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.
Now that I discovered the Classics Illustrated (Junior) series, my goal is to read as many vintage comics as I can. It seems like these Junior comics put their own spin on the fairy tales they adapt, which is always more refreshing than a regular straightforward retelling. I liked this one, it was sweet and funny.
Having read the Ladybird book as a child and loved the Disney versions, in both book & film, it was lovely to actually read the original story from which these adaptations arose ..
A great addition to any Cinderella collection, this version illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian has a hazel tree and a white dove in place of a fairy godmother. The stepsisters mutilate their feet in an attempt to fit the slipper and in the end are struck blind for their unkindness. The illustrations seem to be colored pencil and are soft and muted with a formal set up of words on one page, picture on the adjacent page.
Again, I am in shock and awe. I have grown up knowing the story and fairy tale, being told and retold over the years in some way shape or form. Yet, having read this as an adult, I see the similarities in cartoons and movies, but, sadly shocked on the ‘creative licence’ Hollywood has used on this classic.
Not wanting to ruin it for other readers, I am shocked for what has been taken for granted is a mere falsity when you read the original.
Palest colors of all the Hogrogian books I've seen so far, lots of pink and gray. The stepsisters are "beautiful to look at but cold and cruel inside." You see the stepsisters in their gowns and in the next panel, Cinderella is washing those same gowns in a bucket. This version with the father bringing back a hazel twig which grows into the magical tree is sweet and sweetly illustrated with Easter lilies.
I liked the Disney Cinderella were she left her sisters to do all their own house work not this one where she marries them up. Like girl they were mean to you.