Fairy Tales: Primary Pertinent Perrault

Charles Perrault's Fairy Tales, unlike the tales collected by the Grimm Brothers, were literary constructions. The Grimm tales, even after expurgation and other textual changes, were attempts at rendering verbal tales. They were not transcribed and some were clearly written down from memory--a kind of "hey, we were told that this tale is common, so here it is." But the impulse--that would take another 200 years to take hold with tape and video recorders--was to present the tales as they were related by storytellers to audiences. 

Although Perrault pays tribute to the idea of oral transmission with his title Tales of Mother Goose, the man was not an academician of this type and seems to have been more invested in literary creations than in trying to track down the "true" lore of a nation. Charles Perrault was a "Renaissance" man, being involved with architecture, various religious arguments, literary controversies, and so on and so forth.

 

Like Beauty and the Beast--also a literary tale based on lore and myth--Perrault's tales became foundation works. Nearly all future collectors referenced Perrault, even if their purposes were somewhat different. Similar to how Poe-Lovecraft-King form the underpinnings of Western horror, Perrault-Grimm-and later nineteenth-century collectors form the underpinnings of Western retold/re-examined fairy tales.

 

I decided to look at two tales that are definitely attributed to Perrault: the extremely dark Donkeyskin and Puss in Boots.

 

Donkeyskin involves incest though in the tale, the princess manages to escape before the father goes too far. In fact, she bargains with him based on the advice of her godmother, who shows a remarkable lack of worry about the king's desire to marry his own daughter (since the godmother at one point tells the princess to be "obedient," one suspects that Perrault needed the absolute worst alternative to excuse the princess running away). It doesn't strike me as a tale that Disney would be able to render, even with music--but hey, you never know. 

 

Robin McKinley produced a striking retelling, Deerskin, which I do recommend. It is even darker than Perrault's tale, presenting an actual rape. It also offers a strong protagonist, healing over time, and a more than decent very human and lovable prince.   

Perrault's version ends with a line that frankly carries a bit of condescension when studied in a seventeenth-century context (it is amazing the lengths that academics who love fantasy will go to to justify their love of fantasy) but I happen to believe is entirely true:

The story of Donkey Skin may be hard to believe, but so long as there are children, mothers, and grandmothers in this world, it will be remembered by all.

I will address Puss in Boots in a future post.