It really makes no sense to "rate" a work such as this. Many of the tales present in this collection have become so ingrained within our culture that It really makes no sense to "rate" a work such as this. Many of the tales present in this collection have become so ingrained within our culture that one cannot approach them with a fresh, unblemished eye. Most people here will have grown up with picture book versions of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, but more's to the point some of these tales have been reworked and reworked that versions far outstripping what we have presented here exist - but could not do so without these. Cinderella and Bluebeard's Castle are both magnificent Opera, The Sleeping Beauty is of course a monumental Tchaikvosky Ballet and a Disney masterpiece &tc. &tc.
It makes no sense because there's no "original" to these stories anyway and Perrault was simply collating popular tales just as many before him did and many afterwards did, and yet one often talks about "the original tales" being darker and so forth in comparison to, say, the Disneyfied versions even though we have enough distance from those Disney productions that, at this point, they equally have as much right to be called definitive all on their own.
It makes no sense, either, because this is such a short collection of tales that it's almost impossible to think about them in broader terms
Regardless, despite the muddied nature of even talking or thinking about stories such as these this remains necessary reading for historical importance, but also because these stories, at least where every story beat isn't ingrained on the brain such as Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood, remain very fun to read (yes, yes, I know she gets eaten by the wolf. The shock of that is no longer earth-shaking I'm afraid).
Sleeping Beauty is interesting because the second half of the story - honestly, the not-very-good half - whereby the Prince's mum tries to eat the wedded couple's children ('cause she's an ogress, apparently) has been lost to the mists of storytelling time. Puss in Boots, one of those staples on the pantomime circuit, is a much more basic, fun tale of a wily, and somewhat amoral cat who schemes his master into wealth. Little Thumb, I know from an online French friend recently is more well-known in France, but so close is it to Hansel and Gretel for the first half, it isn't really told in Britain, whilst Riquet of the Tuft is perhaps the most fun curiosity about the burgeoning attraction between a girl who is beautiful but stupid and a man who is ugly but smart.
If you like stories - and I expect that you do if you're perusing this website - then you'll enjoy these stories since they are ingrained in us all and on some level are the reason we love, live and breathe stories. They are short and sometimes a little odd and perhaps don't always have the greatest literary artistry, but they do still have the power to entertain and intrigue....more
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