Fairy Tales Framed

2012 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

Most early fairy tale authors had a lot to say about what they wrote. Charles Perrault explained his sources and recounted friends' reactions. His niece Marie-Jeanne Lhéritier and her friend Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy used dedications and commentaries to situate their tales socially and culturally, while the raffish Henriette Julie de Murat accused them all of taking their plots from the Italian writer Giovan Francesco Straparola and admitted to borrowing from the Italians herself. These reflections shed a bright light on both the tales and on their composition, but in every case, they were removed soon after their first publication. Remaining largely unknown, their absence created empty space that later readers filled with their own views about the conditions of production and reception of the tales.

What their authors had to say about "Puss in Boots," "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," and "Rapunzel," among many other fairy tales, is collected here for the first time, newly translated and accompanied by rich annotations. Also included are revealing commentaries from the authors' literary contemporaries.

As a whole, these forewords, afterwords, and critical words directly address issues that inform the contemporary study of European fairy tales, including traditional folkloristic concerns about fairy tale origins and performance, as well as questions of literary aesthetics and historical context.

I. An Introduction to Fairy Tales and the Boccaccian Literary Model

1. An Introduction to Fairy Tales

2. Giovanni BoccaccioThe Genealogy of the Pagan Gods (begun circa 1350)

II. Fairy Tales in Italy: Early Authors, Theorists, and Critics

3. The Literary Fairy Tale in Italy

4. Giovan Francesco StraparolaThe Pleasant Nights (1551, 1553)

5. Andrea Calmo, “Letter to Signora Frondosa” (1556)

6. Girolamo BargagliDialogue on Games That Are Played during the Sienese Veglie (1572, written 1563)

7. Giambattista BasileThe Tale of Tales (Dedication for Day 1, 1634)

8. Girolamo BrusoniThe Glories of the Incogniti, Or the Illustrious Men of the Academy of the “Unknown Gentlemen” (1647)

9. Pompeo Sarnelli, Foreword to Giambattista Basile’sPentamerone (1674) and Foreword toAn Outing to Posillipo (1684)

10. Bartolomeo Lupardi, “Dedicatory Letter to Signor Giuseppe Spada” (1679)

11. Maddalena and Teresa Manfredi, and Teresa and Angiola ZanottiThe Gossip on the Chair (1742)

12. Ferdinando GalianiOn the Neapolitan Dialect (1779)

13. Luigi SerioThe Fart. Response to On the Neapolitan Dialect (1780)

III. Fairy Tales in France: Establishing non

14. Fairy Tales and Fairyland Fictions in France

15. Charles PerraultGriselda, Novella, with the Tale of Donkeyskin and That of the Ridiculous Wishes. Fourth Edition   (1695)

16. Charles PerraultTales of My Mother Goose (1695)

17. Marie-Jeanne LhéritierDiverse Works (1696)

18. Catherine Bernard, “Prince Rosebush” and “Ricky of Tuft” inInès of Cordova: A Spanish Novel (1696)

19.Mercure galant, Extract fromThe History of the Marquise / Marquis of Banneville (September 1696)

20. Charles PerraultHistories, or Tales of Past Times (1697) Licence

21. [Editor]Mercure galant, Presentation ofHistories, or Tales of Past Times (January 1697)

22. Marie-Catherine d’AulnoyTales of the Fairies (1697) andNew Tales, or The Fashionable Fairies (1698)

23. Charlotte Rose de La Force, “Notice Concerning the Following Story” in
The Tales of the Tales (1698)

24. Henriette Julie de MuratSublime and Allegorical Histories (1699)

25. Abbé Pierre de VilliersConversations about the Contes de Fées and some other works of our time, to serve as an antidote to bad taste, dedicated to the gentlemen of the Académie Française (1699)

26. Antoine GallandThousand and One Nights. Arab Tales Translated into French (1704-1717)

Works Cited
Contributors
Index