The Sleeping Beauty and Other Classic French Fairy Tales

by Charles Perrault, Madame d'Aulnoy, Edmund Dulac (Illustrator)

A collection of twelve classic French fairy tales, including "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," "Puss in Boots," and "Blue Beard."

Genres: Classics, Childrens, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Picture Books, Fiction

206 pages, Hardcover

Published September 11, 1991

About the author

Charles Perrault was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, and whose best known tales, offered as if they were pre-existing folk tales, include: Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Hop o' My Thumb), Diamonds and Toads, Patient Griselda, The Ridiculous Wishes...

Perrault's most famous stories are still in print today and have been made into operas, ballets (e.g., Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty), plays, musicals, and films, both live-action and animation.

The Brothers Grimm retold their own versions of some of Perrault's fairy tales.

Reviews

[Sidharth Vardhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it for Christmas times. Although, written much before Grimm bros version (who borrowed a lot from Perrault), they are much better written here. The only problem is morals - why, why would someone feed moral tales to children?

[Alexandra Ibberson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains Charles Perrault's classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. In this classic/original version, King Stefan and the Queen wish for a child. When at last they finally get their wish, they name their daughter, Aurora. When they have a feast to celebrate her birth, the three fairy godmothers start to bless Aurora. Fairy godmother Flora gives her the gift of beauty, Fairy godmother Fauna gives her the gift of song, and Fairy godmother Merryweather starts to give her a gift but Maleficent the evil witch shows up and casts a spell that on Aurora's 16th birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather uses her gift to Aurora to change the spell by making it so that instead of dying, Aurora will fall into a deep sleep and will only be awakened by a kiss from her true love. Aurora's parents send her to stay with the fairies to try to keep her away from Maleficent. While with them she meets Prince Phillip but does not know he is the Prince. The fairies tell her that she must return home to the castle as she was promised to the Prince. When she returns, Maleficent shows up and lures her into a room where she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel and falls into a deep sleep. The fairies decide to cast a spell over the entire kingdom so the King and Queen won't know that Aurora has been put under the spell of Maleficent. They give Prince Phillip the shield of virtue and the sword of truth to rescue Aurora. He uses these to battle Maleficent when she turns herself into a dragon. Phillip races to Aurora and kisses Aurora and she wakes up. The rest of the kingdom also rises from their slumber. Then Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora get married and live happily ever after.
This is the classic tale of good versus evil where the damsel in distress is rescued by the valiant prince and everyone lives happily ever after. It is a familiar theme that children will identify with as it has been passed down over the ages since it was first created long, long ago.

[Natasha Castillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

La historia que le cuentan a los niños a está versión hay una similitud, pero ya dandonse a conocer la trama, ya es distinta a la historia que conocemos, dado a que ya le dan como una segunda parte. Se puede dar semejanza en la realidad dado a que cuando el principe se lleva al palacio a Aurora, su madre no hace más que hacerle la vida insoportable a la princesa que hasta quiere comerse a ella y a sus hijos. Ya el chiste con la realidad se cuenta solo. Agradable lectura, de está historia se encuentran muchas versiones algo impactante para quien ya allá leído la 'versión infantil'.

[athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in class because I was bored and let me just say that it is very…strange.

[Michelle Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is waaaaay better than the Disney versions!

[monica ♪ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why I can't seem to find the exact same edition I own on goodreads.

The one that I own is a kindle edition I downloaded for free from Amazon, which contains 5 stories:
✿ The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods
✿ Puss in Boots
✿ Blue Beard
✿ Little Red Riding Hood
✿ Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper

Those stories are kind of different from what I heard/read before. And to be honest I don't really like the Blue Beard story because, in my opinion, the story is too violence for children.

But it's still an enjoyable read :)
And it has a very beautiful kindle design. I've never read any kindle book with beautiful design before ♥

[Mell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another book I encountered through my grade school's library- a friend wrote a book report about Bluebeard's Wife and Hop o'My Thumb. We thought they were great at the time, but who decided gory and violent stories were appropriate for children?

[Grace Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love classics and this was such a fun read with all the different stories in it!

[Cognatious Thunk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I no sooner set about writing a review for this collection of fairy tales, when my daughter's interest rekindled in it. Looks like it's heading immediately back to my Currently Reading list.