Perrault's Complete Fairy Tales

Beyond the Fairy Tale: The Original 1697 Edition

Forget the softened versions you heard as a child.

This edition returns to Charles Perrault's fairy tales in a form closely faithful to the original 1697 publication-before centuries of adaptation transformed them into sentimental children's stories. Elegant yet severe, restrained yet quietly cruel, these tales preserve the harsh logic of European folk tradition while reflecting the sophistication of seventeenth-century French literary culture.

Inside this collection, you will find:

• Translations closely based on the original 1697 texts
• The darker moral atmosphere often removed from later editions
• Perrault's distinctive blend of irony, restraint, and social observation
• Classic tales including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Sleeping Beauty, and more
• The three original verse tales included alongside the prose fairy tales

Rather than modernized retellings, these translations aim to preserve the tone, structure, and literary character of Perrault's earliest published versions while presenting the complete collection in accessible modern English.

Step back into the world of the French salons and discover the fairy tales as they originally entered literature: refined, unsettling, and quietly merciless.