A review by loverofeels
The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault by Charles Perrault

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.5

I LOVE THE MORALS!!! fairy tales themselves were okay, most of them i'd read a million times before or seen the story formula a million times before so reading the narratives wasn't super exciting. but it was SO FASCINATING to see what a father in 1651 (?) expected kids/people to take away from these! had never ever occurred to me that little red riding hood might be construed as a story about rape but the moral perrault writes warns of leering men with luring tongues, like the wolf that leads red into bed? apparently the moral of sleeping beauty is that "ladies fair should yearn conjugal joys to share; and so i've not the heart to preach a moral that's beyond their reach"?? (even though this version doesn't involve beauty waking up from childbirth.) just so so interesting as a historical document.
beyond the morals, there's a few lines that felt so modern that it made me smile
-> "his Royal Highness took care not to tell [Sleeping Beauty] that she was dressed like his great grand-mother"
-> "The Queen said more than once to her son, in order to bring him to speak freely to her, that a young man must e'en take his pleasure." 
-> "The Queen, who did not lack self-esteem, exacted this oath firmly believing that there was not her equal in the world, and so felt assured that the King would never marry again." 

sighs with joy
part of the gothic lit class syllabus i stole from abigail! (specifically bluebeard)