French folktales
Several beloved fairy tale and folklore authors originated in France, and gave the world characters we still love today. Sleeping Beauty and Puss in Boots, among others, leap from the pages into the public consciousness. French fairy tales and folk tales were some of the first oral stories to be collected and written down. Charles Perrault, a writer of fairy tales and folklore, was known to have collected nearly all of his tales from folk storytellers, then rewrite them for the upper-class, who were hungry for stories. Like those he inspired, he would use the tales as moral stories for the young and old.
Unlike other folk tale types, French literary fairy tales were viewed as art by the upper class, and were popular in Louis XIV’s court, who encouraged Charles Perrault to write these tales extensively. The King wanted the world to see the intellectual culture of the people of France. The stories have characteristics such as the inclusion of fairies (hence the name given to the genre), as well as plenty of magic, dark and mystical elements. Heroes would encounter the dead and might be transformed into an animal or witness the transformation of another.
Content
Blondine, Bonne-Biche, Beau-Minon (consists of 10 parts)
4.Blondine's Awakening—Beau-Minon
Gool little Henry (consists of 7 parts)
2.The Crow, the Cock, and the Frog
Princess Rosette (consists of 5 parts)
2.Rosette at the Court of the King Her Father
5.Third and Last Day of the Festival
The little grey mouse (consists of 5 parts)
Ourson (consists of 13 parts)
10.The Farm—The Castle—The Forge
The Hunchback and His Two Brothers
The Snake, the Fox and the Man
Lyon and the Princess of Austria
The Rooster and His Companions
About the Authors Unknown
Authors: Various