Histoires ou contes du temps passé
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"In 1695, when Charles Perrault was 67, he lost his post as secretary. He decided to dedicate himself to his children and published Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé) (1697), with the subtitle: Tales of Mother Goose (Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oie). Its publication made him suddenly widely-known beyond his own circles and marked the beginnings of a new literary genre, the fairy tale. He had actually published it under the name of his last son (born in 1678), Pierre (Perrault) Darmancourt ("Armancourt" being the name of a property he bought for him), probably fearful of criticism from the "Ancients". In the tales, he used images from around him, such as the Chateau Ussé for Sleeping Beauty and in Puss-in-Boots, the Marquis of the Château d'Oiron, and contrasted his folktale subject matter, with details and asides and subtext drawn from the world of fashion."--Sholem Stein |
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Histoires ou contes du temps passé (trans. "Stories or Fairy Tales from Bygone Eras") is a collection of eight literary fairy tales written by Charles Perrault and published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697. The book's contents include "Sleeping Beauty", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Bluebeard", "The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots", "Diamonds and Toads", "Cinderella", "Riquet with the Tuft", and "Hop o' My Thumb". The book met with instant success and has remained popular. Histoires was first translated into English by Robert Samber as Histories or Tales of Times Past and published in London in 1729. The frontispiece of the English edition depicts an old woman telling tales to a group of children beneath a placard reading 'MOTHER GOOSE'S TALES' and is credited with launching the Mother Goose legend in the English-speaking world.
Publication history
In 1694, Perrault wrote three stories in verse form, "Griselidis", "The Ridiculous Wishes", and "Donkeyskin", that were published in a single volume and republished a year later in a volume with a preface. In 1697, Jean Barbin published a newer volume containing eight more stories, titled Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec dez Moralitez (Stories of Times Past with Moralities). With two reprints in the same year, the volume soon came to known by the subtitle only, Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (Stories of Mother Goose'). The subtitle was taken from the illustrated frontispiece of a woman weaving, telling stories to children who are dressed in clothing of the higher classes. Above on the wall hangs a plaque with the words Contes de ma Mère l'Oy.
The stories written for the 1697 edition were "The Sleeping Beauty", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Bluebeard", "The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots", "Cinderella", "Riquet with the Tuft", and "Hop o' My Thumb", "Griselidis" (La Patience de Grisélidis), "The Ridiculous Wishes" (Les Souhaits ridicules), "Donkeyskin" (Peau d'Ane) and "Diamonds and Toads" (Les Fées). Eight were newly written prose stories and three were stories previously written in verse. Each story ended with a rhymed, well-defined and cynical moral Moralitè. Three were published earlier in the literary magazine Mercure galant: "Griselidis" and "Suhait" in 1693, and "Sleeping Beauty" in 1696. Others may have been published in additional literary magazines, however it is unknown whether they appeared in the magazines before the book's publications or whether they were later pirated editions.
The author of the volume was given as Pierre Perrault Darmancour, Perrault's 19-year-old son, whom it was believed to have written the stories. However Zipes claims modern scholarship shows little evidence the son wrote the stories, nor that the volume was the result of a collaboration between father and son. Almost certainly Perrault the elder was the author. It is possible that the son's name, and the dedication the king's niece Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, was meant as a means to introduce the son to society. The book contains an introductory letter to Mademoiselle", saying "No one will think it strange that a child should have found pleasure in composing the Tales in this volume, but some will be surprised that he should have presumed to dedicate them to you."
Les contes contains tales that are well-known, have retained their popularity since publication, and have been repeatedly modified since the late 17th century. The volume achieved considerable success with eight reprints in Perrault's lifetime. With Louis XIV's death at the beginning of the 18th century the lifestyle of the précieuse faded, as did the popularity of the literary salons and the fairy tales at the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment. Perrault's tales, however, continued to be sought after with four editions published in that century.
