Perrault's Fairy Tales - Illustrated by Honor C. Appleton

By Charles Perrault

This book is a charming collection of eight of Charles Perrault's most famous reworkings of popular fairy tales illustrated by Honor C. Appleton's beautiful full page colour illustrations. Contents Include: Preface, To a Certain Little Lady, The Sleeping Beauty, Little Red-Riding-Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, The Fairies, Cinderella, Riquet of the Tuft, and Little Thumbling. Many of the earliest children's books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Pook Press are working to republish these classic works in affordable, high quality, colour editions, using the original text and artwork so these works can delight another generation of children. About the Author: Born in Paris in 1628, Perrault was a prolific collector of fairy tails from the oral tradition of France who laid the foundations for this new literary genre. About the Illustrator: Honor Charlotte Appleton (1879-1951) was known for her delicate watercolour illustrations influenced by Kate Greenaway and Arthur Rackham. She illustrated more than 100 children's books during her career including Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, and Black Beauty but it was for her editions of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales and her illustrations of Josephine in H. C. Craddock's series that she received most universal acclaim.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781447490135

Reviews for Perrault's Fairy Tales - Illustrated by Honor C. Appleton

[jbarr5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The complete fairy tales of Charles PerraultLiked hearing of the stories and also about the author who wrote these in the 1670's. Some of them are quite scary and gruesome and they all come with a moral or two at the end.Had never heard of Bluebeard and Hop of My Thumb and Donkeyskin.About the author and translations done are included at the end.I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

[ftmckinstry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The stories are beautiful enough, but the Dore illustrations are breathtaking...

[cynical_ames · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a brilliant book, with amazing but terrifying engravings by Dore. This edition of Perrault's fairy tales also include morals which read like rhyming verse, my favourite was the LRRH moral. This book is well worth the money if you are interested in fairy tales and the associated illustrations.

[mahallett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

i didn't realize that perrault had written so few stories. anderson and grimm have huge volumes. it's interesting to see the differences in stories. an interesting history by betts. i chose this book because it was illustrated by dore. we saw his great summer exhibition at the nag this past summer.

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This contains not only the regular tales, but also three summaries of poems, one of which (Donkey's Skin) was the basis of a recent fantasy. Of the original stories, my personal favorite is Puss in Boots. Some of the others e.g. Hop o;my thumb, are rather grisly.

[petra5xs · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I was very young, my grandmother had a set of very small books with uncut pages. One of the books was an early edition of Charles Perrault's fairy tales with hand-printed woodblock prints. Naturally I cut the pages and read the stories which were bloody and didn't always have nice endings and at least one of the ugly sisters tumbled into a well to be devoured by snakes. These stories, before Disney got them, were wonderful. Children like blood and guts as much as they like marshmallows and cuddly bears, but today everything is sanitised for them. I wonder why - the policy has not decreased the amount of violence in the world by one jot.

My grandmother, not very pleased at my cutting the pages on these valuable books, gave them to me and for years they were stored in my attic. But when I sold my flat in London, they were either thrown out for trash or stolen. Sad.

[melanti_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the original versions of fairy tales. Knowing the unedited versions makes it so much more interesting when you're reading the re-tellings.

When I read Angela Carter's Bloody Chamber, I was a bit surprised at the "Little Red Riding Hood" retelling that had erotic overtones. But in Perrault's version, the wolf has the girl undress before asking her to come into bed with him - which is when she flees. Carter's version is less out of the blue when you are aware of Perraut's rendition.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I actually read these while I was in France, but I reread a couple of them this week while my online group was discussing them. The online discussion reminded me how dark these stories were, full of violence and terror and unpredictability. The things we face in life, in other words. The things we seek out in books.

[samsattler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Charles Perrault, a minor government official in 17th century France, is best remembered today for the collection of fairy tales he published in 1697, just six years before his death. Perrault, however, was not the author of any of the tales collected in his book. Rather, he rewrote various folk tales, tales of unknown origin snatched from the oral tradition of his time, and published those stories in the versions that most closely resemble the ones children grow up on today.This new Christopher Betts translation of Perrault’s work presents a few of the stories in simple verse, the rest in prose, and it includes an all-star list of fairy tales. Among the stories in “The Complete Fairy Tales” are: “Little Red Riding-Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” “Cinderella,” and a story very similar to that of ”Hansel and Gretel.” But make no mistake about it – these are not the fairy tales you heard from your mother and they are, most definitely, not the ones made famous by Mr. Disney. Nevertheless, Perrault did intend that his stories be read to small children by their parents. For that reason, his versions of the folk tales are shorter than the stories with which adults of the period would have been more familiar, they encompass a limited number of characters and motivations, and much of the most obvious sexual content has been removed or, at the least, disguised. In addition, within his stories, Perrault emphasizes lessons and warnings about the process of growing up and he attaches at least one moral to the end of each tale. The attached morals, however, do seem to be aimed more at the parent/reader than at the listening children.Adult readers will be intrigued by the editing process to which Perrault subjected his chosen tales and probably a little shocked by some of the details he excluded. Perrault clearly felt it necessary to clean up the old folk tales before publishing them as children’s entertainment. Who might have imagined, for instance, that Snow White would be raped by her prince and would give birth to twins before she was awakened? Or that Little Red Riding-Hood would be forced by the wolf to eat part of her dismembered grandmother? Or that incest would play a prominent role in some of the tales?“The Complete Fairy Tales” includes twenty-six remarkable illustrations by 19th century French literary illustrator Gustave Doré (including the book’s cover and the “Cinderella” illustration shown here) and it is amply footnoted. Most intriguing, though, is the book’s presentation of alternate versions of several of today’s most beloved fairy tales, versions that make it obvious why Perrault felt obliged to edit the tales to fit his intended audience. Readers preferring their history in unexpurgated form will much appreciate “The Complete Fairy Tales” as translated by Christopher Betts.Rated at: 5.0

[yarb_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not the most enchanting edition (Clarion, 1993) of these tales I would have thought, but it gets the job done.