Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy

"Finette Cendron." Fairy Tales, by the Countess D’Aulnoy, translated by J. R. Planché, London: G. Routledge and Co., 1855, pp. 227-245.

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 20:19:01 +0000

"Finette Cendron." Fairy Tales, by the Countess D’Aulnoy, translated by J. R. Planché, London: G. Routledge and Co., 1855, pp. 227-245. Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/01/2022 - 13:19

Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy

Tale Summary

A King and Queen are in ruin after they were driven out of their estate. Thinking their daughters not suited to a working-class lifestyle, the Queen suggests a plan to take the three princesses, named Fleur D'Amour, Belle-de-Nuit, and Fine-Oreille, on a long journey so far from home that they may never find their way back. Fine-Oreille, nicknamed Finette, journeys to her Fairy Godmother's house to ask for help in avoiding her mother's plan. Fairy Godmother gives her magic thread that she may tie to her bedroom door and trail behind her as she follows her mother on their journey the next day, so that she may find her way back. The following morning, the Queen asks her daughters to join her on a journey to her sister's castle. After some time walking, and as dusk fell, the Queen and the princesses laid down to sleep, and the Queen snuck away and returned home in the middle of the night, abandoning her daughters. When the girls awoke the next morning, Finette presented her magic string, which they followed all the way home, much to the King and Queen's surprise. The Queen hatches another plan to take her daughters on an even longer journey the next day, to which Finette returns to her Godmother's house to ask for more assistance. Fairy Godmother provides Finette with magic ashes that she must sprinkle along her way as she walks with her mother and sisters. However, Godmother adds the condition that Finette must leave her sisters behind when she returns to her home after the journey, as they are cruel to her and do not deserve her kindness. If she does not leave her sisters, she will never see or speak to her Fairy Godmother again. Finette follows her Godmother's instructions, and she and her sisters are yet again abandoned by their mother after a long foot journey the next day. Instead of leaving her sisters behind, however, Finette goes against her Godmother's rules and tells them about the magic ashes, and brings them home with her. The Queen, determined to get rid of her daughters, plans on another, even longer journey the next morning. Without the help from Fairy Godmother, Finette and her sisters plan on bringing their own peas to trail behind them as they walk. However, it turns out the land they walked through on their journey was full of pigeons, who eat the peas as they fall. Finette and her sisters are lost in the far-off land where their mother abandoned them. After some time starving in the woods, the sisters climb a great oak tree and discover a beautiful palace not too far away. Belle-de-Nuit and Fleur D'Amour discover the gifts Finette received from her Fairy Godmother some time ago, beautiful dresses and fine jewels, in her possession and decide to steal them and wear them to the palace, hoping to win over a prince that may live there. Unfortunately, the true dweller of the palace is an Ogress and her Ogre husband, who capture Finette and her sisters and plan to make them their servants up until they decide to eat them. Finette is clever, however, and manages to burn the Ogre in the oven and cut off the Ogress' head, which leaves the beautiful castle to her and her sisters. Belle-de-Nuit and Fleur D'Amour, being as cruel as they are, force Finette to be their servant while they relax in the new luxury of their castle home. One day, the two cruel sisters put on Finette's fine clothes from her Godmother and leave her at home to clean while they attend the local Prince's grand ball in hopes to marry him. Finette, however, finds a golden key in the castle which opens a magical fairy chest full of the most beautiful clothes and jewels. Donning the lace and ribbons she has found, Finette makes her way to the Prince's ball and blows everyone away with her tremendous beauty and grace. She appears so different than how she looks in her servant's clothes that her sisters don't even recognize her, and she is able to successfully attend several of the Prince's balls without her sisters knowing who she is. One night, however, in a haste to return to her and her sisters' castle before Belle-de-Lune and Fleur D'Amour, Finette loses one of her red velvet slippers. The Prince finds it the next day and falls in love with the maiden whose feet could be ever so small enough to wear it. The mother and father of the Prince, seeing his lovesickness, declare that all the maidens of the land should come to the castle and, whoever may fit into the velvet slipper, will marry the Prince. Finette, supplied with her Godmother's horse who appeared at her doorstep, made her way to the Prince's castle adorned in her finest wares, much to the shock of her sisters. As soon as Finette was able to fit the slipper onto her foot, the masses assembled at the castle cried out and called her their future Queen. Finette explained her origins to the Prince's parents, the King and Queen, and once they had heard Finette's parents' family name, they recognized them as the royals whose domain they had conquered. At the threat of not marrying the Prince, the King and Queen promised Finette they would restore her family's land. Belle-de-Nuit and Fleur D'Amour, at their arrival at the castle, were not cast away by their sister, but invited into the palace and promised a safe return to their parents and their newly restored domain. In the end, Finette's father and mother had their land returned, and Finette, along with her sisters, eventually all became queens.

Fairy Tale Title

Finette Cendron

Fairy Tale Author(s)/Editor(s)

Marie-Catherine D’Aulnoy, translated by J. R. Planché

Fairy Tale Illustrator(s)

John Gilbert

Common Tale Type

Cinderella

Tale Classification

ATU 510A

Page Range of Tale

pp. 227-245

Full Citation of Tale

D'Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine. "Finette Cendron." Fairy Tales, translated by J. R. Planché, London: G. Routledge and Co., 1855, pp. 227-245.

Original Source of the Tale

Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy

Tale Notes

This tale bares striking similarities to the story of Cinderella, especially with Finette's name, Fine-Oreille Cendron, which is very similar to the French "Cendrillon." The themes of evil sisters and mother are also present in both this tale and the commonly known version of Cinderella. The presence of a slipper also parallels the famous tale.

AV��ʪ and Curation

Maire Volz, 2020

Book Title

Fairy Tales

Book Author/Editor(s)

Marie-Catherine D’Aulnoy, translated by J. R. Planché

Illustrator(s)

John Gilbert

Publisher

G. Routledge and Co.

Date Published

1855

Decade Published

1850-1859

Publisher City

London

Publisher Country

England

Language

English

Rights

Public Domain

Digital Copy

Available at HathiTrust

Book Notes

None

Traditional

White

D'Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine. "Le Prince Lutin." Les contes des fées. Tome premier, Paris, Chez Claude Barbin, au Palais sur la second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle, 1698, pp. 224-335.

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 18:32:39 +0000

D'Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine. "Le Prince Lutin." Les contes des fées. Tome premier, Paris, Chez Claude Barbin, au Palais sur la second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle, 1698, pp. 224-335. Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/15/2021 - 11:32

Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy

Tale Summary

A king and queen have a malformed son named Furibon. Though his appearance is frightful, his temperament is truly ugly, causing him to be greatly disliked in the court. The king hires a governor and tells Furibon to obey him, though Furibon is generally incorrigible. The governor's son, Leandre, is by contrast handsome and well-liked. One day, some ambassadors come to the court and, seeing Leandre and Furibon together, bow to Leandre believing him to be the prince. They tease Furibon, believing him to be the prince's dwarf. Furibon, furious, pulls out Leandre's hair. Leandre's father sends him to the country to avoid further problems. There, Leandre contentedly hunts, fishes, walks, reads, paints and plays musical instruments.

One day while walking he is approached by a grass snake. The snake looks at him directly, as if asking for mercy. Just then his gardener arrives and says that he has been chasing the snake. Leandre concludes that, since this snake, which has beautiful and colorful skin, has come to him for protection, he will guard her until she sheds. He keeps her in a room and feeds her and gives her flowers to make her happy, and she gives him pleasing glances.

Meanwhile, back at the court, all the ladies are sad that Leandre has gone, and Furibon hears their complaints, which infuriate him. With the help of his mother, he decides to kill Leandre. He goes on a hunt with the assassins, but is attacked by a Lion. His men flee, but Leandre saves him. Nonetheless, once saved, he orders his thugs to continue with the assassination, and Leandre kills them all. Furibon says that he will kill Leandre when he sees him next. Leandre decides that he must leave the kingdom.

Before leaving, he goes to feed his grass snake, and finds instead a beautiful, luminous fairy, la Fée Gentille (the Good Fairy). She explains that for every 100 gay years without pain or aging, she spends 8 days as a vulnerable grass snake. Since he has saved her, she offers him a fairy gift, making several suggestions, but the one that interests him most is to become a lutin (imp or hobgoblin). She explains that a lutin can become invisible, and can travel through water, air, earth and space unimpeded. She turns him into a lutin and gives him a red hat with parrot feathers that will turn him invisible. To test his powers, he transports into the forest where wild roses grow. He brings three back to the good fairy, but she says to keep them: one will give him all the money he needs, one held to the throat of his mistress will let him know if she is true, and the last will prevent him from becoming ill. On this, she parts.

Leandre's first stop is to take vengeance, and so, invisible, he nails Furibon's ear to a door where he has stooped to listen, and when Furibon cries out, his mother opens the door and tears off the ear. Leandre then beats them both with rods, and then picks the fruit and flowers from the queen's own orchard. He next uses his invisibility to save a young woman from a forced marriage. Next he gains entry into a court where the queen has invited only the most beautiful people. He attempts to win the heart of Blondine, who remains cold. He uses a rose to discover that she is in love with a musician who is not worthy of her attentions, and so Leandre throws him off of a balcony and moves on. He learns of a girl being forced to become a Vestal, and he disrupts the ceremony. She tells him that she wants to marry a young man, but he has no money, so Leandre shakes the rose and gives them ten million so that they may marry and live happily.

For his final adventure, he sees a young girl, Abricotine, being carried away by four men. He frees the girl and learns her story. She serves a princess whose mother was a fairy who fell in love with a man, but he was not true to her, so she created a society of women, the Island of tranquil pleasures, with Amazons to serve as guards. The princess was now ruler of the island, and she and Abricotine had lived there for 200 years without aging. Abricotine says that the men were sent by Furibon, who is in love with the princess.

Leandre asks if he can accompany Abricotine to the Island of tranquil pleasures and see the princess, but she says it is impossible. After she leaves him, he puts on his hat and wishes himself there anyway. He speaks to the fairy princess in the voice of a parrot, telling her of the brave prince who has saved Abricotine, and that this prince wishes to come to the kingdom to change her mind about men. Abricotine arrives and validates the parrot's story, but the fairy princess refuses. Leandre has fallen hopeless in love with her, and uses his invisibility to continue to interact with her surreptitiously. Invisibly, he undertakes several projects to impress the princess following her desires which he has secretly heard, including bringing in a collection of monkeys to entertain her, delivering verses to her, painting a portrait of himself holding a portrait of her, bringing her fashions from around the world, and singing her a song. His efforts both flatter and frighten her, and she considers the possibility that a demon is involved.

Meanwhile, Furibon has become king, and decides to attack the Island of tranquil pleasures. Leandre dresses as an Amazon, and goes to Furibon's camp to try to bargain with him to abandon his attack. He offers Furibon as much money as he could want, and Furibon agrees, though he plans to take the money and then kill the Amazon and take the princess anyway. Leandre cuts off Furibon's head and, invisible, delivers it to the fairy princess. He returns to the castle and falls asleep without his cap. The princess sees him asleep. The fairy queen arrives, furious at her daughter for falling prey to tyrannical love after all she has taught her about the horrors of men. Gentille arrives, with the Graces, to convince the queen to forgive her daughter and to accept Leandre. The queen accepts, the lovers marry, and the palace and all the Island of tranquil pleasures is transported to Leandre's kingdom.

Fairy Tale Title

Le Prince Lutin

Fairy Tale Author(s)/Editor(s)

Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy

Fairy Tale Illustrator(s)

None listed

Common Tale Type

Tale Classification

Page Range of Tale

pp. 224-335

Full Citation of Tale

D'Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine. "Le Prince Lutin." Les contes des fées. Tome premier, Paris, Chez Claude Barbin, au Palais sur la second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle, 1698, pp. 224-335.

Original Source of the Tale

Tale Notes

In the Palace on the Island of tranquil pleasures there are murals of the Zodiac, of the goddess Diana, and of the Amazons. The fairy princess discusses the virtues of "tranquil" pleasures, that is those that do not involve the heart. The stories of Psyche and Cupid are mentioned as parallels to the princess's conundrum. The fairy queen describes love as tyrannical. Leandre is a sort of hybrid lutin (imp or hobgoblin) and man, able to retain the powers of the lutin while also remaining embodied.

AV��ʪ and Curation

Sara Fischer, 2020

Book Title

Les contes des fées

Book Author/Editor(s)

Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy

Illustrator(s)

None listed

Publisher

Chez Claude Barbin, au Palais sur la second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle

Date Published

1698

Decade Published

1690-1699

Publisher City

Paris

Publisher Country

France

Language

French

Rights

Public Domain

Digital Copy

Available at the CU Digital Library

Book Notes

None

Traditional

White

"Gracieuse et Percinet." Les contes des fées. Tome premier, Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy, Paris, Chez Claude Barbin, au Palais sur la second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle, 1698, pp. 1-71.

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 21:40:59 +0000

"Gracieuse et Percinet." Les contes des fées. Tome premier, Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy, Paris, Chez Claude Barbin, au Palais sur la second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle, 1698, pp. 1-71. Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/24/2021 - 15:40

Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy

Tale Summary

The king and queen have a beautiful and beloved daughter named Gracieuse, who is admired far and wide. The ugly duchess Grognon is filled with jealousy. The queen dies, and after a year of mourning, the king goes out on a hunt and stops at the duchess's castle. He discovers she is enormously rich, and she promises to share her wealth with him, if he marries her, and if she can take control of Gracieuse as her stepmother and mistress. The king agrees.

Gracieuse is dismayed at the news, and goes to cry alone. Percinet appears. He is a handsome prince that has been in love with Gracieuse in secret for some time. He reveals that a fairy has given him a gift and he will protect Gracieuse with it. He gives her a horse and leads her upon it to meet Grognon. Grognon is infuriated that Gracieuse, with her beautiful horse led by the handsome prince, gets more attention than she does. Grognon demands the horse and the young page (Percinet) to lead it. With the wedding procession following, the horse darts off, with Grognon's foot stuck in the stirrup. She is dragged through the mud and the spines, breaking her arm and head. While recovering, she is convinced that Gracieuse has tricked her. Grognon orders that Gracieuse be stripped and beaten with canes, but Percinet changes the canes into feathers and charms the eyes of Grognon's women to believe that the punishment has been delivered.

To please Grognon, the king has a portrait painted of her, and organizes a tournament for the best knights in the court, all fighting to assert that Grognon is the most beautiful princess in the universe. An unnamed knight arrives, insisting that Grognon is the ugliest, and that he has with him a painting of the most beautiful. He defeats twenty-four knights before revealing the painting of Gracieuse. Gracieuse knows this knight is Percinet.

Grognon has Gracieuse abandoned in the middle of a dense forest. She calls for Percinet, and sees a path opening to a crystal palace. Divided by her feelings, she turns away from the palace. He appears, and assures her of his respect, explaining that his mother and sisters, who already love her, are in the castle. They go by a carriage drawn by deer into his enchanted land of joy and beauty. In the fairy castle, she finds that her story is being engraved on the walls.

All is perfect in this land, yet Gracieuse wonders if she can trust Percinet, and thinks that this must all be enchantment. She tells him she is duty-bound to her father, and must return. He shows her that Grognon has told her father that she is dead by suicide. The king is distraught, crying day and night. This scene makes Gracieuse's will to return even greater. Percinet must obey, but as they leave, all the enchantments crumble behind them, and he tells her that she will only be able to return after she is buried.

Gracieuse returns to her father, who has the coffin disinterred and sees that Grognon has buried a log. Nonetheless, Grognon convinces him that Gracieuse is an imposter, and he abandons his daughter anew. Grognon consults a fairy to invent torments for the princess. They first lock her in a room and give her a tangle of fibers, large as four people, that she must untangle without breaking a thread. Certain that she will not succeed, she cries her last farewell to Percinet, who appears, saying he could not abandon her, and uses his magic wand to untangle the huge knot. He asks her to free herself from this tyranny and come with him, yet she again refuses.

Grognon gives Gracieuse a ton of feathers and orders her to sort them by bird. Again Percinet appears and helps complete the task. Grognon then gives Gracieuse a magic box that the fairy had created, and tells her to deliver it but forbids her from opening it. On the journey, Gracieuse cannot help herself, and opens the box, from which springs a court of tiny people, who begin a great ball in the field, dancing and cooking. Once they have started, Gracieuse cannot convince them to go back into the box. Percinet arrives to help her, pointing out that she only thinks of him when she is in trouble.

Grognon has a pit dug, and a giant rock placed over it, and tells all that there is a treasure buried beneath the rock. When Gracieuse tries to reveal the treasure, Grognon pushes her in the pit. Gracieuse regrets her decision to not marry Percinet sooner, but explains that she needed to be certain that his love for her was unchangeable. A door opens in the pit, and Gracieuse finds the crystal palace and the sisters and mother of Percinet. She agrees to marry him. The evil fairy who helped torture Gracieuse is present at the wedding. She casts a spell to make Gracieuse forget the torments, and returns to wring Grognon's neck.

Fairy Tale Title

Gracieuse et Percinet

Fairy Tale Author(s)/Editor(s)

Aulnoy, Madame Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Comtesse d’

Fairy Tale Illustrator(s)

None listed

Common Tale Type

Persecuted Maidens

Tale Classification

Page Range of Tale

pp. 1-71

Full Citation of Tale

"Gracieuse et Percinet." Les contes des fées. Tome premier, Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy, Paris, Chez Claude Barbin, au Palais sur la second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle, 1698, pp. 1-71.

Original Source of the Tale

Tale Notes

Grognon has a wine cellar, and mentions several types of wines. The beauty of Gracieuse is compared to Venus. Initially, Gracieuse is insulted to be admired by Percinet when she believes him to be a Page, and considers his admiration a sign of how low she has fallen. The dangers of love are comparable to the tortures of the evil stepmother. At the end of the story is the moral, written in verse, in which Envy is blamed for human evil, and for the anger of Grognon.

AV��ʪ and Curation

Sara Fischer, 2020

Book Title

Les contes des fées

Book Author/Editor(s)

Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy

Illustrator(s)

None listed

Publisher

Chez Claude Barbin, au Palais sur la second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle

Date Published

1698

Decade Published

1690-1699

Publisher City

Paris

Publisher Country

France

Language

French

Rights

Public Domain

Digital Copy

Available at the CU Digital Library

Book Notes

None

Traditional

White