremely troubling elements relating to sexual consent and violence.

Charles Perrault

Perrault was a French artistocrat, who, in 1697, published Histoires ou contes du temps passé. (Stories of Past times), which is subtitled “avec des moralités” or “with morals.” It also was known as Mother Goose Tales (though Mother Goose became more known for the association with nursery rhymes later on), implying an authorship of an imaginary ‘mother’ or nurse figure from whom the tales were first heard. Perrault wrote and embellished these stories and had enormous impact on later variations.

Bluebeard – Text

Charles Perrault’s version of “Cinderella” is closest to the version that was animated by Disney, pumpkin and all. His rendition of Sleeping Beauty retains elements of Basile’s, specifically the evil queen/ogre trying to eat the children.