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"Sleeping Beauty"
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Perrault, Charles. "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood." Old French Fairy Tales, Boston: Little, Brown, 1899, pp. 328-341.
Perrault’s version of the tale focuses more on the prince’s mother than on Sleeping Beauty. This translation of Perrault’s tale includes nine black and white illustrations. Except the scene of the fairies at the Christening which is a full page illustration, all of the images are smaller and embedded in the text of the tale. Instead of captions, there are phrases in italics that link the text to the images. -
"The Sleeping Beauty." The Allies’ Fairy Book, Intro. by Edmund Gosse London: William Heinemann, 1916, pp. 52-65.
This version of the tale has very beautiful illustrations by Arthur Rackham, including four black and white illustrations positioned throughout the text and one color plate depicting Sleeping Beauty in her bed. The black and white illustrations depict: the evil fairy, the old woman spinning, the castle surrounded by thorns, and an elf at the end of the tale. -
Chisholm, Louey. “The Sleeping Beauty.” In Fairyland: Tales Told Again, illustrated by Katharine Cameron, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904, pp. 84-88.
This book contains a preface that introduces a framing narrative, however, the narrative is never addressed again throughout the book. Each story is told one after another, with its own separate beginning and ending, and there are no further references to the frame tale after the first tale. Through the preface, in which a young girl named Sunflower speaks with her mother, we discover that the tales contained within this book are targeted towards children as they are retold by the mother. Sunflower praises her mother’s story telling because she “leave(s) out all the not interesting bits you know and make me understand what the story is all about.” This Sleeping Beauty Tale is concise, easy to read, contains little character development, and is very clean (no gruesomeness). As these stories are retold again, the preface addresses two individuals, Mary de Morgan who was an English writer, as well as the publisher Messers. Macmillian, who both “lent” some of these stories to the author. -
“The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.” The Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1889, pp. 54-63.
In this version of this Sleeping Beauty tale based on Charles Perrault’s tale, the princess is awakened by just the presence of the prince. Also, in this tale the prince's mother, the queen, is "of the race of Ogres", which like to eat little children. The prince hides his marriage and children from his mother because he is scared she will eat them. The queen tries to eat the children and the princess but the cook feeds her goats instead. In the end, the queen ends up taking her own life by jumping into a pit of toads, vipers and snakes of all sorts that devour her. There are three black and white illustrations depicting: the newborn princess in her cradle as the old woman curses her; the prince making his way though the hedge; and Little Day, Sleeping Beauty’s son, fencing with a monkey. -
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm; “The Sleeping Beauty.” A Selection from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, illustrated by Gilbert James, London: Siegle, Hill and Co., [c. 1900], pp. 31-42.
This is a simplified version of the tale that was clearly intended for children. There are six tales in total. Besides Sleeping Beauty, the book includes some of Grimm’s best known tales including The Frog Prince, Rumplestilskin, and Hansel and Grethel, as well as The Rabbit’s Bride and The Shreds. The illustrations are simple but beautiful and a few pages are decorated with floral motifs. -
"The Sleeping Beauty." Grimm’s Fairy Tales, illustrated by Walter Crane and E. H. Wehnert, Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co., 1896.
There is one full-page black and white illustration of the prince about to wake the sleeping princess, as well as smaller illustrations including a historiated initial at the beginning of the tale. Unlike in many fairy tales, in this translation of the Grimms’ story, there is no justice carried out on the woman whom cursed the princess; she is never mentioned again . -
Perrault, Charles. "La Belle au Bois Dormant" Histoires, ou, Contes du temps passé: avec des moralitez par le fils de Monsieur Perreault (sic), Amsterdam, Jacques Desbordes, 1700, pp. 1-34
The Sleeping Beauty tale most known in the US ends just after the awakening of the Princess; this version has a second half that includes her children. The moral, included after the tale, is that one should not rush to marry, though Perrault concedes that he could not preach this to the sex with so much ardor to marry. (le sexe avec tant d'ardeur)