Modern Children's Editions and Adaptations
Bartlett, G. B. Aunt Mayor’s Nursery Tales for Good Little People. 1855. “The Giant Picture Book.” St. Nicholas Magazine June 1881.
[Presents a meek and refined Cinderella, meeting the prince “with downcast eyes and extended hand.” Yolen (“America’s Cinderella”— see Criticism) considers this publication important in the shaping of American attitudes toward the story. St. Nicholas Magazine, according to Selma Lanes in Down the Rabbit Hole (New York: Athenaeum, 1971), had “a patrician call to a highly literate readership.” See Stockton, under Miscellaneous Cinderellas, for an example of the refinements of a Cinderella story in St. Nicholas Magazine.]
Beaupré, Olive, ed. The Book House For Children. 6 vols. Chicago: The Bookhouse For Children Publisher, 1920; rpt. 1928.
[Vol. 2: Up One Pair of Stairs includes “Cinderella, adapted from Perrault.” pp. 165-174; “Thumbelina,” pp. 414-430; and “Tom Thumb,” pp. 262-270. Vol. 3: My Book House Through Fairy Halls includes “East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon,” pp. 399-407; “Pigling (The Story of Pear Blossom–A Korean Cinderella Tale),” adapted by William Elliot Griffin, pp. 191-195; and “Rhodopis (The First Cinderella Story),” pp. 262-267. This popular collection was issued in a wooden bookcase shaped like a house, with pointed green roof and red chimney. The books are quite handsomely illustrated with some full color plates and various ink drawings, some two-tone in yellow and black, by various artists, some anonymous. See individual entries for detailed descriptions.]
Bennett, William, J. The Children’s Book of Virtues. Illustrated by Michael Hague. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
[Includes “The Indian Cinderella,” retold by Cyrus Macmillan, under the classification of Honesty/Loyalty/ Friendship (pp. 88-97). Bennett says the tale is from Canada, but provides no more specific information about its source. The tale as Macmillan tells it is a Micmac version, first published in Canadian Fairy Tales (see Native American Cinderellas). Bennett’s volume is the basis of the PBS film Adventures from the Book of Virtues. See Movies and TV.]
Bluebeard and Other Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault. Introduced by Simone de Beauvoir. Trans. Peter Green. Illustrated by Saul Lambert. New York: MacMillan Company, 1964.
[Includes Diamonds and Toads, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, and Bluebeard. Simone de Beauvoir observes: “When Perrault dipped his goose-quill pen in ink and set these tales down of paper, every French peasant already knew them. Winter evenings in the country were no fun in those days - no movies or television, and the peasants couldn’t read because they didn’t know how. When supper was over they would gather around the fireside. The women spun wool on their spinning wheels, while the men repaired their tools and wooden clogs. The only amusement they enjoyed was telling legends and stories of olden times. One of the things these poor folk liked was imagining a world in which top people met their downfall. From the field in which he worked, the laborer could see, perched high on the hill, the huge and well-fortified castle where his master dwelt. These great lords were sometimes so powerful that they could commit the most horrible crimes and go unpunished.” Hence, Bluebeard, etc.]
Briggs, Katherine. British Folktales. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970.
[Includes “Ashey Pelt” (pp. 20-21), and “Cap O’ Rushes” (pp. 74-77).]
Carter, Angela. Sleeping Beauty and Other Favourite Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Michael Foreman. Boston: Otter Books, 1982; rpt. 1991.
[Includes Cinderella, Donkey Skin, Beauty and the Beast, plus ten others, including Madame Leprince de Beaumont’s Sweetheart.]
-----, ed. Strange Things Sometimes Still Happen: Fairy Tales from around the World. Illustrated by Corinna Sargood. Boston and London: Faber and Faber, 1993.
[Posthumous publication, with introduction by Marina Warner. Includes Carter’s adaptations of Tatterhood (pp. 65-71), Vasilissa the Fair (pp. 78-96), Fair, Brown and Trembling (pp. 95-103).]
-----, ed. The Old Wives’ Fairy Tale Book. Illustrated by Corinna Sargood. New York: Pantheon Books, 1990.
[Several of the stories have strong Cinderella components, including Kate Crackernuts (pp. 16-18), under the heading Brave, Bold and Willful; Mossycoat (pp. 48-56) and Vasilisa the Priest’s Daughter (pp. 57-59), under the heading Clever Women, Resourceful Girls and Desperate Stratagems; East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon (pp. 122-132), The Good Girl and the Ornery Girl (pp. 133-134), and The Armless Maiden (pp. 135-141), under the heading Good Girls And Where It Gets Them; The Baba Yaga (pp. 151-154), under Witches; and The Wicked Stepmother (pp. 178-180), under the heading: Unhappy Families.]
Chase, Richard. Grandfather Tales. Illustrated by Berkeley Williams, Jr. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1948.
[A collection of tales Chase compiled in Appalachia. He sets them in a frame structure as if they were told by a gathering on old Christmas eve (twelfth night) in Crockett County. After witnessing a mummer’s play the folk gather (children eager to stay up to hear “Gallymanders!” and “Wicked John and the Devil”). Once the tales get going two dozen are told before dawn when the people play a hymn and go out to milk the cows, some of the kids sleeping now, others having woken up again. The tales are told around a fire by different people, with brief end-links between tales. Four Cinderella tales are heard: “Mutsmag” (pp. 40-51) comes toward the beginning, right after “Wicked John and the Devil”; “Ashpet” (pp. 115-123) and “Like Meat Loves Salt” (pp. 124-129) come later in response to “Catskins” (pp. 106-114) as the group gets on to a Cinderella theme. In an appendix to the volume Chase identifies the real tellers of each tale he collected, the teller’s origin, and the sources. For synopses of these four Cinderella versions, see individual entries under Allerleirauh, Mollie Whuppie, Grimms’ Aschenputtel, and Like Meat Loves Salt.]
[Clarke, Harry.] Charles Perrault’s Classic Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Harry Clarke. With an Introduction by Thomas Bodkin. London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1922. Facsimile edition: London: Chancellor Press, 1986.
[This splendid edition includes both “Cinderella; Or, The Little Glass Slipper” (pp. 77-92) and “Donkey-Skin” (pp. 137-159), in Samber’s translation which “has been thoroughly revised and corrected by Mr. J. E. Mansion, who has purged it of many errors without detracting from its old-fashioned quality” (p. 19). Bodkin excludes “Griselidis” because it is borrowed from Boccaccio and “because it is not a ‘fairy’ tale in the true sense of the word” (p. 19). Clarke’s ink drawings and watercolors are stunning.]
“Frontispiece of Cinderilla being fitted with the slipper"”
“Cinderilla and her Prince”
“Title Page of The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault”
“Table of Contents”
“Headpiece of Table of Illustrations”
“Introduction Image”
“Closing of Introduction with image of Puppeteer”
“Red Riding Hood”
“He asked her wither she was going”
“Perrault’s Moral for Red Riding Hood”
“The Fairy”
“What is this I see?”
“Am I to serve you water, pray?”
“Endpiece: couple with Attendant”
“Perrault’s Moral for The Fairy”
“Blue Beard”
“What? Is not the key among the rest?”
“This man had the misfortune to have a blue beard”
“Endpiece: Blue Beard joins his dead wives”
“Perrault’s Moral for Blue Beard”
“Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”
“At this instant the fairy came out”
“The Prince enquired of the old man”
“He saw upon a bed the finest sight”
“I will have it so… I will have her with a sauce, Robert”
“Perrault’s Moral for the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”
“The Master Cat”
“The marquis gave his hand to the princess”
“Endpiece of The Master Cat: Butterflies”
“Perrault’s Moral for The Master Cat”
“Cinderilla”
“Away she drove, scarce able to contain herself for joy”
“Anyone but Cinderilla would have dressed their heads awry”
“She left behind one of her glass slippers, which the Prince took up most carefully”
“Endpiece: Couples in the Garden”
“Perrault’s Moral for Cinderilla”
“Another Moral for Cinderilla”
“Riquet of the Tuft”
“The Prince believed he had given her more wit than he had reserved for himself”
“Riquet with the Tuft appeared to her the finest Prince upon earth”
“Perrault’s Moral for Riquet of the Tuft”
“Little Thumb”
“Little Thumb was as good as his word”
“He brought them home by the very same way they came”
“Endpiece: Little Thumb Riding the Wave”
“Perrault’s Moral for Little Thumb”
“The Ridiculous Wishes”
“Jupiter appeared before him wielding his mighty thunderbolts”
“A long black pudding came winding toward her”
“Truth to tell, this new ornament did not set off her beauty”
“Endpiece: The looking glass”
“Perrault’s Moral for The Ridiculous Wishes”
“Donkey Skin”
“Another gown the colour of the moon”
“He thought the Princess was his Queen”
“Curiosity made him put his eye to the keyhole”
“Perrault’s Moral for Donkey Skin”
“Man upon knees before Woman”
Cole, Joanna. Best-Loved Folktales of the World. Illustrated by Jill Karla Schwarz. New York: Doubleday (Anchor Books), 1982.
[Introduction and 200 tales, including: Cinderella (France), Beauty and the Beast (France), Ashenputtel (Germany), The Frog Prince (Germany), Eros and Psyche (Ancient Greece), Molly Whuppie (England), East of the Sun and West of the Moon (Norway), The Baba Yaga (Russia), The Firebird, the Horse of Power, and the Princess Vasilissa (Russia), Prince Hedgehog (Russia), Salt (Russia), The Indian Cinderella (Canadian Indian), and The Magic Orange Tree (Haiti).]
Crane, Walker. Cinderella’s Picture Book. London: John Lane, 1897.
[See Miscellaneous Cinderellas. Crane follows Perrault’s glass slipper version.]
David, Alfred, and Mary Elizabeth. The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Other Fairy Tales. A New Selection with Introduction. A Signet Classic. New York: The New American Library of World Literature, 1964. Rpt. as The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Other Fairy Tales. Selected with an Introduction by Alfred David and Mary Elizabeth Meek. A Midland Book. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974.
[Includes Perrault’s “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty,” along with 26 other tales, several of which are related to Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast narratives, such as the Grimm brothers’ “The Goosegirl,” “Briar Rose,” and “Snow White”; Asbjörnsen and Moe’s “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”; Afanasiev’s “Vasilisa the Beautiful”; Madame Leprince de Beaumont’s “Beauty and the Beast”; Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid”; and Ruskin’s “The King and the Golden River.”]
Eisen, Armand, ed. Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1996. Originally published as The Classic Fairy Tale Treasury, 1991.
[Although the anthology does not include Cinderella among its fourteen tales, the frontspiece is a splendid full page color painting of Cinderella in the pumpkin coach on her way to the ball. The artist is not identified, though it appears to be by Ruth Sanderson, who also illustrated Samantha Easton’s Beauty and the Beast, with which the volume begins.]
England, Mary, ed. Our Favourite Nursery Tales. London: Frederick Warne & Co., Ltd, 1917.
[Gordon Robinson designed the cover, which shows Cinderella sitting on a stool pealing potatoes before the fire with a pumpkin beside her. Cinderella, in the book, is illustrated with ink drawings by Dudley S. Cowes, a headpiece and “Stay at home and do your work,” “She ran out in a great hurry,” and a tailpiece of the clock striking midnight to a mouse’s surprise.]
Garner, James Finn, ed. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales of Our Life and Times. New York: Macmillan, 1994.
[See Garner under Cinderella Revisions.]
Graham, Eleanor. Bedtime Stories. New York: Wonder Books, 1946.
Haviland, Virginia. Favorite Fairy Tales Told in England. Illustrated by Bettina. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1959.
[Includes “Molly Whuppie” (pp. 44-55) and “Cap o’ Rushes” (pp. 76-88); retold from Joseph Jacobs (1892).]
-----., The Fairy Tale Treasury. Illustrated by Raymond Briggs. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1972
[The illustrations are handsome and include Cinderella (pp. 138-145) and Molly Whuppie (pp. 152-157).]
Harbour, Jennie. My Book of Favourite Fairy Tales. Ed. Eric Vredenburg. Illustrated by Jennie Harbour. London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, 1921. The first American edition was My Favourite Fairy Tales. Ed. Capt. Edric Vredenburg. Illustrated by Jennie Harbour. London and New York: Tuck & McKay. ca. 1924. 4to, and included fifteen classic fairy tales with 12 color plates and a profusion of full and partial page black & white drawings in a 1920s Art Deco style. Most of the illustrations and ten of the tales are included in high quality reproduction in My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Jennie Harbour. New York: Derrydale Books, 1993.
Jacobs, Joseph. English Fairy Tales. First published London: David Nutt, 1890. More English Fairy Tales. First published 1894. Combined and published as English Fairy Tales in Everyman's Library Children's Classics. Illustrated by John Batten. London: David Campbell Publishers, 1993.
[English Fairy Tales includes "Cap O' Rushes," "Kate Crackernuts," and "Molly Whuppie"; More English Fairy Tales includes "Tattercoats," "Rushen Coatie," and "Catskin." See entries below for annotations of specific stories.]
-----. English Fairy Tales. Illustrated by John D. Batten. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.
[Reprint of the third edition: G. P. Putnam's Sons and David Hutt, 1898.]
Lang, Andrew, ed. The Blue Fairy Book. Illustrated by H. J. Ford and G. P. Jacomb Hood. New York: Dover Publications, 1965. First published by Longmans, Green & Co., in 1889; reprinted 1891.
[See “Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper” (pp. 64-71), translated from Perrault, but without Perrault’s moral, by Robert Samber (1729); and “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” (pp. 19-29), translated from the Norse by Mrs. Alfred Hunt. Lang’s Blue Fairy Book includes 37 tales in all. The Dover edition of Lang's Blue Fairy Book prints the 1891 edition complete, with all illustrations. See also Brian Alderson’s edition, illustrated by John Lawrence, Kestrel Books (Penguin), 1975.]
-----. The Green Fairy Book. Illustrated by H. J. Ford. New York: Dover Publications, 1965. First published by Longmans, Green & Co., 1892.
[Forty-two tales, including “The Dirty Shepherdess” (a variant combining “Like Meat Loves Salt” and “Donkey-Skin,” told from the French by M. Sébillot), and Grimms’ “Little One-eye, Little Two-eyes, and Little Three-eyes” and “Allerleirauh; or, the Many-furred Creature.”]
-----. The Pink Fairy Book. Illustrated by H. J. Ford. New York: Dover Publications, 1967. First published by Longmans, Green and Company, in 1897.
[Forty one tales, including “The Princess in the Chest” (pp. 57-72), a Danish tale translated by W. A. Craigie; “The King Who Would Have a Beautiful Wife” (pp. 162-166) and “Catherine and her Destiny” (pp. 167-173), both Sicilian tales collected by Laura Gonzenbach; and “The White Dove” (pp. 238-246), a Danish tale also translated by W. A. Craigie — all of which have Cinderella-like heroines. For annotations see Sicilian and Male Cinderellas.]
Lurie, Alison, ed. Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
[Includes John Ruskin, "The King of the Golden River" (1850); Sylvia Townsend Warner, "Bluebeard's Daughter" (1940); Donald Barthelme, "The Glass Mountain" (1970); Jay Williams, "Petronella" (1973); Angela Carter, "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon" (1979); Jeanne Dasy, "The Princess who Stood on her own Two Feet" (1982). Forty tales in all.]
MacDougall, James. Highland Fairy Legends. Ed. Alan Bruford. Cambridge: Derek Brewer/Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1978.
[Includes the male Cinderella tale, “The Blacklad MacCrimmon.”]
Mulherin, Jennifer, ed. Favourite Fairy Tales. London: Granada, 1982. “Cinderella,” pp. 60-71.
[Includes illustrations from several nineteenth-century editions in the Victoria and Albert Museum, including a Paris edition of Cendrillon (1850), Aunt Mavor’s Nursery Tales for Good Little People (1855), Popular Fairy Tales for the Young (1861), Walter Crane’s The Children’s Musical Cinderella (1879), and an H. Gerbault’s illustration to Les Contes de Perrault (1897). Also included in the anthology are Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding-Hood, Blue Beard, Puss in Boots, Toads and Diamonds, Ricky of the Tuft, and Little Thumb. The Introduction includes a life of Charles Perrault, Charles Samber’s first English translation in 1729, and a discussion of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century illustrators.]
100 Best Fairy Tales. Compiled by Lois Donaldson. Illustrated by Anne Anderson and Maurieta Wellman. Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company, 1937.
[The eight color plates are by Anderson, including one of a young Cinderella losing her slipper as she flees at midnight. Her hair is blonde with a long flowing braid behind. Besides Cinderella, the collection includes several other of the Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast analogues that are illustrated handsomely with ink drawings: Yellow Dwarf, Beauty and the Beast, Tom Thumb, The Ugly Duckling, Briar Rose or Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard, Snow-White and Rose-Red, The White Snake, Snow Drop and the Seven Dwarfs, The Red Shoes, Little One-eye, Two-eyes, and Three-Eyes, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Frog Prince, The Goose Girl, Madam Holl, and Puss-in-Boots.]
Opie, Iona, and Peter. The Classic Fairy Tales. London & New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.
[Includes Tuan Ch’eng-Shih’s version of Yeh-Shen from the T’ang dynasty (618-907 A.D.), thought by some to be the earliest known Cinderella story. But see The Tale of Rodopis. See Ai-Ling Louie’s adaptation, Yeh-Shen, under Asian Cinderellas.]
O’Shea, M. V., ed. The Tales of Mother Goose as First Collected by Perrault in 1697. Illustrated by D. J. Munro after drawings by Gustave Doré. Newly translated by Charles Welsh. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1903.
[Includes Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper; The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood; Little Thumb; The Master Cat, or Puss In Boots; Riquet of the Tuft; Blue Beard; The Fairy; and Little Red Riding-Hood. With Introduction and Note by Professor M. V. O’Shea.]
Popular Fairy Tales for the Young. London: Darton and Co., 1861.
Thompson, Stith. One Hundred Favorite Folktales. Drawings by Franz Altschuler. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.
[Thompson’s favorites do not include the Perrault’s Glass Slipper (it’s presumably too literary); but rather, as his folktale example of this most popular type, The Hearth-Cat (Portuguese Type 510A), and several other Cinderella-like narratives: East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon (Norwegian, Type 425), Katie Woodencloak (Norwegian Type 510B), One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes (German, Type 511), Faithful John (German Type 516), Tom Thumb (German Type 700) and The Princess in the Earth Cave (Swedish Type 870).]
Tudor, Tasha, editor and illustrator. The Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales. New York: Platt & Munk, 1961.
[Includes Sleeping Beauty (Grimm), Rumpelstiltskin (Grimm), Mr. Samson Cat (Russian tale), The Valiant Tailor (Grimm), The Emperor’s New Clothes (Andersen), Rapunzel (Grimm), The Flying Trunk (Andersen), Puss in Boots (Perrault), Thumbelina (Andersen), The Tinder Box (Andersen), Jack and the Beanstalk (English tale), Mr. Bun (Russian tale), The Lame Duck (Russian tale), Red Riding Hood (Grimm), Cinderella (Perrault). Each tale includes one full page illustration and a generous quantity of colorful border work. The tellings of the tales are straight forward.]
Washburne, Marion Foster. Old Fashioned Fairy Tales Retold from the Poetic Version of Tom Hood. Illustrated by Margaret Ely Webb. Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1909. Rpt. 1927.
[Cover illustration of Little Red Riding Hood, by Margaret Evans Price. The front endpaper of this beautiful book (green with red accents) shows a young fairy listening to an elderly one. The verse reads:
Long and long and long ago
When Grandmama was small
Her Grandma told her all these tales
She listened to them all
And now when Grandmama is old
As old as old can be
She knows these stories all by heart
And tells them now to me
The back endpapers (also green with red accents) shows the young fairy reading by the fire, while the verse reads:
And I I like these tales the best
Because they’re always new
I never tire of hearing them
And know them through & through
Some way I like the stories best
That never change a letter
New-fashioned tales are very well
Old-fashioned tales are better
The book includes Little-Red Riding-Hood, Puss In Boots, The Sleeping Beauty, and Hop-O-My Thumb.]
Zipes, Jack, editor and translator. Beauties, Beasts and Enchantment: Classic French Fairy Tales. New York: New American Library, 1989. Reissued as Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic French Fairy Tales. New York: Signet Classic, 1997.
[Includes ten tales by Charles Perrault, fifteen by Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, two by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, and one each by Marie-Jeanne L’Héritier, Catherine Bernard, Charlotte-Rose Caumont de La Force, Jean de Mailly, Henriette Julie de Murat, Jean-Paul Bignon, Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Philippe de Caylus, and Mlle de Lubert. This is an excellent teaching text, with brief introductions for each author and some woodblock illustrations. The first edition is superior to the reissue in that it includes Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast, which was dropped from the revision.]
-----, ed. The Great Fairy Tale Tradition From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm. A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.
[Set up topically according to 38 categories, the anthology includes a dozen or so Cinderella and Beauty of the Beast variants (both male and female).]
-----. Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture. New York: Viking Penguin, 1991.
[A comprehensive anthology of literary fairy tales written explicitly for adults. Includes Guillaume Apollinaire’s “Cinderella Continued, or the Rat and the Six Lizards” (1919) and Tanith Lee’s “When the Clock Strikes” (1983). See individual entries under Modern Fiction.]
-----. Victorian Fairy Tales: The Revolt of the Fairies and Elves. New York: Methuen, 1987. Rpt. New York and London: Routledge, 1991.
[Includes George Cruikshank’s “Cinderella and the Glass Slipper”; (pp. 37-57) and Anne Isabella Ritchie’s “Cinderella” (pp. 101-126). See individual entries under Modern Fiction.]
[See also The One-Handed Girl, under Miscellaneous Cinderellas.]
Abrahams, Roger D., ed. “Three Sisters.” In African Folktales. Ed. Roger D. Abrahams. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. Pp. 318-322.
[A Fipi tale in which two jealous sisters murder their more beautiful sister by pushing her into the river; a crocodile would marry her but rejects her as she becomes too thin. She returns to the living after speaking through the reeds to an old woman who then gathers the villagers at the river. Hearing the true story her husband spears the two sisters; the villagers beat their corpses, then throw them into the river. Also includes “The Orphan with the Cloak of Skin” (pp. 309-311): a Hausa male-Cinderella story, where the stepmother tries to destroy the orphan but only succeeds in killing her own son and herself, while the orphan becomes friends with the chief’s son and advances.]
Bascom, William. “The Maiden, the Frog & the Chief’s Son.” In “Cinderella in Africa.” Journal of the Folklore Institute, 9 (1972), 54-70. Rpt. in Dundes, Cinderella: A Casebook (pp. 151-156).
[A man has two wives, each with a daughter. The wife he dislikes dies, and her daughter is raised by the other. She makes her gather wood and eat scrapings with the frogs in the borrow pit. She is not permitted to go to the festival but must work. A frog asks her what’s wrong and offers to help. He swallows her, then vomits her up. She comes out crooked, so he does it again. Then he vomits up clothes, jewelry, and a silver and gold shoe, telling her to enjoy the dance but to leave the gold shoe behind. She goes, the chief’s son is wowed, she returns as instructed, is swallowed again and made a sorry sight as before. The wife and her daughter return and drive the disliked child out of the house. She goes to her elder brother’s compound. The chief’s son wants to marry the girl with the silver and golden shoes and searches for her. When they come to her brother’s compound the gold shoe runs to meet her. The other mother tries to claim the girl as her daughter’s slave. But the chief’s son takes her with him, and they spend the night together. The frogs gather and bring a great dowry–a silver bed, a brass one, a copper one, and an iron one, plus woollen blankets, rugs, and cola-nuts and cowrie shells for the chief’s other wives and concubines. Her stepmother visits and takes her away, substituting her own daughter after inquiring about life in the compound. But the chief’s new wife tricks her stepsister into behaving badly, so the chief and his women know that the switch has been made. They murder the substitute and find the true wife lying in the fireplace of the stepmother’s home. She returns to the chief’s son and the frogs come too and live in a well that is dig next to her hut.]
Catskinella. In Virginia Hamilton, Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales. Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 1995. Pp. 22-27.
[A beautiful girl named Ella does not want to marry a woodsman. She tries to reject him by asking for an impossible gift, a talking mirror, which he promptly supplies. With the advice of her godmother, Mattie, she next tells her father to make a dress of catskin and asks the woodsman for a ring. She escapes through the window in her catskin dress while the talking mirror makes it seem as though she is still in her room. She flees to the king’s castle where the prince notices her beautiful face. He falls sick with love. She bakes him a cake with her ring inside. The next day, the king summons all the unmarried women of the kingdom to try on the ring. It fits only Catskinella’s finger. Her cat skin suddenly changes into a diamond dress, and she marries the prince.]
Collins, Sheila Hébert. Cendrillon: A Cajun Cinderella. Illustrated by Patrick Soper. French editing by Barbara H. Hébert. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Co., 1998.
[A widower in New Orleans loves his très belle daughter and gives her everything she wants. She yearns for a mother, so the man remarries a woman with two daughters. The new belle-mère favors her own daughters, and the petite fille is pushed aside to the fireplace. The mean stepsisters rename her Cendrillon. The father dies, the estate decays, and the widow is forced to sell the estate and buy a shabby shotgun house across the river. Cendrillon lives in the dirty attic in rags. But she makes friends with the pigeons, an alligator, a duck, a crab, a seagull, a pelican, and the crawfish. Across the river lives Alphonse Thibeaux and his son Ovey. The boy is named king of Carnival, and at Mardi Gras he invites every unmarried girl in New Orleans so that he may choose a bride. The stepdaughters go, but Cendrillon must stay home. Her animal friends make her a beautiful party dress. Cendrillon runs to catch up with the carriage, but her stepsisters tear her dress to shreds - “My beads! My ribbon! My bows.” La chére petite fille runs to the levee in tears. A beautiful lady appears, turns a cushaw into a carriage, six crawfish into red horses, the pigeon into a footman, and a crab into a fat coachman. Then, voilà, with a touch of her wand, la marraine dresses Cendrillon in a Mardi Gras gown with tiny mother-of-pearl souliers (slippers). La marraine tells Cendrillon to return by midnight, then wishes her bonne chance. The carnival king dances with no one but Cendrillon. But at midnight she flees, losing her slipper on the dock as she jumps for the ferry. Back in her attic she places the remaining slipper under her moss pillow. Ovey seeks the mademoiselle whose foot fits the slipper. Les belles-soeurs try on the slipper, but their gros feet don’t fit. Cendrillon asks if she might try? “Mais oui,” says the man, and the slipper fits. “Mon Dieu!” scream les belles-soeurs, but Cendrillon forgives them. Ovey Thibeaux awaits her. “Kee yah!” (Wow!) all exclaim when they see her. Cendrillon and her Rex are married and live in a mansion next to the Mississippi. The book concludes with a recipe for Red Beans and Rice - Çe c’est bon!.]
Chinye: a West African Folk Tale. Retold by Obi Onyefulu. Illustrated by Evie Safarewicz. New York: Viking: The Penguin Group, 1994.
[An evil stepmother favors her daughter Adanma but sends Chinye into the forest at night to fetch water. She is helped by an antelope and hyena, then an old woman who instructs her on how to get a small, quiet but magical gourd. Next day she breaks open the gourd and is given great wealth. The stepmother sends Adanma into the forest, hoping for the same result. But Adanma does not follow the old woman’s advice and chooses the largest gourd that noisily calls out “Take me!” But when she and her mother break it open a great whirlwind sprang up and destroyed their pots, pans, clothes, and cowrie shells. They lost everything. Too proud to ask Chinye for help they depart for another village. Chinye uses her wealth to help the people of her village and they live happily ever after.]
Egyptian Cinderella. By Shirley Climo. Illustrated by Ruth Heller. New York: Crowell, 1989.
[Based on Strabo’s “historical” account. The maiden Rhodopis is stolen from her home in Greece by pirates who sell her as a slave in Egypt. Although her master is kind the other servant girls scorn her and force her to do menial tasks. She finds friends with the birds and animals. Her master sees her beauty as she dances barefoot and gives her a pair of slippers. The servants are jealous and scorn her further. They are invited to Memphis to see the Pharaoh, but Rhodopis must stay behind to weed the garden and grind the grain. As she polishes her shoes a great falcon, symbol of the god Horus, swoops down, takes one of her slippers, and drops it in the lap of Pharaoh. He searches for the owner. None fit except Rhodopis. The servants rage that she is a slave and not even Egyptian. But Pharaoh says she is most Egyptian of all and weds her. See also Green and Reiff. As an analogue to Rhodopis being sold into slavery by pirates, see The Tale of Apollonius under Cinderella Sources and Analogues: The Ancients.]
Green, Roger Lancelyn. Tales of Ancient Egypt. Illustrated by Heather Copley. London: Bodley Head Btd., 1967. Rpt. Puffin Books, 1970, 1995.
[Includes “Girl with the Red Rose Slippers,” a version of the story found in Strabo's Egyptian collection of mythologies.]
Lawrence, Jacob. Harriet and the Promised Land. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.
[The story of Harriet Tubman’s childhood in slavery, her escape, and her helping of others to make the journey North. In rhyme. Uses Cinderella typology in thoughtful ways. See entry under Miscellaneous Cinderellas for synopsis.]
The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales. Collected by Diane Wolkstein. Drawings by Elsa Henriquez. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978; rpt. Schocken Books, 1980, pp 13-21.
[In this Haitian tale a girl’s mother dies when she is born, and the father remarries a cruel woman who gives the girl little to eat. The girl consumes three oranges from the table, and the woman drives her from the house. She flees through the woods to her mother’s grave where she prays and weeps herself to sleep. In the morning an orange pit drops from her skirt and springs to life. The girl sings to the tree and nourishes it, the song being repeated at each stage of the tree’s growth. The tree responds to the girl’s wishes. She returns home laden with oranges which the stepmother devours, demanding that the girl show her where she got them. When the woman climbs into the tree the girl wishes the tree were of great height. The stepmother eats all the tree’s fruit and demands that she be brought down. The girl wishes the tree to explode, which it does, killing the stepmother. She then plants another seed, enjoys her new tree, and sells its sweet fruit at market. The story-teller asks her for a free one, but she replies, “After all I’ve been through!” and gives the teller a kick in the pants. But that’s how she got the story.
[One reason for the popularity of this tale in Haiti is linked to rural practices of childbearing. Wolkstein reports: “When a child is born in the countryside, the umbilical cord may be saved and dried and planted in the earth, with a pit from a fruit tree placed on top of the cord. The tree that grows then belongs to the child. And when the tree gives fruit in five or six years, that fruit is considered the property of the child, who can barter or sell it. (Young children in Haiti very quickly become economically active.) Trees in Haiti are thus thought to protect children and are sometimes referred to as the guardian angel of the child. However, if the tree should die or grow in a deformed manner, that would be considered an evil omen for the child who owned the tree” (p. 14). In the Introduction to the volume (pp. 2-12) Wolkstein describes story-telling practices where the would-be teller calls out “Cric?” and the audience, if it wishes to hear the story, responds “Crack.” Tellers vie for a hearty endorsement, which constitutes a contract of support for the telling. “The Magic Orange Tree” includes a song with progressive verses that is sung, presumably by everyone. Wolkstein reports that she has heard groups “joyously sing the chorus ten and twenty times.”]
The Magic Orange Tree. In Joanna Cole, Best-Loved Folktales of the World. New York: Doubleday, 1982. Pp. 727-730.
[The story is essentially the same as Wolkstein’s, above.]
“The Maiden, the Frog, and the Chief’s Son.” Trans. Neil Skinner. In William Bascom, “Cinderella in Africa,” Journal of the Folklore Institute, 9 (1972), 54-70; rpt in Dundes, Cinderella: A Casebook. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982. Pp. 151-156.
[Skinner translated the story from Frank Edgar’s Litafi Na Tatsuiyoyi Na Hausa. Litafi Na Farako vol. 2 (Belfast, 1911). Bascom cites numerous analogues to the story. A disliked daughter is pushed out of the house to live on pot scrapings with frogs, whom she befriends. Through the assistance of an old frog who swallows her and vomits her up again (several analogues here) she becomes the prince’s favorite wife (though there are many twists and turns along the way, including a dance and slipper test, and mutilation). Once secure, she has a new well dug close to her hut for the frog. See also Frank Edgar, Hausa Tales and Traditions, trans. Neil Skinner (New York: Africana Publishing Corp., 1973).]
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale (Zimbabwe). Told by John Steptoe. Illustrated by the author. London: William Morrow & Co., 1987.
[A South African Cinderella tale that draws upon the story of the wise serpent who transforms into the king. Mufaro’s pretty but deceitful daughter goes first to meet the prince, scorning the poor and unfortunate along the way. Instead of a prince, she encounters a serpent, who frightens her away. The good daughter assists the unfortunate on the way to the palace, recognizes the good serpent who had been her friend, and participates in the serpent’s transformation (cf. Beauty and the Beast). Steptoe is a good illustrator as well as narrator.]
A Spanish edition of Steptoe’s book has been issued as: John Steptoe. Las bellas hijas de Mufaro: Cuento Popular Africano. Translated by Clarita Kohen. A Reading Rainbow Book. New York: Lathrop, Lee & Shepard, 1997.
Nomi and the Magic Fish: A Story from Africa. Told by Phumla M’bane. Illustrated by Carole Bayard. New York: Doubleday, 1972.
[This Fingo Zulu story was recorded in English by Phumla M’bane, age 15, in 1969. Sierra includes the tale in her Cinderella anthology, pp. 111-113. (See Modern Collections) When Nomi’s mother died her father married a woman with a daughter called Nomsa. Nomi was tall and beautiful, Nomsa short and ugly. The stepmother gives Nomi little food and makes her herd cattle on the veld. Her dog is starving too. One day she comes upon a pond with a fish that provides her and her dog with food. They grow fat and no longer eat the scraps the stepmother leaves for them. Nomi won’t tell the source of their meals, but after a beating the dog does. The stepmother feigns illness, saying she must eat fish to get well. Nomi warns the fish, but it says not to worry. Only save its bones and secretly throw them in the chief’s garden. The father catches the fish and cooks it. The woman eats it and makes Nomi dispose of the bones. She hides them and at night casts them into the chief’s garden. The chief sees them and orders his men to bring them to him. They slip through the fingers of all who try to pick them up. The chief tries himself but is unable to pick them up. Then he says he will marry the one who can pick them up. All women try but fail. Then Nomi is brought from the veld. She picks the bones up and gives them to the chief, her dog barking behind her. A great feast is prepared and the wedding takes place. Nomsa and her mother hide in the forest.]
Reiff, Tana. “Rhodopis and the Golden Shoes.” In Love Stories. Timeless Tales Series. New Readers Press, 1994.
[Based on Strabo. See Egyptian Cinderella for summary.]
San Souci, Robert D. Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella. New York: Simon Schuster, 1998.
[See Perrault for detailed description.]
Sierra, Judy. The Gift of the Crocodile: A Cinderella Story. Illustrated by Reynold Ruffins. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2000.
[Damura lived in the Spice Islands. A widow gives her a doll, then marries her father, bringing with her a daughter of her own. Damura is forced to do all the chores and sleep on the floor amidst the cold ashes of the hearth. One day while washing clothes in the river she meets a crocodile whom she calls grandmother. The crocodile is pleased. Damura loses her sarong in the river and the crocodile fetches it while Damura looks after the baby crocodile, who stinks, but Damura says she smells like a nutmeg tree. The crocodile brings back a sarong made of silver that is much finer than the lost one. The stepsister is jealous and tries to get a fine sarong by the same means. She says the baby crocodile smells like garbage. When the crocodile brings a beautiful sarong from the river it turns to garbage when the girl touches it. She tries to take it off, but it sticks like glue for a year. Rumor has it that the prince will marry. Damura would like to go to the party wearing the silver sarong. But she is forced to stay home while her “sister” wears the dress. The crocodile produces a dress of gold with slippers to match, but tells Damura that she must leave the party when the first rooster crows and return the gown and shoes to the crocodile. A shining carriage takes her to the palace. The prince wishes she would be his bride. But when the cock crows she flees, losing a slipper. She returns the remaining clothes to the crocodile with an apology. The crocodile says not to worry - the slipper will make her a princess. And so it happens. The slipper fits only Damura, and she is to go to the palace. The sister asks to go too. In the middle of the river the stepmother and daughter push Damura overboard, and she is swallowed by a crocodile. The stepsister hopes to marry the prince in her place. But upon learning of the disaster the prince goes to the river and calls upon grandmother crocodile and tells her the story. The grandmother calls all the other crocodiles and makes the guilty one spit up Damura. She licks the girl’s face clean and brings her back to life, ordering the crocodiles to eat the stepmother or stepsister at once, should they see them. The two overhear and flee, never to be seen again. Damura and the prince raise their children in the shade of the clove and nutmeg trees. This tale was first collected around 1900 by G. J. Ellen, a missionary, and was published in 1916 in Woordenlijst van het Pagoe op Noord-Halmahera.]
Sukey and the Mermaid. Told by Robert D. San Souci. Illustrated by Brian Pickney. New York: Four Winds Press, 1992.
[Based on a fragment recorded in Elsie Clews Parsons’s Folk-Lore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina (American Folk-Lore Society, 1923), with elements from a West African tale of a young girl’s encounter with a female water-spirit to provide missing elements. Various clues in the South Carolina story point to Africa as the likely source for the original story. Sukey lives with her ma and step-pa, who makes her work hard hoeing the garden and doing mean chores. Sukey sneaks away to the sea where a brown-skinned mermaid named Mama Jo invites her to swim. When Sukey realizes how late it is she worries about going home, but Mama Jo gives her a gold coin. She gives it to her ma and step-pa who sends her back next day to find more. Ma spies on her and step-pa tries to catch Mama Jo in a net, hoping to sell her. The mermaid disappears and does not answer Sukey’s call. But she does appear in her dreams and invites her into the sea. Sukey goes to the bottom of the ocean, her new home. Sukey wishes to go home but Mama Jo says no, unless Sukey can stump her with a riddle, which she does: “There’s something that walks all day and when night come, she go under the bed and rest. What’s that?” Mama Jo is stumped. “That’s a shoe,” says Sukey, who’d picked the riddle because the mermaid had no feet. Mama Jo lets her return with a bag of gold and an admonition to marry only Dembo. Dembo comes visiting. The night before the wedding Step-pa slays Dembo and steals the treasure. Sukey flees to Mama Jo who gives her a seed pearl to touch Dembo’s lips with, her last act of kindness for Sukey. Sukey touches his lips as he lies in the coffin. Dembo comes back to life and identifies Mr. Jones, the step-pa, as his assailant. Jones flees by boat but is destroyed at sea. Sukey’s ma allows as how Mr. Jones wasn’t much but he was all she had in this world. Sukey assures her ma that she has “us” and that they will all get along just fine now. After the wedding the couple sits by the sea. Sukey wriggles her toes deep in the sand and finds the lost treasure bag. At sea they catch a glimpse of sunlight on green scales. Sukey blows a kiss to sea and hears sweet laughter in return.]
The Talking Eggs. Told by Robert D. San Souci. Pictures by Jerry Pickney. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1989. Rpt. Ballantine Books, 1992.
[An adaptation of a Creole folktale originally collected by Alcee Fortier. Analogues in Cajun and Gullah. Blanche does all the work at home for her mother and lazy sister. While fetching a bucket of water she meets an old woman who’s thirsty. The woman takes her to her house deep in the woods where Blanche keeps her promise not to laugh at the many strange things. She is given talking eggs which turn into riches when tossed over her shoulder. A carriage appears and carries her home. Mother and sister Rose are jealous and seek out the lady. Rose laughs at the strangeness, chooses the gilded talking eggs instead of the plain (despite their protest), which turn into wolves, yellow jackets, whip snakes, and toads that pursue them all the way home. Blanche has gone to the city to live like a grand lady, but Rose and mother can never again find the old woman or the strange place.]A Spanish edition of San Souci’s book has been issued as: Los Huevos Parlantes: Cuento popular del sur de los Estados Unidos. Illustrations by Jerry Pinkney. Translation by Osvaldo Blanco. Dial Books for Young Readers. New York: Penguin Ediciones, 1996. [A Caldecott Honor Book and recipient of the Coretta King Award for Peace, Non-Violent Social Change, and Brotherhood.]
For another telling of this story see “Good Blanche, Bad Rose, and the Talking Eggs.” In Virginia Hamilton, Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales. Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 1995. Pp. 28-32.
Thomas, Joyce Carol. When the Nightingale Sings. New York: Harper-Collins, 1992.
[Three sisters near south Sweet Earth Swamp live at odds with each other. Letty, called Queen Mother Rhythm, is the soloist in the Gospel Choir. Melissa, married to Sweet Jimmy, has left the community and lives in poverty. Her first two children have been stillborn. Sister Ruby lives apart in the swamp, filled with envy as she raises her twin daughters Arlita and Carita. At the outset of the story an old Swamp Woman approaches the Gospel Choir asking for Letty to tell her that her sister Melissa is dying in the swamp, having just given birth to a daughter. The Letty rushes to her sister’s side to witness her death. But after the turmoil of the scene is over the newborn child is discovered missing, and they think Swamp Woman must have stolen her. Years later the Gospel Choir is in search of a replacement for Queen Mother Rhythm, who is becoming elderly. They search everywhere for a suitable nightingale to take her seat. Melissa’s daughter was abducted by Aunt Ruby, not Swamp Woman, and is being raised as a servant to her twins. They call her Marigold. She has a lovely singing voice, writes songs, loves books, especially Shakespeare, Zora Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf, Phillis Wheatley, and Jean Toomer. She gives voice lessons to Arlita and Carita, but to little advantage: crows sound like crows. Anthony, the young male soloist in the Gospel Choir, searches the region diligently for a new soprano soloist. He hears Marigold singing in the swamp and is enchanted. But he only finds the twins. Queen Mother Rhythm joins in the search. She too hears the nightingale sing, but the song is drowned out by a hurricane that strikes, and they fear the girl with the wondrous voice has been lost in the storm. The storm did indeed have its effect: Marigold is nearly drowned in quicksand, and though she escapes she loses her book in which she has been writing down all her songs. But the storm unearths her mother's silver box with four letters to her sister Letty which never got mailed but which tell of her last days with Sweet Jimmy and her pregnancy. Marigold finds the box but does not know what the letters mean. Meanwhile the Gospel Choir has a festival in which they hope to find a nightingale who can take Queen Mother Rhythm’s place. No voices are satisfactory. The twins sing last and are mocked by the crowd. Then Ruby tells Marigold to help out, from behind the curtain. Hers is the voice they heard in the swamp and that they have been seeking. She is discovered, learns that Anthony loves her, meets her kinfolk, is reconciled with Ruby who is most apologetic. The Gospel Choir at last has its new Queen Mother Rhythm.]
Wolkstein, Dianne. See The Magic Orange Tree, above.
-----. The Gospel Cinderella. Illustrated by David Diaz. New York: Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2004.
[An illustrated children's book based on Carol Thomas'novel. The Queen Mother Rhythm, leader of the Great Gospel Choir, lives in a swamp with her beautiful baby daughter. A hurricane strikes carrying the sleeping baby in her basket down the river where she is found by Crooked Foster Mother, who wants a servant to work in the kitchen and look after her two daughters Hennie and Minnie. The baby makes a lovely cooing sound, but she is dirty as a cinder pile, so she is called Cinderella. Cinderella never complains but sings with the birds while she works. The Queen Mother Rhythm, having looked in vain for her child, keeps the choir going but then decides to retire. The piano-playing Pince of Music sends out runners for an audition to replace Queen Mother Rhythm. Cinderella tries to teach Hennie and Minnie to sing, but they sound awful. Crooked Foster Mother gets mad and chases Cinderella into the chicken coup, then calls her back to make fancy clothes for the girls. The unlovely trio set out for the audition leaving Cinderella. She hears a beautyiful voice coming from the swamp, goes past hungry crocodiles and serpents, passes over quick sand, collecting swamp vines which she braids into a lovely belt. She follows the voice to the Great Gospel Convention.The choir sings its best, but no voice is right for Queen Mother Rhythm. When the stepsisters sing everyone plugs their ears. Then Cinderella begins singing from way in back of the audience. The Prince of Music sees her and the crowd goes crazy, clapping and cheering. But before the Crooked Foster Mother and the twins can recognize her, she flees back across the swamp to the ramshackle cottage. The Prince sends out his runners to find her. They come to Crooked Foster Mother and her two no-singing daughters. The sing so bad the Royal Runners' ears ache. But just as the Prince is leaving he hears humming near the henhouse, a voice so beautiful it makes everything around her sparkle. They take her to Queen Mother Rhythm, who recognizes her. Every sorrow is wiped away, and together the three lead the Great Gospel Choir.]
Adams, Edward, ed. Korean Cinderella. Illustrated by Dong Ho Choi. Seoul: Seoul International Publishing House, 1982.
[The story of Kongjee and Patjee, abbreviated to conclude with the marriage of Kongjee and the governor. Text in Korean and English. See Tae Hung Ha below for a precise of the longer version.]
Bain, R. Nesbet. “The Cinder-Youth.” In Turkish Fairy Tales and Folktales. London: A. H. Buller, 1901. Pp. 84-96.
Carpenter, Frances. “A Korean Cinderella.” In Tales of a Korean Grandmother. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society, 1973. Pp. 119-124.
Climo, Shirley. The Korean Cinderella. Illustrated by Ruth Heller. New York: Harper-Collins, 1993.
[After her mother’s death, Pear Blossom’s father marries Omoni (mother), who has a daughter named Peony. Pear Blossom is relegated to the hearth with the ashes and crickets and is forced to do the cooking and cleaning until midnight. Peony calls her Piglet. Obliged to carry water in a pail with a hole in it she gets help from a large frog who presses his body across the hole; Peony spills the water and makes Pear Blossom crawl in the puddle to lick it up. Then she is forced to collect a sack of rice scattered in the courtyard and to remove the husks. Sparrows help her and the rice is polished and bagged. Peony mocks her for cheating but the sparrows attack her. Peony and her mother go to the festival but Pear Blossom must stay home and weed the rice paddies. A huge black ox appears who eats all the weeds and gives food to Pear Blossom. She hastens down the road by the stream but stops to remove a stone from her sandal. The magistrate comes by, and she flees losing her sandal in the stream. The magistrate fetches it and would marry its owner. At the festival Pear Blossom eats from her basket and watches the entertainments. Her stepsister and Omoni find her and ridicule her. The magistrate seeks the woman missing a sandal. Peony, thinking they want Pear Blossom for stealing, singles her out. When they learn she’s to be his bride, the mother tries to push forward Peony, who has two shoes. Peony runs to the field to seek the black ox, but the ox flees. The wedding takes place and the sparrows and the great frog say “ewha,” which means Pear Blossom. The author’s note points out that the frog, sparrows, and black ox are tokgabis, who, in Korean folk literature are sometimes like goblins, but, to those they favor, rather like fairy godmothers. Here they perhaps are the spirit of Pear Blossom’s own mother. Heller has been meticulous in coordinating the iconography of her illustrations with traditional Korean motifs. Michael Shapiro, New York Times Book Review, Oct. 31, 1993, p. 26, notes the skillful translation of traditional Korean cultural conflicts between bitterness and love in Climo’s rendition and calls it “an enduring parable.”]
-----. Persian Cinderella. Art by Robert Florczak. New York: Harper-Collins, 1999.
[Settareh received her name from the star on her left cheek, which she was born with. Her mother died shortly after her birth and she was raised with a stepmother, two stepsisters, three aunts, and four female cousins in the women’s part of the house. The stepfamily ignores her and she is raised in poverty, surviving on old melon rinds and cast off clothes. But she grows into a beauty, which only adds to her misery. Her father visits, the women’s quarters, announcing Prince Mehdrdad’s New Year’s feast. He gives each of the women a gold coin to buy their gowns for the party. He pats Settareh’s hand, telling her to choose wisely. At the bazaar, Settareh gives money to an old woman in need and buys only a small blue jug for herself. The others buy fine clothes. When it comes time to go to the festival, the others dress well and leave Settareh behind. She admires the jug and wishes it were filled with jasmine. The vessel jiggles, becomes warm, and soon is brimming with white flowers. There is a pari inside. So she wishes for food, then clothing, then goes to the festival. She finds a handsome youth admiring her and joins the women. None recognize her. She returns home early so that she will not be embarrassed before the other women of the family. On the way she loses one of her diamond anklets in a stream. The anklet is given to the prince who, through his mother, seeks the owner. It fits none but Settareh, who appears in her splendor. She is amazed, when viewing her husband to be in a mirror, that he is the youth she had seen at the festival. He sees her star and knows that they were destined for each other. She is wedded to the prince but the sisters get the jug and wish that Settareh be destroyed. The jug jiggles so violently that they drop it and it breaks into fragments. They find six jeweled hairpins inside which they, pretending to comb Settareh’s hair, stick into her head. She vanishes in the form of a dove. The other women attempt to convince the prince to choose one of them. But he grieves for his lost bride, consoled only by a dove. He strokes the dove and feels the pins in its skull, pulls them out, and reclaims his wife. The stepsisters are so filled with rage that their hearts burst. But the Persian Cinderella and her prince enjoy happiness. The story is based on one of the Arabian Nights. In the author’s note Climo indicates that Settareh is a popular name for girls, while Mehrdad means “one who shows compassion.”]
Coburn, Jewell Reinhart. Angkat: The Cambodian Cinderella. Illustrated by Eddie Flotte. Auburn, CA: Shen’s Books, 1998.
[Coburn first found “Angkat” - child of ashes - in an essay entitled “Le Conte de Cendrillo ches Les Cham” written by Adhemard Leclérc, a French folklorist who lived in Cambodia in the late 1800s. With the help and support of Mr. Riem Men, a Cambodian educator, this tale of Cinderella is adapted for the first time into the English language. In this story Angkat upholds the traditional Khmer values of duty, loyalty, and perseverance which are also prevalent in Cinderella’s European versions” - Author’s Note.[A fisherman remarries. His daughter Angkat wishes to be Number One daughter, but the stepmother prefers her own daughter, Kantok. The honor will go to the one who brings home the most fish. Angkat catches three while the lazy Kantok plays around. But while Angkat sleeps Kantok steals the two larger fish and claims the prize. Angkat lets the remaining small fish go. Later the fish speaks to Angkat, who feeds it rice. Kantok catches the fish and eats it. The Spirit of Virtue tells Angkat what has happened and directs her to the fishbones hidden under a mat. She finds the bones and they turn into slippers. A bird seizes one of them and flies away, dropping it in the hands of the prince. He seeks its owner as his bride. Kantok tries to fit the slipper but fails. To keep Angkat from attending the feast the stepmother casts rice in a field and orders Angkat to pick it up. Chickens come to her rescue and gather the rice, so she goes to the feast despite the hardship. The slipper fits, and she is married to the prince. The jealous stepmother writes a letter telling of the fisherman’s illness. Angkat returns home to attend her father. She is ordered to make soup for him. As she does so the stepmother turns the stone cauldron over, crushing Angkat to death. The prince takes Kantok as a substitute bride, but continues to grieve. A banana tree grows where Angkat died. The father cuts it down, fearing evil spirits, but the stump immediately multiplies into a grove of bamboo. The prince, in grief, enters the grove where he senses the spirit of his wife. He has the grove cut down and born to the palace. The Spirit of Virtue appears before him explaining what has happened. He prays that Angkat be restored, and it is done. Kantok sees Angkat returned to life and flees in terror, pursued by cats, dogs, and birds. The prince becomes king, and he and Angkat rule in prosperity and peace over Cambodia for many years.]
Danandjaja, James. “Andé-Andé Lumut” (Indonesia). In “A Javanese Cinderella Tale and Its Pedagogical Value.” Majalah Ilmu-Ilmu Sastra Indonesia, 6, no. 2 (1976), 15-29. Rpt. in Dundes, Cinderella: A Casebook (pp. 170-174).
[The youngest of three daughters is given little food and much work. A stork helps her with the washing. All are amazed at the quality of the work. The prince Andé-Andé Lumut would marry. Many apply for the position but he rejects them all. The two older girls dress up to make their offer. They are unable to cross a river without the help of a large crab who will transport them for a kiss. They comply, but the prince then rejects them for being already “used.” The stork advises Kleting Kuning, the youngest daughter, to apply and gives her a large magic coconut-palm leaf. Her mother tells her to stay home and take care of her, but the Kleting Kuning insists that she will go. The mother tells her not to wash or change her ragged clothes. She obeys. When she comes to the river the crab tries to make his bargain, but she dries up the river with her palm leaf and crosses. The crab pleads for forgiveness, and she returns the water to the river. At the palace she is scorned for looking like a beggar. But the prince says she is the one he has been expecting. She is washed, dressed, and becomes beautiful as a fairy. The wedding takes place, and they live as harmoniously as hermit crabs.]
de la Paz, Myrna J. Abadeha. The Philippine Cinderella. Los Angeles: Pazific Queen Communications, 1991.
[Colorful retelling of Tagalog “Maria,” with illustrations by the author. With the death of Abadeha’s mother, Abak her father marries a woman with three daughters. The stepmother makes a slave of Abadeha, beats her, and starves her. She gives her a black and a white handkerchief and tells her to wash them until they reverse colors. Abadeha goes weeping to a stream where the Spirit of the Forest appears. With the help of a magic dance the task is accomplished. The stepmother is astonished. She gives Abadeha another task harvesting, drying, pounding, and winnowing rice, which must then be cooked in a clay pot. While Abadeha is cooking some of the rice, a pig gobbles up the green rice that is drying in the sun and tears the mat to tatters. The stepmother beats her for her failure and tells her to reweave the mat. Abadeha goes again to the riverbank where the Spirit of the Forest accomplishes the task, invites her to her home, and gives her a beautiful chicken. The annoyed stepmother kills the chicken and cooks it. Abadeha takes the chicken feet to the Spirit of the Forest who tells her to plant them on her mothers’ grave. She does and after her prayers rain falls, an enchanted tree grows on the grave. It yields jewelry and a golden gown. Abadeha keeps such matters secret. The Prince passes by the tree and sees a beautiful chicken of many colors in it. He takes a ring from the tree and returns home. His finger swells, causing him great pain. In his delirium the rooster appears and gives him an orchid that turns into a beautiful maiden. He tells his dream and vows to marry the woman who can remove the ring. The stepsisters try but fail. Against objections Abadeha tries and removes the ring. The island rejoices and the wedding transpires.]
-----. Abadeha: The Philippine Cinderella. Illustrated by Youshan Tang. Auburn, CA: Shen Books, 2001.
[Essentially the same story as the earlier version by de la Paz, though here the stepmother has only two daughters. The stepmother repeatedly threatens to beat the child and break her bones, though she does not in fact beat her. At the end, the stepmother and two daughters are banished to the chicken yard where they spend the rest of their lives.]
Eberhard, Wolfram, ed. “Cinderella.” In Folktales of China. Forward by Richard M. Dorson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1965. Pp. 156-161.
[There were two women, Beauty (the elder, whose mother had died) and stepsister Pock Face (the younger who was spoiled and mean). After her death Beauty’s mother was turned into a cow and lived in the garden where Beauty tended her. Stepmother and Pock Face go to the theater leaving Beauty to straighten the hemp. The cow swallows it all and spits it out straightened. But stepmother still refuses to let Beauty attend the theater and makes her separate sesame seeds from beans. This she accomplishes by using her fan. Stepmother is outraged at her success and inquires how she managed. She admits having help from the cow. Stepmother kills the cow and eats it. Beauty places the bones in an earthen pot and hides them in her room. Still stepmother refuses to take her to the theater and in a rage Beauty smashes up her room, including the earthen pot. Instantly there is a loud crackling sound and a white horse, a new dress, and a pair of embroidered shoes appear. Beauty dresses, jumps on the horse, and rides out the gate. One of her shoes falls off. She asks a fishmonger to pick it up. He says he will do it only if she marry him. She declines. A clerk from the rice shop comes by. He will pick it up for marriage. Again she declines. The same happens with an oil merchant. Then a handsome scholar comes by. She agrees to marriage if he pick the shoe up and so it is done. Three days later she pays respects to her parents. The stepmother and Pock Face change their manner and seem kind. She spends a couple of days with them but they shove her into a well and she drowns. Ten days later the scholar wonders why his wife does not return. He is told she has had smallpox. Two months later Pock Face goes to him as his wife, insisting the smallpox caused the deformity. Beauty is transformed into a sparrow and goes to Pock Face as she combs her hair and mocks her. The scholar hears the conversation and keeps the sparrow in a golden cage. But Pock Face kills the sparrow and throws it in the garden. A bamboo shoot springs up. Pock Face eats the bamboos shoots and gets blisters on her tongue, though they taste excellent to the scholar. Suspicious Pock Face cuts down the bamboo tree and has a bed made of it. The bed pricks her with innumerable needles, though the scholar finds it comfortable. An old woman picks the bed up when Pock Face discards it. When the hag comes home she finds food prepared. She eats but wonders how the food got there. She spies and finds that a dark shadow prepares it. The shadow explains the disasters of her life and asks the old woman for a rice pot for a head, a stick for hands, a dish cloth for entrails, and firehooks for feet so that she can assume her former shape. The old woman complies and Beauty reappears. She gives the old woman an embroidered bag to take to the scholar. He recognises it as Beauty’s and comes for her. When he brings Beauty home Pock Face is amazed. She would have tests to see who the real wife is. First they will walk on eggs. The one who breaks any loses. Beauty walks over them lightly; Pock Face smashes them. But Pock Face demands a second test–jumping into a cauldron of boiling oil, thinking Beauty will go first and be destroyed. Beauty jumps in without harm, but Pock Face is cooked. They send her flesh to her mother, who thinks it is carp. But when she sees the charred bones of her daughter she screams and drops dead.]
The Golden Slipper: A Vietnamese Legend. Retold by Darrell Lum. Illustrated by Makiko Nagano. Troll Associates, 1994.
[Tam’s mother dies and her father marries a woman with a daughter named Cam. Tam is much abused. The stepmother sends the two girls to collect prawns. Cam idles the day away, but Tam collects a basket full. Cam asks Tam to bring her a lotus flower. As Tam goes to collect the flower Cam steals her prawns and goes home. Tam weeps for having been tricked, but she is comforted by a fish, who tells her to listen to the animals around her. So Tam is consoled and brings food to the fish at night. A rooster likewise becomes her friend along with a horse. When the Autumn Festival arrives Cam and her mother go, leaving Tam home to husk rice. Birds come to Tam’s aid, sorting the rice, and the catfish makes her black flowing trousers. The rooster finishes her elegant costume, and the old horse escorts her to the Festival with such velocity that she loses a slipper. A soldier takes it to the Prince, who would marry its owner. It fits only Tam. She and the Prince marry, to the chagrin of the stepmother and Cam. See also the first-start version of the legend under Tam’s Slipper, below.]
Ha, Tae Hung. “Kongjwi and Padjwi.” In Folk Tales of Old Korea. Korean Cultural Series, Vol. VI. Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1958. Pp. 12-28.
[Kongjwi, persecuted by stepmother and stepsister Padjwi, is helped by a cow, a toad, birds, and a celestial lady, who dresses her for her uncle’s feast. Fearful of a crowd of noblemen, she loses a slipper by the stream; the Governor finds it and seeks its owner. Meanwhile Kongjwi is well fed by her affectionate uncle and aunt. The Governor’s messenger comes in search of the owner of the slipper. Padjwi tries to make it fit but fails. It fits only Kongjwi, who is married to the Governor. Kongjwi welcomes Padjwi into her palace home. Padjwi drowns Kongjwi in a pond and dresses in her clothes to be the Governor’s wife. When questioned about her ugliness she says she fell and bruised her face. Kongjwi becomes a lotus flower and tells her story to an old woman who invites the Governor to eat with uneven chopsticks. When he objects she scolds him for mistaking the mismatched women. Kongjwi appears and he realizes his mistake. He drains the pond and finds her body, which returns to life. He pulls Padjwi to pieces by tying her limbs to four ox-carts, puts her mutilated body in a jar and sends it to her mother who, expecting an expensive gift from her daughter, gets a letter warning that anyone with evil designs becomes canned meat, while the mother of that person shall eat that meat. The mother dies and goes to hell with her daughter. Kongjwi and the Governor have three sons and two daughters and live contentedly amidst the fragrance of the lotus. They make all people happy.]
Han, Oki S., and Stephanie Haboush Plunkett. Kongi and Potgi: A Cinderella Story from Korea. Pictures by Oki S. Han. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1996.
[Begins with some “facts” about Korean culture. Synopsis: Konji’s mother dies and her father remarries. The new wife, Doki, has a daughter named Potgi. Kongi is displaced and forced to sleep in a cold room off the pantry and must do all the house chores and laundry. She becomes pale. When spring comes she is forced to work in the fields. There she meets an ox who helps her remove stones from the field and gives her food. The May festival approaches. Kongi is sent to fill the jar with water using a heavy bucket with a hole in the bottom. A toad helps her by plugging up the hole. But Doki still blocks Konji from going to the festival by insisting that she sort rice, husking it and filling a large jar. Hundreds of sparrows come to her aid and swiftly the job is done. But Doki and Potgi have gone on without her. She thinks of her mother. Suddenly four men appear carrying a sedan chair and bear her to the festival. The prince favors her but in her shyness she is unable to speak. She then flees, losing her jewel-like slipper. The prince seeks its owner. It fits none. Doki tries to force it onto Potgi’s foot. Then Kongi gets her turn and the shoe fits. The villagers are glad, for they know that Kongi is deserving. Her father is proud of her and even Doki and Potgi learn to praise her and help others with good deeds.]
Han, Suzanne Crowder. “The Value of Salt.” In Korean Folk and Fairy Tales. Seoul: Hollym Corporation, 1991. Pp. 244-246.
[A salt peddler’s daughter is married to a wealthy son but is scorned by her in-laws. Her parents serve them a meal without salt to clarify the point of their daughter’s worth.]
Hume, Lotta. “A Chinese Cinderella.” In Favorite Children’s Stories from China and Tibet. Illustrated by Lo Koon-chiu. Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1962. Pp. 15-22.
Jouanah: The Hmong Cinderella. Retold by Jewell Reinhart Coburn with Tzexa Cherta Lee. Illustrated by Anne O’Brien. Arcadia, California: Shen’s Books, 1996. Also available in Spanish and Hmong through Shen’s Books.
[To prosper Jouanah’s parents need a cow to help with the planting. After the farmer fails to purchase a cow at market his wife asks to be turned into a cow. When this feat is accomplished by the binding of magical cords about the mother’s feet the farmer succeeds well with his farming and remarries, leaving the lovely Jouanah to care for the cow. She is abused by her cruel stepmother, who treats her as an orphan slave. The spirit of her mother helps Jouanah, however, through the cow, who provides her with fine silk. The stepmother tricks the father into burning the silk, then into killing the cow. When the New Year festival arrives the stepmother forces Jouanah to adorn her and her daughter, then orders Jouanah to sort tiny pebbles from a basket of rice. On the third day Jouanah finishes her task and is aided by the spirit of her mother, who provides her with exquisite clothes and delicate sandals so that she might attend the Festival. At the Festival she meets the handsome Shee-Nang who adores her and will play only with her. When she sees her stepmother and her daughter Ding leaving in anger she knows that she must arrive home first to have the meal ready. As she flees she loses one of her shoes in the mud. Shee-Nang finds it and searches for its owner. When they come to Jouanah’s house Ding tries to fit into the shoe but cannot. But the shoe fits Jouanah and the prince weds her, despite the stepmother’s schemes to keep them apart. Another version of this Laotian story, “Ngao Nao and Shee Na,” can be found in Folk Stories of the Hmong: Peoples of Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, by Norma J. Livo and Dia Cha (Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 1991), pp. 93-100. JO-a-nah (Ntsuag Nos) means a young orphan, either male or female. For a teacher’s guide to Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella, see Sharon Cook and Jean Rusting, under Criticism.]Jewell Reinhart Coburn’s edition of Jouanah has been printed in Hmong as: Ntsuag Nos: Ib Tug Cinderella Hmoob. Illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien. Translated by Jean Moua and Tzexa Cherta Lee. Arcadia, CA: Shen’s Books, 1996; and into Spanish, translated by Clarita Kohen, Shen’s Books, 1996.
Kao and the Golden Fish: A Folktale from Thailand as Remembered by Wilai Punpattanakul-Crouch. Retold by Cheryl Hamada. Illustrated by Monica Liu. Chicago: Childrens Press, 1993. With an Introduction to Storytelling by Janice M. Del Negro.
[This publication comes with an audio tape of Cheryl Hamada telling the story. The book consists of pictures, with the story printed at the end: Kao’s mother dies and her father marries Sang, who has a daughter named Sri. He then dies leaving Kao at the mercy of the cruel stepfamily. Kao consoles herself by a lake where a golden fish speaks to her telling her that she is her mother. Kao and the fish converse each morning as she bathes. Sang wonders why she is so happy and sends Sri to spy. Out of jealousy Sri dresses in Kao’s clothes, catches the fish, and Sang cooks it. Kao weeps and buries the bones. An eggplant grows on the spot. Sang and Sri steal the eggplant and cook it too. Kao finds some seeds and plants them. Two trees grow. In the murmur of their branches Kao can hear her mother’s pleasant voice. The Prince comes by and rests under the trees. He too hears the music and would have the trees for his palace. He sends men to uproot them but they cannot. They try pulling them with elephants, with no more success. The Prince posts notices to determine the owner of the trees. Kao comes forward. He asks her if she would allow him to transplant the trees in the palace grounds. Kao returns to the trees and talks with her mother. She agrees to the move. The trees release themselves from the ground and the Prince transplants them at the Palace. Under their bows the Prince proposes and Kao says yes. They rest happily together listening to the voice of Kao’s mother in the singing trees.]
Landes, A. “The Story of Tam and Cam” (Vietnam). In Contes et legendes annamites. Saigon: Imprimerie Coloniale, 1886. Included in Sierra (pp. 141-144). Translated by Sierra.
[A husband and wife each had a daughter of the same age from a previous marriage. The man’s daughter was Cam; the wife’s was Tam. The girls are sent to catch fish. Tam steals all Cam’s fish except for a small bong mó and returns home. Cam weeps but a spirit reassures her that she should keep the little fish and care for it. Cam feeds it rice and it grows wondrously. But Tam spies on her, catches the fish, and cooks it. Cam returns to find the fish gone. A rooster tells her where to find its bones. The spirit tells her to place the bones in pots at the corners of her bed. In three months and ten days she finds a beautiful dress, pants, and a pair of golden slippers. She sneaks into the field to try them on, but a crow steals one of the slippers and drops it in the palace courtyard. The prince finds it and would marry the one it fits. Tam goes to the palace to try it on, but the stepmother makes Cam stay home to sort lentils from sesame seeds. The spirit sends pigeons to help. With the task done the stepmother is forced to let Cam go to the palace. The slipper fits her and she becomes the bride. Later her father becomes ill. The stepmother tells Cam that the only thing that can cure him is the fruit of a tree in the garden. When Cam climbs to get the fruit Tam cuts down the tree, and Cam falls to the ground. But rather than die, she is transformed into a bird. Tam takes Cam’s clothes and goes to the prince with the news of Cam’s death and becomes bride herself. The bird watches her doing the washing and scolds her for doing it poorly. The prince recognizes Cam’s voice and takes the bird for a pet. Tam kills the bird and eats it. The prince seeks out the bird’s feathers and finds a bamboo shoot growing from them. He waters the shoot and talks with it. But Tam cooks the bamboo shoot. From its bark grows a durian tree with a wonderfully pungent fruit. A beggar woman asks the tree for food. It drops fruit into her basket. Later the old woman finds that her hut has been cleaned. She watches the tree and sees Cam emerge from it to do such kindnesses. She claims Cam as daughter, but Cam tells her to invite the prince to dinner. The old woman does; he refuses unless she prepare a silken carpet that reaches from his door to hers. Cam provides the carpet in one night. He comes, recognizes Cam’s splendid cooking, and reclaims his bride. Tam is astonished to see her stepsister return. She wonders how Cam has become so beautiful. Cam tells her to jump into a pot of boiling water, which she does and is cooked. They salt her flesh and send it to the stepmother who, believing it to be pork, eats it. A bird warns her that it is her child, but she wont believe the bird until at the bottom of the barrel she finds Tam’s head.]
-----. “Kajong and Haloek.” In Contes Tjames, traduits et annotès. Saigon: Imprimerie Coloniale, 1887. Trans. Neil Philip and Nicoletta Simborowski, 1989.
[Kajong and Haloek are two daughters, one true and one adopted, though the mother does not know which is which. Through treachery the adopted daughter (Haloek) displaces the true (Kajong) and eats her pet fish. The bones of the fish turn into slippers, one of which a crow delivers to the king, who will marry the owner. After he finds Kajong and weds her, the false daughter does all she can to destroy her. Kajong goes through several transformations, often being devoured by Haloek. Ultimately Haloek, trying to imitate the true daughter leaps into boiling water and is cooked. She is served to her mother, who learns that Kajong is supernatural and has come back to life.]
Lang, Andrew, ed. The Bones of Djulung. In The Lilac Fairy Book. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1910. Rpt. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1968. Pp. 209-215.
[Lang attributes the tale to “Folklore,” by A. F. Mackenzie: On an island in the southern seas there was a family of seven sisters. The eldest ruled over them all and the youngest had the hardest task, cutting wood to keep the fire continually burning. One day, hot and exhausted from her labor, she tends the fire then hastens to bathe in the river. There she discovers a little fish, brilliant as the rainbow. So each day she takes her food and feeds the fish, whose name was Djulung-djulung. The other sisters wonder why she is becoming thin, so they follow her to the river and see her feeding her meal to the fish. They catch the fish and boil it for supper. Next morning the girl tries to talk with her fish but is unable to. One morning the cock awakens her and tells her what happened: the fish’s bones are hidden in the ashes. She takes the bones and buries them in the forest. A splendid and exotic tree grows from them. The king is called to view the tree. He learns of the house with the seven girls and inquires if they know of the tree. The six girls, hoping to receive favor from the king, are unable to answer the king’s questions. When asked about the seventh sister, they say that she is worthless, fit only to cut wood and tend the fire. But the king insists that she be summoned. As she comes, the tree bows before her, yielding to her its exotic leaves and flowers, which she gives to the king. The king marries her and takes her across the sea to his own home. See also Kao and the Golden Fish and The Story of Tam and Cam, below.]
Louie, Ai-Ling. Yeh-Shen, A Cinderella Story from China. Illustrated by Ed Young. New York: Philomel, 1982.
[Adapted from Tuan Ch’eng-Shih’s version from the T’ang dynasty (618-907 A.D.). After her mother and father’s deaths, Yeh-Shen is raised by a cruel step-mother who favors her own daughter. Yeh-Shen’s one consolation is a goldfish whom she feeds until the stepmother kills it. But the bones of the fish protect her, grant her wishes, get her to the festival well-clad with golden slippers, and, ultimately, to the prince. The stepmother is excluded from the court and dies in her cave from falling rocks. An animated movie based on Ms Louie’s story was made for CBS Storybreak in 1985. See Yeh-Shen, under Movies.]
Mehta, Lila. The Enchanted Anklet: A Cinderella Story from India. Illustrated by Neela Chhaniara. Foreword by Joseph T. O’Connell. Toronto: Lilmur Publishing, 1985; second edition 1990.
[A farmer named Cindur has two wives. Each bears him a baby daughter. The first wife’s daughter is named Cinduri, the second is named Lata. The first wife dies, then the father does, too, of cholera. Cinduri is forced to work hard carrying waterpots on her head and doing dirty work. She is ill-fed and ill-clothed. One day a Godfather Snake appears with a jewel on his head. The snake feeds her and bestows magic on her life. As Cinduri becomes beautiful the wicked stepmother becomes jealous. Lata spies and discovers the strange magic provided by the snake. The stepmother is determined to ruin Cinduri’s life. The Crown Prince of Suryanagar announces the Navaratri festival. The stepfamily plans to attend but gives Cinduri too much work so she cannot attend. Though disappointed Cinduri sings and the serpent appears and gives her the jewel from his head. If rubbed and held firmly in her hand the jewel makes wishes come true. Cinduri follows instructions and is transformed into a beautiful princess. The Godfather Snake wishes her well but tells her she must be back home at midnight. Cinduri attends the festival and the Prince falls in love with her. She is the life and soul of the festival. At midnight, at the aarti ceremony, Cinduri remembers her promise and flees, losing one of her leg anklets. The Prince finds it and vows to marry the owner of the anklet. The Prince comes to Cinduri’s house but the Stepmother makes her leave to herd the buffalo. Cinduri rubs her jewel and in a twinkling of an eye is in the presence of the Crown Prince. The anklet has fit none of the others, but it fits Cinduri. The Prince is overjoyed and they are married. The Stepmother and Lata are not permitted to live in the Castle. They attempt to tend the little farm but they don’t like hardship and the farm deteriorates. They go on the road as beggars. While they sleep under a tree they are struck by lightning and crushed to death by the uprooted tree.]
Mizusawa, Kenichi. Echigo no Shinderera (Cinderella in Echigo). Sanjo-shi, Niigata: Nojima Shuppa, 1964.
[Ninety-four Cinderella variants collected from a single Japanese district.]
Nguyen Thi Nhuan and Nguyen Thi Hop. Tám Cám: The Vietnamese Cinderella Story. A Bilingual Children’s Book. San Jose: Gioi Publishing Co., 1992.
[Tám’s mother dies and she lives with her father, stepmother, and lazy stepsister Cám. The girls are sent to catch fish. Tám fills her basket but Cám chases butterflies. At the end of the day Cám accuses Tám of being dirty and steals her fish as she bathes. Tám fears going home empty handed and weeps. But (a wise old man) appears and instructs her to take the very small fish remaining in her container and feed it in her backyard pond. She does and the friendly fish, named Bong, grows magnificently. But the spying stepkin kill the fish and eat it. Again Tám weeps, but But appears and tells her to fetch Bong’s bones and bury them. On the tenth day she digs up the bones and finds a pair of wonderful slippers. The Stepmother orders Tám to take the buffalo to pasture. She does but gets her slippers wet. She places them on the horns of the buffalo to dry but a crow steals one of them and drops it at the Palace. The Prince vows to marry the one the shoe fits and calls all eligible women to come to the Palace to try it on. It fits none. Tám is the last to try. It fits, the Prince sees that she is beautiful, and they marry and live happily together. Full page blue ink drawings on every other page.]
Old Black Snake. Storyteller: Muang Yoon Saechao. Collector and Translator: Judy Thungc. In Loz-Hnoi, Loz-Hnoi Uov: In the Old, Old Days, ed. Tim Beard, Betsey Warrick, Kao Cho Saefong. Traditional Stories of the Iu-Mienh (Laos). Iu-Mienh Stories Project. Vol. I, Berkeley, CA: Laotian Handcraft Project, 1993. Pp. 60-64.
[A king has three daughters. He would make a rice field covering twelve mountains and twelve valleys. He and his daughters clear the area of small growth but offers one of his daughters in marriage to the one who can clear the area of trees. A large black snake performs the task. The two older daughters refuse the snake but the third daughter named Faam gets water for the snake to wash up, then makes his bed, and agrees to pack her bag and go with him. Irritated at her circumstance she steps on his tail; he in turn bites her, but as she weeps and can walk no more he puts saliva on the bite to make her feel better. They come to a river and the snake tells her not to point if the water changes color and to close her eyes as a young man appears; she should keep her eyes closed until she hears the sound of seven waves. She obeys and the Old Black Snake takes her to his house in the city. As she lives with the family of snakes they all turn into humans. They ask her what kind of chair she would like. She says an old cutting board would do, and they give her a gold chair instead. They ask her what kind of chopsticks she would have. She says old wood, and they give her gold. When asked what bowl she would eat from she says the pig’s bowl will do, but they give her a gold rice bowl. After a time she has a child and returns to her parents for a visit. Her older sister Naix is jealous and would return with her to her husband. She drowns Faam and goes to Old Black Snake as her sister’s substitute. She asks for a gold chair and gets a cutting board; for gold chopsticks and gets wood; and for a golden bowl. They give her an old pig’s bowl. The baby cries and won’t sleep. A stable boy hears a bird singing and is so pleased with the music that he comes home late. Old Black Snake inquires of his tardiness and goes to hear the bird himself. He recognizes the spirit of his wife and brings the bird home on his wrist. Naix kills the bird and serves it for supper. The meal is delicious for everyone except Naix, for whom the meal tastes like woodchips. She throws it out the window and from it a bamboo bush grows. The bamboo helps them clean themselves after going to the bathroom. Naix tries it but it pokes her in a vulnerable place. She cuts the bamboo down and makes a bed of it, but it makes her itch as if ants were biting her. She cuts the bamboo frame open and finds Faam inside, as beautiful as ever. She asks how Faam has managed to stay young and beautiful after having been fried and boiled by Naix many times. Faam suggests that Naix try bathing in the boiling water. Naix climbs into the scalding tub and is killed.]
The Princess and the Beggar: A Korean Folktale. Adapted and illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1993.
[The royal sedan chair is stopped by congestion in a market street. The princess sees a beggar boy Pabo Ondal being kicked. She weeps for the youth but is mocked by her mother, “No man wants a wife who cries all the time!” But the princess continues to weep for the beggar and her father rebukes her. Would you marry such a person? He wears animal skins and sleeps in a cave. He tears raw meat from bones. But their mockery only makes her weep more. When she is older the king would make her the wife of the son of noble Ko. But he says no — she would marry Pabo Ondal. In a rage they cast her from the palace. She goes to the mountains, to Peony Peak where she meets the beggar. He takes pity on her and cares for her and she teaches him royal arts and to read and write. A year passes and the royal hunting party passes that way. Ondal proves himself to be the master hunter. He is invited to the festival, where there is a poetry contest. He competes and to the amazement of the scholars wins the prize–such simplicity, such swiftness, such strength, verses such as only royalty could write. All are amazed to find the winner is a peasant. Then he is brought before the king, who recognizes him as the hunter. He presents his wife and teacher to the king who sees that it is his daughter. Pabo receives royal preferment, but their happiest time is at the foot of Peony Peak.]
Schroeder, Alan. Lily and the Wooden Bowl. Illustrated by Yoriko Ito. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
[When Japan was still known as “Island of the Dragonfly,” a woman named Aya lived with her beautiful granddaughter Lily. On her deathbed Aya gave Lily three gifts: a small wooden rice paddle, a folded paper crane, and a lacquered wooden bowl which she turned upside down and placed over Lily’s head, warning her to hide her beauty from the world and reassuring her that the gifts would protect Lily after Aya’s departure. At first Lily worked in the rice fields where she was ridiculed because of the bowl. But once when workers suddenly attacked her to remove the bowl the paper crane set up a ruckus and drove them away. Later Yamoto, a wealthy farmer, hired Lily to look after his wife Matsu, who was ill. Lily restored Matsu to health. But Matsu was cruel and spiteful and hated Lily. She would not rest until she drove Lily from the house in disgrace. Yamato’s eldest son Kumaso returned from university. He was attracted to Lily but Matsu insisted that Lily was deformed by smallpox and thus wore the bowl. Still Kumaso fell in love with her and once slipped the bowl off just enough to see her beauty before the paper crane drove him away. With that glimpse he determined, however, to marry her. Yamato agreed and so too Matsu, though with guile. She asked Lily to prepare the rice for the wedding guests, then gave her one grain only, and locked her in a room. Lily remembered her mother’s rice paddle: as she stirred the water the kernel became two, then four, then eight, until all dishes were filled with rice. But Matsu was a witch and conjured rats, hundreds of them, to enter the room, devour all the rice, and break the dishes. Then Matsu entered the room and began to beat Lily, but Yamato appeared and stopped the violence. Lily explained what happened and Yamato believed her. He sent Matsu away permanently. When the wedding was ready Kumaso tried to remove the bowl but could not. Only after the ceremony, as Lily sipped the wedding wine, did the bowl break in half, spilling gold and jewels all about. But even more astonishing than the gems was the beauty of the bride, revealed for the first time to the eyes of the world.]
Seki, Keigo. “Benizara and Kakezara.” In Folktales of Japan, trans. Robert J. Adams. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963.
[The tales were collected in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka-ken, by Hana Watanabe. “Benizara” means “Crimson Dish”; Kakezara means “Broken Dish.” A mother sends her two girls to collect chestnuts, giving Benizara a bag with a hole in it. Kakezara fills her bag quickly and returns home. Honest Benizara works hard trying to fill her bag but night falls and her bag is still empty. She fears wolves and takes refuge with an old woman who gives her a magic box, some rice, a bag of chestnuts, and advice on what to do if she should meet her two sons, who are oni. She meets them, chews some rice but does not swallow it, then lies down as if dead. The oni plan on eating her, but don’t, thinking the rice in her mouth is worms and that she is indeed dead. She then returns home. Kakezara and her mother go to a play, leaving Benizara with a day’s work and nothing to wear. She uses the wishing box to obtain a kimono and goes to the play. A nobleman sees her give Kakezara some candles that she asks for and, next day, seeks out the kind girl at her house. The stepmother hides her in a bathtub and insists that the girl the nobleman saw and liked was Kakezara. Benizara is brought forth upon demand, and the two are told to write poems about a pile of salt with a pine needle stuck in the top. Kakezara’s poem is silly and mismetered; Benizara is correct and beautiful. The nobleman takes Benizara to his palace. The jealous stepmother puts Kakezara in a basket and starts dragging her along, but the basket tumbles over the edge of a deep ditch, and Kakezara falls to her death. This story is included in Neil Philip’s The Cinderella Story (pp. 32-35) and Judith Sierra’s Cinderella (pp. 134-137).]
Sierra, Judy. "Maria" (Philippines). In Cinderella. Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press, 1992, pp. 138-140.
[Sierra combines parts of two similar tales collected in Mindoro by Fletcher Gardner, “Filipino (Tagalog) Versions of Cinderella,” Journal of American Folklore, 19 (October-December, 1906). [A man and his wife had a beautiful daughter, Maria. He fell in love with a widow with three children and drowned his wife to marry the widow. She greatly abused Maria, making her do all the dirty work. She made Maria kill her pet pig and dress it, then clean the entrails in the river. Maria does as she must but a piece of the entrails washes away. A crocodile retrieves it and splashes a drop of water on Maria’s forehead which becomes a bright jewel. The stepmother sends her daughter to kill a pig and wash the entrails, hoping for a share of good fortune. But the drop of water turns into a bell that cannot be removed; it makes a loud noise and brings great shame upon the girl and her mother. So the mother works Maria even harder, then orders her to bathe in the river and return utterly clean or be beaten to death. Maria can’t reach her back to scrub, but a she-crab cleans her then tells her to eat her and bury her shell in the yard. From the shell grows a grapefruit tree. The stepmother and daughter go to church and leave Maria to fix a dinner that must be neither hot nor cold. Maria weeps over the impossible task, but an old woman comes to her aid. She sends Maria to the grapefruit tree which supplies her with a lovely dress, slippers, and a coach with eight horses. She goes to the church by way of the king’s palace. The king sees the shining jewel and sends soldiers to find out who she is. They find only her slipper. The king searches for the woman whom the slipper fits. The stepmother hides Maria wrapped in a mat. But the soldiers find her, wash her, and are astonished at her beauty. The shoe fits and the king marries her with pomp and feasting. They live happily together for many years.]
Tam’s Slipper: A Story from Vietnam. Retold by Janet Palazzo-Craig. Illustrated by Makiko Nagano. First-Start Legends. Troll Communications, 1996.
[A Yeh Shen narrative; a simplified retelling of The Golden Slipper, above; in large typefont.]
Ting, Nai-Tung. The Cinderella Cycle in China and Indo-China. Folklore Fellows Communications no. 213. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1974.
Vuong, Lynette. The Brocaded Slipper and Other Vietnamese Tales. Illustrated by Vo-Dinh Alo Mai. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1982; rpt. New York: Harper-Collins, 1992. Pp. 1-26.
[Tam, a beautiful girl, endures the death of her mother and the marriage of her father to a woman with an ugly daughter named Cam. Tam is forced to work as servant, tending the buffalo and cleaning house while Cam sleeps. The mother sends both girls with a basket and pail to get fish from the pond. The one with the most fish will receive a new blouse. Tam empties out the pond and fills her basket with fish. Cam steals her pail of fish. As Tam weeps in frustration her fairy godmother tells her to take a small fish home and raise it in the well for good luck. But the stepfamily sees what is happening and cook and eat the fish. Tam finds the bones and places them under the feet of her bed. Her good luck continues as she finds jars of clothing and a pair of brocaded slippers. A crow steals one of the slippers and takes it to the Prince. The Prince will marry the owner. He has a festival and tries it on everyone. It fits only Tam who becomes his Princess. Out of jealousy Cam and her mother kill Tam by making her fall. She then convinces the Prince that he should marry her. But she returns as a bird to comfort her husband. But Cam kills the bird, too. The Prince is much aggrieved. Then she appears to him as he lies in his hammock. Cam chops down the trees and burns them. So she reappears in the loom and scolds Cam as she works. Cam chops the loom to pieces with an axe. Then he Prince seeks out live help in the way of an old widow. There he finds Tam in a rice jar. She cooks for him and he recognizes that Tam must be the cook. Cam dies when a rock strikes her. Tam and the Prince marry and live well.]
Waley, Arthur. “The Chinese Cinderella Story.” Folk-Lore, 58 (1947), 226-38.
[The earliest recorded Chinese version of the Cinderella story is "Yeh-hsien." Translated from Tuan Ch’eng-shih, ca. 850-60 AD. Tuan says his source was “Li Shih-yuan, who has been in the service of my family for a long while. He was himself originally a man from the caves of Yung-chou and remembers many strange things of the South” (as cited by Neil Philip, The Cinderella Story, p. 17.) Ai-Lang Louie’s children’s book is based on this version.]
Wishbones: A Folk Tale from China. Retold by Barbara Ker Wilson. Illustrated by Meilo So. New York: Bradbury Press, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993.
[Chieftain Wu’s first wife dies, leaving him a daughter, Yeh Hsien. His second wife has her own daughter and makes Yeh Hsien chop wood and draw water from dangerous places. Yeh Hsien befriends a small fish with red fins and golden eyes and feeds it rice from her own plate. The fish grows so large that Yeh Hsien keeps it in a pond near the family cave. It talks to her alone. The stepmother gives Yeh Hsien good clothes to wear and sends her on an errand. Then her daughter puts on Yeh Hsien’s rags and calls the fish. When it appears the stepmother kills it, cooks it for supper, and discards the bones in a dunghill. Yeh Hsien is heart-broken to discover that her fish is gone, but an old man appears from the sky and tells her what happened. She should collect the bones, and they will give her her wishes–jewels, carved jade, embroidered robes, silk slippers. The time of the Cave Festival comes, but Yeh Hsien must stay home to guard the fruit orchard. After the others leave, however, she dresses according to her wishes and attends. She eats well and enjoys herself fully. But when her stepmother starts staring at her she flees, losing her silken slipper. The King of T’o Huan seeks the owner of the slipper, whom he vows will be his queen. All eligible women try it on but it is far to small to fit any of them. Then Yeh Hsien tries: it fits, and she produces the other slipper as well. The King makes her queen of all the land. He is pleased to have the wishing bones too and gets much wealth during the first year of their marriage. But at last the fishbones refuse to grant any more of his desires. “Husband, you have worn out their magic,” Yeh Hsien gently chides him. In shame he buries the bones near a seashore and the tide carries them away.]
For a synopsis of Allerleirauh see Grimm’s German Folk Tales under Basic European Texts; for Donkey Skin, see Perrault’s Histoires ou Contes du Tempes Passé under Basic European Texts. See also Robin McKinley, Deerskin, under Modern Fiction.
Allerleirauh (The Coat of All Colours). In Grimms’ Fairy Tales. With Illustrations in Line and Colour by Anne Anderson. London: Collins’ Clear-Type Press, n.d. (1935?). Pp. 201-206.
[Begins with an interesting line drawing of hunters and their dogs finding the Princess asleep in the boll of a tree, wrapped in her coat of a thousands of skins and hides. Also drawings of her peeling vegetables and appearing before the king in her splendid gown. In the main the narrative follows Grimm, except at the outset where the daughter is pledged to the king’s oldest councillor, rather than sought in marriage by the king himself out of deference to a promise to the deceased queen. Thus there is no threat of incest in this version. She flees out of an aversion to the mismatch with so old a man.]
Carruth, Jane. “Donkey-Skin.” In Fairy Tale Time. London: Octopus Books Ltd., 1979. Rpt. Treasure Press, 1984. Original edition Milan: Fabbri Editori, 1976. Pp. 91-113.
[For some reason the king cherishes a little donkey above all his grand possessions. When his wife dies he reluctantly agrees at her request to remarry a wife more beautiful and wise than herself. A strange madness takes possession of the king. He sees his daughter in the garden and, not recognizing her, concludes he must marry her. Through the advice of her fairy godmother she attempts to divert him by asking that impossible clothes be made–a dress the color of the sky, another as bright as the sun. When these are produced the fairy asks if there is something the king loves above all else, and the princess tells of the donkey whose skin she reluctantly requests. When it is produced the fairy tells her she must leave the palace, taking the magic wand and a chest with her clothing which will appear when she requires it. She escapes to another country where she works on a great farm, tending pigs and doing the washing. She is called Donkey-Skin by lads who mock her. The Prince visits the farm to view its exotic birds. She admires him and dresses in her finery to console herself. He sees her through the peephole and falls in love. He finds out who she is from the farmer and asks that a cake be made by her. She complies, putting her ring in the batter. When he finds the ring he vows to marry only the one whom the ring fits. Though high-born ladies vie to force the ring on to their fingers, none succeed. At last Donkey-Skin takes her turn and to shouts of amazement it fits. She asks to return to the farm to make herself presentable and then comes back in her dress like the sun. Her father attends the wedding, restored from his madness when he sees her dressed as a bride. The story is handsomely illustrated by Ferri.]
Chase, Richard. Catskins. In Grandfather Tales. Selected and retold by Richard Chase. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948. Pp. 106-114.
[Introduced by Granny London, but told by Deely, Jeems’ stoutish wife, at about 10:00 p.m.: An orphan girl worked for people who fed her but didn’t pay her. Her dress became so ragged she patched it with old cat-hides until it was nothing but catskins, thus her name. The wife dies and the old man would marry Catskins. She agrees if he would get her a dress the color of all the fish in the sea. He does, but she asks for a dress the color of all the birds that fly. He gets its, but she asks for a dress the color of all the flowers in the world. Then she asks for his flying box, puts the dresses in, and flies away till she sees a big house. She hides the box under a rock, puts on her catskin dress, and asks for work. They put her in the kitchen where she scares folks half to death. There’s a big dance at the king’s house. The poor folk go to look in through the window, but Catskins stays behind. She goes to her box, puts on the fish dress and flies to the king’s house. She captivates the king’s boy but slips out during “Lady-’Round-the-Gent-and-the-Gent-Don’t-Go.” Back by the kitchen fire she tells others she saw it all. Next night she helps others get ready, waits, then goes herself to the dance in her bird dress. She slips out early again, and tells others she was there. The king’s boy is stuck on the girl and has another dance next night. Catskins asks if she might borrow a dress. The old woman refuses, but the girl Catskin helped get ready the other nights offers her one of hers. Catskins stays behind, gets her flower dress and appears. The king’s boy slips a ring on her finger about midnight, but she slips away, hides her dress again, and sits home in the ashes. Folks ask if she was there, she says yes, but they say they didn’t see her. The king’s son looks for the girl, can’t find her, and becomes ill–lovesick. Catskins sends him a cake and puts the ring in it. The old woman takes it herself. The prince finds the ring. The woman claims she baked the cake, but the king’s son says she didn’t and he’ll have her head cut off if she doesn’t produce the cook immediately. Catskins comes, the prince says she’s the one, but she slips away, gets her box, and comes back in the first dress. The king’s son says, “No–the other one”; then, “not right yet.” As she appears in the flower dress he proposes, and she accepts. The old woman has to wear the catskin dress and work in the kitchen the rest of her days.]
Greaves, Margaret. See Tattercoats, below.
Hooks, William. Moss Gown. Illustrated by Donald Carrick. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
[A blend of Cinderella, Donkey Skin, and Dear as Salt, set in the old South. Candace, rejected by her father who, flattered by his two greedy daughters, misunderstood Candace’s love for him when she compared it to salt’s affinity to meat, is banished and takes refuge as a scullery maid in a white-pillared mansion. She captures the love of the Young Master wearing the gris-gris woman’s magic gown but must disappear before the Morning Star fades, for then the enchanted golden gown turns to dull gray moss. Ultimately, she weds Young Master and is reconciled with her father, who, having been rejected by the cruel daughters, is found wandering forlorn in the wood.]
Huck, Charlotte. Princess Furball. Illustrated by Anita Lobel. London: William Morrow & Co. (Greenwillow), 1989.
[Adaptation of Allerleirauh (Roughskin, or The Princess in Disguise), without incest theme, but, rather, threat of marriage to an ogre. Having asked for three dresses, plus coat of 1000 furs, she escapes with her wardrobe in a walnut shell. She wears the dresses to go to three balls, cooks three meals for the king, with gifts in the soup, and weds the king, after he has the wit to figure out who she is.]
Jacobs, Joseph. “Tattercoats.” In More English Fairy Tales, illustrated by John D. Batten. New York: G.P.Putnam’s Sons, 1898. Pp. 67-72.
[First published by Jacobs in 1894. The king’s favorite daughter dies in childbirth. The king banishes his granddaughter at birth vowing never to look upon her face. She grows up in tatters, befriended only by a gooseherd and the old nurse. A neighboring prince would marry and has a ball to choose a bride. Gooseherd and the rejected Tattercoats go toward his palace. As the gooseherd plays his pipes the prince spots Tattercoats and falls in love with her. After the ball, at midnight, the prince is to announce his choice. Tattercoats enters amidst her geese and much mockery. The prince greets her and proclaims her his bride. The herdboy plays his pipes once more, and her clothing is transformed. All praise the prince’s choice, but the gooseherd disappears, never to be seen again. The old lord who had sworn never again to look on his granddaughter’s face leaves in bitter grief and stares over the sea.]
-----. “Catskin.” In More English Fairy Tales, 1894; reprinted in English Fairy Tales, with illustrations by John Batten. Everyman’s Library Children’s Classics. London: David Campbell Publishers, 1993. Pp. 403-408.
[A gentleman wanted a son. When his daughter was born he refused to look upon her and when she was fifteen would marry her to the first that comes for her. When a nasty old man asks for her she goes to the hen-wife who advises her to ask for a silver coat, then one of beaten gold, then one made from feathers of all birds of the air, then a coat of catskin. Using the catskin coat as a disguise she flees and obtains work in the kitchen of a fine castle. Despite the mean cook she slips out to the ball wearing her silver coat; the young lord loves her and asks after her but she answers with a riddle and slips back to the scullery to hide beneath the catskin. She endures a beating of the cook a second time, but goes to the ball again, this time in the gold dress, only to flee back to her kitchen, leaving behind another riddle. A third time she goes in the coat of feathers, and flees a third time, after speaking another riddle. But this time the prince follows her and sees her change back into her catskin dress in the forest. He asks his mother if he might marry the scullery maiden but his mother refuses. He becomes ill and so the mother consents. Catskin wears her golden dress and is married. When their son is four years old a beggar woman comes to the door. The son gives her a gift, and she kisses his hand. The cook insults the boy by saying that beggars attract beggars. The mother is angry and tells the story of her childhood. Her husband goes to her father, who now lives alone, his wife having died. He repents having scorned his daughter Catskin, and they are reconciled.]
-----. “Tattercoats.” In More English Fairy Tales, 1894; reprinted in English Fairy Tales, illustrated by John Batten. Everyman’s Library Children’s Classics. London: David Campbell Publishers, 1993. Pp. 281-285.
[An old man hates his granddaughter because his favorite daughter died bearing her and swears never to look upon her. The child grows up in neglect and is called “Tattercoats.” Her sole companion is the gooseherd. When the king announces that his son is to marry the gooseherd urges the old man to present his granddaughter at the ball. But he refuses. So the gooseherd plays his pipe and convinces the girl to go to the town even in her rags. She meets the prince on the way; he falls in love with her immediately. The more she refuses him the more the gooseherd plays the pipe, and the more the youth loves Tattercoats. At the choosing festival the gooseherd plays his way into the hall followed by Tattercoats and the geese. Though all gawk in amazement the prince rises to meet her and claims her as his own. The herdboy then plays notes like a singing bird and her rags are changed to a shining gown, the geese into pages attending her, bearing her long train. The people shout that the prince has chosen the loveliest girl in the land. The gooseboy disappears and is not seen again. The grandfather, still refusing to look upon his granddaughter, returns to his palace by the sea to sit by his window, weeping for his lost daughter.]
Lang, Andrew, ed. “Donkey Skin.” In The Grey Fairy Book. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1900; rpt. New York: Dover, 1967. Pp. 1-15.
[See Perrault in Basic European Texts for synopsis. Lang’s translation is based on Le Cabinet des Fées.]
MacLeod, Mary. “Catskin, the Wandering Young Gentlewoman.” In A Book of Ballad Stories, by Mary MacLeod. Illustrated by A. G. Walker. With Introduction by Edward Dowden. London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1906. Pp. 328-331.
[A young squire, holding vast estates, yearned for a son. His wife gave birth to a daughter of rare beauty. Disappointed he sired a second child, who was also a girl. In anger the squire sent her away to the country. Nonetheless he did provide for her education and kept her well dressed. When she grew up and learned of her father’s displeasure, she set out to seek her own living. She wrapped her rich attire and jewels in a bundle and donned a robe of catskins. After traveling afar, on a cold winter day she set herself to rest at a knight’s door. She was given rest in the stable, then offered work in the kitchen. The knight had a son who loved to go to the ball. After a time Catskin asked if she could attend too. The lady of the house was shocked at the servant’s presumption and struck her with a ladle, breaking it in two. Catskin was indignant, rushed to the barn where she had hidden her apparel, dressed richly, and hastened to the ball. She danced so bravely that all admired her. The knight’s son asked the beautiful stranger where she lived. She replied, “At the sign of the ‘Broken Ladle.’” Then she fled, returning home where she quickly put on her catskin robe. She then went back to the kitchen, and none knew where she had been.]
Manheim, Ralph. Thousand Furs. In Rare Treasures from Grimm: Fifteen little-known tales selected and translated by Ralph Manheim. Paintings by Erik Blegvad. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1981. Pp. 1-7.
[The illustration shows the hunters bringing Thousandfurs in a cart with a dead boar and stag to the palace. Rare Treasures also includes The Three Little Men in the Woods, One-Eye, Two-Eyes and Three-Eyes, The Donkey Lettuce, and Iron Hans. Originally published, without Blegvad’s illustrations, in Grimms’ Tales for Young and Old: The Complete Stories, trans. Ralph Manheim, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1977. For synopses of Cinderella narratives in Grimm, see Basic European Texts.]
Mills, Lauren. Tatterhood and the Hobgoblins: A Norwegian Folktale. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993.
[A barren queen promises the hobgoblins the wilder of her two daughters at her twelfth birthday if they will help her to conceive. The twin girls are born and grow up great friends, though opposites–one sweet and docile, the other carefree and wild. The queen refuses to comply with the promise to the goblins. When they come to claim Tatterhood she mounts a goat and drives them away. In retaliation they turn her sister into a calf. But Tatterhood and her goat attack the hobgoblins again and the calfhead vanishes. The sisters travel to foreign lands. A king would marry Isabella, the sweet sister; but she declines until someone marries Tatterhood. That seems impossible since she seems so low and uncouth. A prince takes a liking to her and acknowledges that she is the way she is because she has chosen to be that way. Tatterhood smiles and transforms herself into a most beautiful princess. The two choose each other. At the wedding the queen mother scarcely recognizes her daughter. The king her father declares that Tatterhood shall rule after him.]
Phelps, Ethel Johnston, ed. Tatterhood and Other Tales. Illustrated by Pamela Baldwin Ford. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1978. Pp. 1-6.
[A collection of tales in which the heroines have energy, wit, and sense. Tatterhood, whose independence and disregard for conventions until she chooses to regard them, is the model tale. She enjoys her wildness and tatters, can control the trolls, and marry whom and when she chooses. As in the loathly lady tales, the prince leaves decisions pertinent to her welfare to her. “And will you not ask to see my face beneath the streaks of soot?” she asks. “That, too, shall be as you choose,” he replies. Whether they marry or not the story does not say. The volume also includes "Kate Crackernuts," and "The Black Bull of Narroway," which incorporates Cinderella motifs.]
Sage, Jacqueline I., illustrator. Many Furs: A Grimm’s Fairy Tale. Millbrae, CA: Celestial Arts, 1981.
Steel, Flora Annie, reteller. Tattercoats: An Old English Tale. Illustrated by Diane Goode. Scarsdale, NY: Bradbury Press, 1976.
Tattercoats. Illustrated by Margaret Tomes. New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1989.
Tattercoats. Retold by Margaret Greaves. Illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain. London: Frances Lincoln, 1990.
[A young girl’s parents die and she lives with her cranky grandfather, who hates her because she reminds him of his deceased daughter, who was his favorite. The girl is banished to the kitchen, where she becomes skinny and tattered. But she maintains her good cheer and loves to dance in the meadow to the gooseboy’s pipe amidst the flowers. A messenger announces that the king is giving a bride-choosing ball for his son. Tattercoats would go, but her grandfather sends her scornfully back to the kitchen. She goes to the meadow where, with the gooseboy and his geese, she remains cheerful. The prince comes by, sees Tattercoats, loves her for her gentleness, and asks her to marry him. She says no. He invites her to the ball. The ball proceeds. Bride-choosing time arrives. Tattercoats enters with gooseboy and the geese. The prince chooses her, even as she is. Her rags drop away and she appears in a radiant gown of soft gold. At the transformation everyone laughs with joy, including the old grandfather, who forgets his gloom, forgets his sulks, and becomes the good grandfather, as he should have been.]
Thomas, James Resh. The Princess and the Pigpen. New York: Clarion Books, 1989.
[A modern day adventure with sixteenth century Queen-to-be Elizabeth on an Iowa hog farm.]
Zuber, Roger. ed. "Peau d'âne." In Contes: Texte présenté et commenté. Illustrations by Roland Topor. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1987. Pp. 137-68.
[A handsome red-leather edition of Perrault's works. "Peau d'âne" is written in verse. Topor's color plate of Peau d'âne (p. 163) depicts the girl grotesquely clothed in the ass skin's rampant body, reaching her arm and head through its chest toward the left margin from whence a hand holding the ring approaches the extended index finger of her right hand. In the notes (p. 285) Topor provides an ink drawing of the ass deficating gold coins and bricks as a spectacled accountant records the deposit in his tally sheet.]
(PERRAULT'S LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER STORY AND ITS ANALOGUES. SEE THE AARNE/THOMPSON FOLKTALE INDEX 510)
Selected French Texts of Perrault (see Basic European Texts for first editions):
Contes de Monsieur Perrault, avec des moralitez. Nouvelle édition. Paris, 1724.
Histoires ou contes du tems passé, avec des moralitez. Nouvelle edition augmentée d’une Nouvelle… Suivant la copie de Paris, à Amsterdam, 1742.
Histoires du tems passé; ou, les contes de ma mère l’oye, avec des moralites. Nouvelle édition, augmentée de deux Nouvelles… à Londres, et se trouve à Bruxelles, 1786.
Cendrillon ou La Petite Pantoufle de Verre. Paris, 1850. Illustrated with steel engravings by A. Janjay.
Early English Copies and Adaptations:
Histories, or Tales of Passed Times, with Morals, written in French by M. Perrault, and English ed. by R.S., gent [Robert Samber]. London: R. Montagu, 1729. The second edition, corrected. London: R. Montagu, 1737.
[Title-page and text also in French (“troisième edition”). Engraved illustration at the beginning of each story for both English and French texts. Samber’s edition is the first English translation of Perrault’s Little Glass Slipper story. See synopsis under Basic European Texts. Samber’s translation reappears in numerous subsequent editions, including the version in Popular Fairy Tales, London: Sir Richard Phillips & Company, 1818, which was the basis of many 19th-century penny editions, and the Opies’ Classic Fairy Tales, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.]
Cinderilla: or, The Little Glass Slipper. London: G. Thompson, 1804.
[Engraved throughout, with movable flaps to show transformation underneath. 6d plain. 1s coloured.]
Fairy Tales of Past Times from Mother Goose. Edinburgh: G. Ross, 1805.
[Chapbook, with a woodcut for each story. Bound in cover lettered “Price twopence from Ross’s Juvenile Library, Glasgow, J. Lumsden & Son.” Cinderilla is the fourth tale.]
The Adventures of Cinderella and Her Glass Slipper. To which is added the popular story of Puss in Boots. London: G. Martin, [c. 1810?].
[Folding engraved frontispiece and illustrations in the text.]
The Curious Adventures of the Beautiful Little Maid Cinderella; or, The History of a Glass Slipper. Colchester: I. Marsden, c. 1810?.
[Chapbook with woodcuts. Price one penny.]
The Entertaining Tales of Mother Goose for the Amusement of Youth. Glasgow: J. Lumsden, [c. 1820?]. Engraved illustrations including frontispiece and one on the title-page. On the cover: “Lumsden & Sons. New edition of Mother Goose.” Paper bears an 1817 watermark.
[Includes “Cinderilla; or, the little glass slipper.”]
Adventures of the Beautiful Little Maid Cinderilla; or, The History of a Glass Slipper. To which is added An historical description of the cat. York: J. Kendrew, 1820?.
[Chapbook with cuts. A penny book. See the copy sold in America.]
Clare, John. The Shepherd’s Calendar. First published in Poems Descriptive of Rural Life, 1820; rpt. ed. Robinson & Summerfield, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964.
[Clare recalls tales told in his childhood, versions of Jack and the Giant Killer, The Three Heads in the Well, and Cinderella, where details basically follow Perrault, but with a golden glove replacing the slipper:
The tale of Cinderella told
The winter thro and never old
The faireys favourite and friend
Who made her happy in the end
The pumpkin that at her approach
Was turnd into a golden coach
The rats that faireys magic knew
And instantly to horses grew
And coachmen ready at her call
To drive her to the princes ball
With fur changd jackets silver lind
And tails hung neath their hats behind
Where soon as met the princes sight
She made his heart ach all the night
The golden glove wi fingers small
She lost while dancing in the hall
That was on every finger tryd
And fitted hers and none beside
When Cinderella soon as seen
Was woo’d and won and made a queen.]
The Interesting Story of Cinderella, and her Glass Slipper. Banbury: Printed by J. G. Rusher, 1830?, 16 pp. 32mo. Woodcut title vignette and illustrations, one signed “J. G.”
[Chapbook. Osborne says the woodcuts are designed by Cruikshank and dates the work ca. 1820 (p. 24), though the paper suggests a somewhat later date. In this version Cinderella takes all her house animals with her to the castle.]
The History of Cinderella; or The Little Glass Slipper. London: Orlando Hodgson, 1835?, 12 mo. 33 pp., plus frontispiece.
[Based on Perrault. Illustrated with a four-panel fold-out, hand-colored, engraved frontispiece. The copper-plate engraving includes five episodes: “Cinderella scolded by her Mother-in-Law, The Fairy her Godmother effecting the Change, etc. with Cinderella and the Prince at the Ball in the center.]
Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper. A fairy Tale. A new edition corrected and adapted for juvenile readers, by a lady. London: Dean & Munday, 1840?.
[With eight hand-colored cuts, two to a page. An endpiece states “The history of Cinderella is founded upon a fairy tale, which conveys a very pretty moral to the youthful mind, and shows the advantage of meekness and good behaviour.”]
History of Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper. Glasgow, printed for the booksellers, 1852. New and improved series no. 45. With “Hop o’ my Thumb.” Crude cuts. “Penny tracts.”
Cinderella and the Glass Slipper. Edited and illustrated with ten subjects, designed and etched on steel by G. Cruikshank. London: David Bogue, 1853. In George Cruikshank’s Fairy Library; rpt. in Victorian Fairy Tales, ed. Jack Zipes. New York: Routledge, 1987.
[The illustrations of this edition, especially those of Cinderella at the hearth, became favorites for Cinderella in sundry subsequent collections of fairy tales. See entry under Modern Fiction for synopsis.]IMAGES:
“Cinderella scouring the Pots and Kettles”
“Cinderella helping her Sisters to Dress for the Royal Ball”
“The Pumpkin, and the Rat, and the Lizards, being changed by the Fairy, into a Coach, Horses, and Servants; to take Cinderella to the Ball at the Royal Palace”
“The Fairy changing Cinderella’s Kitchen dress into a beautiful Ball dress”
“The Prince, picking up Cinderella’s Glass Slipper”
“Cinderella leaving the Royal Palace after the Clock had Struck Twelve”
“The Herald’s proclaiming the Prince’s wish that all the Single Ladies should try on the Glass Slipper”
“Cinderella having fitted on the Glass slipper produces its fellow”
“The Marriage of Cinderella to The Prince”
“Cinderella and the Glass Slipper”
Cinderella; or The Little Glass Slipper. With thirteen illustrations by M. J. R. London: Nelson & Sons, 1858.
[Cuts including pages bordered with branches and leaves. A tremendously popular edition.]
Cinderella; or The Little Glass Slipper. London: Griffith and Farran, 1860?.
[In verse, mounted on linen. The Victoria and Albert Museum copy is hand-colored. See IreneWhalley, under Criticism.]
Cin-der-ella and the lit-tle glass slip-per. London: G. Routledge & Co., 1860?. Second series of Aunt Mavor’s picture books for little readers.
[“Printed on one side only, with text below the hand-coloured cuts. Price sixpence” — Whalley.]
Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper. In The Fairy Book: The Best Popular Fairy Stories Selected and Rendered Anew by the Author of “John Halifax, Gentleman.” London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 1863. Pp. 19-26.
[Follows Samber’s translation quite closely.]
Cinderella and the Little Glass Slipper. N.p., n.d.
[Panorama style, opening lengthwise, with crude cuts printed in color and brief captions only, which tell the basic story.]
Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1869.
[Cassell’s Fairy Story Books, with their color illustrations, were very popular. The illustrations were mounted on linen with the text in the form of extended captions. Price: 1 shilling.]
Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper. London: G. Routledge and Sons, 1872.
[Routledge’s Shilling Toy Books. Color printed by Kronheim & Co., with large clear text.]
Cinderella. London: G. Routledge, 1873. Walter Crane’s Toy Books.
[Color printing by Edmund Evans. Mounted on linen. Crane’s illustrations are often reprinted. Price: 6d.]
The Children’s Musical Cinderella. Told in familiar words to familiar tunes by W. Routledge and Louis N. Parker. With pictures by W. Crane. London: Routledge & Sons, 1879.
Cinderella; or The Glass Slipper. Illustrated and retold by Edric Vredenburg. London: Ernest Nister; New York: E. P. Dutton, c. 1880.
[A shape-book, handsomely illustrated. Perrault’s story is gracefully told with homey touches.]
Routledge’s Nursery Book: Containing Tom Thumb’s Alphabet, The Cat’s Tea-party, Cinderella, Nursery Rhymes, with twenty-four pages of illustrations. By H. S. Marks and J. D. Watson, Harrison Weir, and others. London & New York: George Routledge and Sons, 188?.
Cinderella. Retold by C. S. Evans. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: William Heinemann, 1919. Reissued New York: Exeter Books, 1987.
[A novelistic expansion upon Perrault, superbly illustrated with Rackham silhouettes, including title-page and end-papers.]
Cinderella; or, The History of the Little Glass Slipper. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1800. 32 pp. With oval woodblock illustrations. 1000 copies printed for the sum of $8.50. Mathew Carey was an Irish immigrant who came to Philadelphia in 1784 and set up his printing establishment. The Huntington Library has reprinted this first American Cinderella in facsimile, ed. Carey S. Bliss (1951).
[Begins with an epigram: “Though Cinderella’s humble state we show, / Yet pray, like her, in virtue learn to grow: / So shall some friend support your honest cause, / And guide you thro’ the world in spite of foes.” With the death of Cinderella’s mother, her father remarries a cruel woman with two mean daughters. They immediately turn against their stepsister, give her the hardest and dirtiest work, and force her to live in a sorry garret with a wretched straw bed. Her books are her only companions. She dares not speak to her father about her life, for he is so entirely governed by his new wife he “would have rattled her off” (p. 8). One older sister calls her Cinder-Breech for sitting by the fire. Yet despite her ragged clothes and cinders she was “an hundred times handsomer than either of her sisters.” The king’s son gives a ball. The step-sisters put Cinderella to work preparing their clothes and send for “the best tire-woman they could get to make up their head dresses and adjust their double pinners” (p. 10). Cinderella also helps with their hair because she has excellent notions and the best taste. The sisters go two days without eating but still break a dozen laces trying to be “laced up close” (p. 11). After they set out for the ball Cinderella gushes tears. But her godmother comes and sends her into the garden for a “pompion,” which the fairy cleans and turns into a golden chariot. She turns six mice into beautiful dapple grey horses–“See here the reward of every good girl and boy” (p. 14). Cinderella suggests they turn a rat from the trap into a coachman. The trap holds three, and they choose the one with the longest whiskers. They find six lizards who become footmen. Then the fairy godmother touches Cinderella with her wand, clothing her in gold and silver bedecked with jewels and a pair of glass slippers. As she departs she is warned to return by midnight. One act of disobedience means total ruin. “Would it not be to the advantage of all children, if they were of the same mind?” (p. 19). When she arrives at the ball the Prince has eyes only for her. Her beauty is so great that even the violins stop playing. The only sound is “a profound noise of Ah! how handsome she is!” (p. 20). Women take notes on her clothing, hoping to imitate it, and the prince dances with no one else. He cannot eat, he’s so excited. She gives oranges and citrons to her sisters, who don’t recognize her, then leaves at 11:45. The sisters return to boast of the attention the princess gave them. Cinderella asks Miss Charlotte if she might wear her yellow suit tomorrow to go and see the princess, but the sisters mock her. Next evening Cinderella again attends, more magnificently dressed than before. As the clock strikes twelve she flees, nimble as a deer, but loses one of the slippers. The sisters report the events to Cinderella, and in a few days the prince proclaims that he will marry the woman whose foot fits the slippers. When the royal entourage arrives at their house the sisters vie for a fitting but fail. They mock Cinderella who would also try, but the gentleman, seeing that she is handsome, gives her a chance. The shoe fits, to the amazement of the sisters, but they are even more amazed when Cinderella produces the second slipper. They throw themselves at her feet and ask pardon for their arrogance. She embraces them and, after she is married, matches them with two great lords of the court.]
Adventures of the Beautiful Little Maid Cinderilla; or, The History of a Glass Slipper. York: J. Kendrew, 1822?. 23 2½” x 3½” pages.
[This version is identical to the 1800 version (Philadelphia: Carey, 1800), though it lacks the opening epigram. 8 rectangular 1¼” x 1¾” woodblocks. See synopsis above. The chapbook sold for one penny.]
Cinderella, Or the Little Glass Slipper. Cooperstown, New York: H. & E. Phinney, 1828. Thirty pages embellished with eleven engravings.
[The opening paragraph speaks of the tale: “the story of Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper, is one of those wonderful Tales of Fairies, which, although entirely divested of truth, contains so many curious incidents, both instructive and entertaining, that it forms a pleasing fund of amusement to youthful readers “ (p. 5). After the death of the mother, the father resolves to marry “some prudent lady, who might be a mother to his child, and a companion to himself,” but gets instead a widow “of a proud and tyrannical disposition” (p. 6) and two mean daughters. As their quarrelsome nature reveals itself, the husband, “unable to resist her violence, fell into low spirits, which brought him to a premature grave” (pp. 6-7). “Forced to sleep in a garret, on a straw bed without curtains” (p. 7), the good daughter sits in the corner of the chimney to keep warm for lack of clothing and is called Cinder-wench by others in the household, though the younger sister, “thinking the appellation was vulgar, gave her the more genteel name of Cinderella” (pp. 7-8). But as Cinderella grows increasingly beautiful, despite the harsh labor to which she is subjected, the jealousy of the stepfamily likewise increases. When the ball comes they abuse her further and insist that she dress them and prepare their hair, knowing her good taste. “Any other person who had met with the same cruel treatment as Cinderella, would have endeavored to make them look as ugly as possible; but this good-natured girl assisted to deck them out to the best advantage. Nothing pleased them unless Cinderella did it; and even their hair, which had been already dressed by one of the most fashionable hair-dressers, she was obliged to adjust to her own taste” (pp. 10-11). The stepsisters broke “more than a dozen laces to give themselves a slender shape” (p. 12). The fairy appears to Cinderella after the stepfamily leaves. She is old and on a crutch, but carries her wand which she uses to turn a pumpkin into a coach, after she scoops it hollow. Mice become horses, a rat the postillion, and lizards the footmen. The dress and slippers are the last to be bestowed, along with a warning to return before midnight. At the ball she gives fine delicacies which the Prince had bestowed upon her to her sisters who have not the slightest suspicion of who she is. She leaves the ball at eleven o’clock and returns home in her carriage. She feigns sleep when the sisters return and asks Charlotte for an old gown to attend next night to see the elegant lady. Charlotte replies, “Do you really think I am so mad as to lend my gowns to a cinder-wench? No, I am not such a fool; so, go, and mind your own business and leave balls and dresses to your betters” (p. 24). On the second night she has so enjoyed herself that she loses track of time and flees at the striking of midnight. The Prince finds the slipper and seeks his bride. When Cinderella asks to be given a chance at the slipper she is scorned, “Very likely, indeed, that it would fit your clumsy foot!” (p. 28). But it does and the fairy reappears and transforms her poor clothes into magnificence. After the wedding, through her influence, the sisters marry two of the first noblemen of the kingdom. “Cinderella spent a long life in a state of felicity which seldom falls to the lot of mortals; nor did she forget to remember, with gratitude, her friend the fairy, who had contributed so much to her comfort and happiness” (p. 30).]
Cinderella, Or The Little Glass Slipper. Cooperstown, New York: H. & E. Phinney, 1839. 30 pages, with eleven engravings.
[Same as the 1828 edition in size, engravings, and text.]
Cinderella, Or The Little Glass Slipper. Cooperstown, New York: H & E. Phinney, 1846. 31 pages, with twelve engravings.
[The text and engravings are the same as the 1828 edition except that the plate from the cover of Cinderella trying on the slipper, which appeared on all three editions, has been included a second time on p. 29.]
Cinderella. New York: J. Wrigley, 61 Chatham Street, c. 1860.
[An eight page booklet, 4 1/4” by 6 1/4”. The cover page depicts the coach arriving at the palace. Inside there are three ink drawings: Cinderella dressing the stepsisters (p. 3), Cinderella in her new dress after the stepmother has touched her with the wand (p. 4), Cinderella dancing with the Prince (p. 5). And, on the back cover, an illustration shows Cinderella in rags escaping from the Ball Room, past the pumpkin, as the Prince (in the distance inside the palace) starts running down the stairs (p. 8). The title of the story on p. 2 is: “The History of Cinderella and the Little Glass Slipper.”]
Cinderella. Aunt Friendly’s Colored Picture Books. New York: McLoughlin Bros, 187?.
Cinderella. Fairy Moonbeam’s Series. New York: McLoughlin, 187?.
Cinderella. Aunt Kate’s Series. New York: McLoughlin Bros., 1876.
Cinderella. Illustrated by R. André (1887). New York: McLoughlin Bros., 1888.
[Printed on linen, with six full page illustrations (The Proud Sisters, The Fairy Godmother, On the Stroke of Midnight, The Glass Slipper, The Proclamation, and From Kitchen to Court) and cover.]
Cinderella. New York: McLoughlin, 1893. Rev. 1933.
[The fifth and sixth editions of Cinderella published by McLoughlin over a sixty year period.]
Cinderella. No. 401 Little Tots Series. Chicago & New York: M. A. Donohue & Co., n.d. [c.189?]. With color illustrations.
[Stepsisters Charlotte (short, fat, with a funny little nose and large feet) and Euphronia (tall, thin, with large hands covered with ugly rings) pick on Cinderella perpetually. After they go to the ball the fairy helps Cinderella, first with a lovely gown, then with the carriage from a pumpkin, etc. The Prince dances with only her. She flees at midnight losing her slipper. The Prince finds her, and they wed.]
Cinderella and the Glass Slipper. Profusely Illustrated. M. A. Donohue & Co, n.d. [c. 189?].
[Though the text is “profusely illustrated,” neither the author nor illustrator is identified. In this version of Cinderella the stepsisters are not given names. The latter half of the book includes other snapshot reflections (usually two pages) of everyday life: “Willie Learns His Letters”; “The Speckled Hen”; “The Nest in the Hay Mow”; then one page untitled glimpses of Lily and her book, Willie who protects his sister May from the dangers of a bear, and Polly who has a pear stand; “The Man and the Oak”; a horse and a lion; a horse and a donkey; “The Poor Old Woman”; a bunny, a squirrel, and a bird; a good dog named Nip, who sleeps in the barn; Tom and Polly who look in a well (Polly is frightened because she is little); a dog holding a lamb for a bear to kill; and poor Gretchen who is a cripple and cannot work.]
Cinderella and Other Fairy Tales. New York: Graham & Matlack, n.d.
[This bizarre book, with its handsome cover adorned by four "bonnie lasses" with hats and ribbons, does begin with an adaptation of Perrault’s Cinderella, but there are no other fairy tales in the book. Instead there are seventy-five very short narratives, usually by women, that dramatize small moments - a dog who was nearly deafened by a cannon, a cat that ate a stuffed canary off a little girl’s hat (the bird had been her pet until it died; then she had it stuffed and put on her hat); a little black dog that liked to shake the door mat until he was given a piece of meat; an account of a pig that went to church; a chicken with a wooden leg; where butterflies come from, etc. The stories are nicely illustrated with ink drawings by various illustrators. The narratives often end on a moral note, but none of them have anything to do with fairies. In fact, their tone is antithetical to fantasy literature. “The Riding Horses,” for example, tells of two young boys’ surprise to encounter two horses in a cart walking on a treadmill that runs the threshing process. The author, C. Bell, observes that some children advance no more than the horses do, though they walk a lot. “Some children are not useful to others, like the horses. They do not learn, and they do not help thresh oats; but sometimes their parents thresh these idlers with a switch.” The book lacks a table of contents and has no pagination.]
Cinderella. Chicago & New York: W. B. Conkey Company, 1897. Printed on linen.
[A handsomely illustrated edition (illustrator not identified), with four color plates: Cinderella and the fairy godmother with pumpkin, rat, and mice as the transformation is about to occur; Cinderella greeted by the Prince as she gets out of the coach on the second night at the ball (the coach has a slipper on top, with three mice admiring it, while a mouse at each corner of the roof climbs up; the coachman sits in a slipper-shaped seat); Cinderella, in blue, dancing with the Prince; and the fitting of the slipper, Cinderella in work clothes, the Prince in blue with rayed tights. It also has ten ink drawings. The cover, in color, depicts Cinderella in a white flowing sheer gown fleeing down the stairway, leaving her slipper behind while the Prince in red with a ruff collar and plumed hat looks on from the railing above; a guard in armor holding a spear stands at attention at the top of the stair. In the narrative Ella has two sisters, Cordelia and Katharina, who are fine ladies and dress in smart clothes. They are given to mirrors and the arts, spending their evenings at a ball or concert. The youngest daughter, Cinderella does the housework and serves her sisters. After she is married to the Prince Cinderella works with the poor as a good Samaritan. The sisters become enchanted by her disposition and become more like her. They become far happier than before. No mention is made of their marriage, but Cinderella and the Prince built many additions to the elegant Palace and live happily ever after.]
Cinderella. The Homewood Publishing Company, 1902. On linen.
[This is a modified version of the McConkey, 1897, edition above, though with fewer illustrations. Only the cover is in full color, although the back cover has a color drawing not in the other version of a woman with yellow roses and green and white ball gown and plumed hat, who could be about anyone (Cinderella, a bridesmaid, the fairy godmother?). Inside what were color plates in the earlier edition are now ink drawings with an orange wash; several of the ink drawings from the other version are also tinted. The narrative is the same.]
Cinderella and Other Fairy Tales. New York: McLoughlin Brothers, 1912, pp. 1-12.
[A color frontispiece of Cinderella’s flight from the Royal Palace, which is also used on the cover of the book, and pen and ink illustrations, with considerable charm, including an amusing one of the moustached-prince “gazing at the slipper” on a table before him, like Hamlet and the skull, and another of when “the slipper went on and fitted like wax.” The title-page of drawing of Cinderella at the fire contemplating the flames is beautifully done.]
Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper. Trans. Alice Corbin Henderson. Chicago and New York: Rand McNally & Company, 1914.
[This handsomely illustrated edition, with pictures akin to those of Blanche Fisher Wright (The True Story of Mother Goose, 1916) in their design and artistry, tells the story with numerous pleasing details. Part I: “Why she was called Cinderella” explains her situation after the death of her mother and her father’s remarriage. The second stepsister is the kinder of the two and gives her the name Cinderella, a prettier name than she was usually given. Part II: “The Invitation to the Dance, and What Cinderella’s Sisters Wore to the Party” tells the vanity of the stepsisters, who wanted to be dressed in velvet from England and China silk. Cinderella fixes their hair with perfect taste, despite their mockery of her as they admire themselves before full-length mirrors. Part III: “Cinderella’s Godmother pays a Visit” begins with Cinderella’s solitary sobs, “I wanted-I wanted-”. When the godmother appears she comforts the girl and suggests she fetch the pumpkin. Cinderella comes up with the idea that they use a rat for the coachman. Her dress of thin gold and silver is embroidered with precious stones. But she must return before midnight. Part IV: “Cinderella goes to the Palace” tells of her arrival with everyone marvelling at the beautiful unknown. She shares fruits and candies with her sisters, who don’t recognize her. She returns at 11:45. Next day she asks Javotte if she might wear her old yellow dress for the second night at the ball, but is once again mocked. Part V: “The Loss of the Glass Slipper.” This time she waits too long at the ball and as the clock strikes 12:00 she flees “like a startled deer.” The prince finds the lost slipper and begins the search. Part VI: “Who can wear the Glass Slipper?” expands upon the sisters’ vanity and their failure to fit the slipper. But when the unnoticed Cinderella asks if she might try on the slipper all are amazed, but even more so when she not only fits but produces the other. The fairy godmother then reappears to bestow upon her the most handsome dress of all: “If you could melt diamonds and spin them into cloth, you might have a little idea of the way her dress shone.” She marries the prince, and her sisters marry two fine gentlemen. The godmother often visits the Palace, but it is uncertain whether any one could actually see her.
The Moral:
Beauty is a gift to treasure:
But its counterpart,
That which giveth greater pleasure,
Is a loving heart.
Cinderella in the ashes
Was more fair to see
Than her sisters in their sashes,
Lacking charity.
Better far than paints and patches
Is a gentle mien;
This it is that maketh matches,
And becomes a queen.]
Cinderella; or, the Little Glass Slipper. Illustrated by Margaret Evans Price. New York: George Sully & Co., 1920.
[This beautiful little edition, printed by Karle Lithographic Co., Rochester, New York, includes eight full page color prints plus double spread end papers of the prince meeting Cinderella in the garden in the company of a peacock (front) and Cinderella with her broom watching the two stepsisters in splendid dresses, presumably setting out for the ball (rear), and a wrap-around front and back cover of the fairy godmother instructing Cinderella as she prepares to get on the coach - all in color. The story follows the basic story of Perrault, including Cinderella asking Javotte if she might go the second night wearing the yellow dress. Although the retelling ignores Perrault’s moral, it does note that the two sisters get to marry fine gentlemen at the end “though, to tell the truth, they scarcely deserved this good fortune.”]
Cinderella: A Fairy Story. Illustrated by Frances Brundage. Akron, Ohio: Saalfield Publishing Company. 1926.
[The story follows the basic Perrault plot, with some homespun variations. In this version Cinderella loves to go to the woods to gather sticks and listen to the wind. There she finds a lost kitten, who becomes her companion in solitude. After the stepsisters go to the ball Cinderella’s goodness is tested by a beggar woman who comes to the door asking for food. Cinderella gives the poor woman her own supper. The beggar then turns into a fairy godmother and grants Cinderella her wishes. The pumpkin etc. are transformed and she goes to the ball. She forgets to leave before midnight and when fleeing loses her slipper, etc. After the wedding the sisters are informed that it was their “evil thoughts and selfishness that made you ugly and unloved. Cinderella takes the little cat with her to the palace where the cat learns to carry Cinderella’s train, becomes loved by everyone, and wears a gold collar set with diamonds.]
Cinderella. Retold for little children to read by Marjorie Hardy, and Emilie C.Bradbury. A Mary Perks Book. Illustrated by Fern Bisel Peat. Sandusky, Ohio: The American Crayon Company. Copyright Harter Publishing Company, 1931; John Sherman Bagg, 1943.
[This handsomely illustrated book includes several black silhouettes, and six full page illustrations in rich crayola crayon-like colors of Cinderella at work scrubbing floor by the fire; watching the step-sisters leave for the ball in their dresses of silk and velvet; departing herself in the coach as the fairy godmother warns her about midnight; arriving at the ball in her pink and blue gown; being led into the ballroom by the Prince (now in a pink and golden gown - he is in green); and being married, with the prince in purple, Cinderella in white, with pink candles and blue background.]
Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper and Other Stories. Illustrated by Hugo Von Hofsten. New York: Barse and Hofsten, 1930?.
[The Pleasant Hour Series. Four illustrations, two of Cinderella (one on the cover as the prince doffs his hat to Cinderella when the slipper fits, and one of the pumpkin coach and mice in traces before turning into horses); one of “Advice from a Caterpillar,” and one of Jesus the Good Shepherd.]
Cinderella. A Linenette Book, No. 427. Samuel Gabriel Sons & Company, n.d. 12 pages. 7 1/4 by 8 1/4 inches.
[The front cover, drawing by R. A. Burley, shows a teenage Cinderella fleeing down the stair case as she loses her left shoe. Inside the book there are four full page facing-page color drawings by Gordon Robinson (Cinderella and her cat by the fire, Cinderella getting out of the coach at the ball, Cinderella trying on the slipper, and Cinderella and the prince at their wedding). The wedding picture is reprinted as the back cover. The narrative is interspersed with twelve ink drawings with red coloration by Gordon Robinson.]
Andreas, Evelyn. Cinderella: An Old Favorite with New Pictures. Illustrated by Ruth Ives. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1954.
[The narrative follows Robert Samber’s English adaptation of Perrault. The illustrations use 18th-century settings and dress; the fairy is a young, attractive blonde, as is Cinder-wench. Her ballgown is golden yellow, trimmed with pink roses. Her wedding gown is white, and the flowers adorning the aisle of the church are pink roses. The kingdom rejoices in their salons, while the honeymooners sit in a garden at a table situated on an oriental carpet beneath a white cloth drapery that serves as a sort of tent.]
Apsler, Ruby. Cinderella: My Best Book. Illustrated by Kerman & Kerman. London: Modern Promotions, Peter Haddock Ltd., 1972. Printed in Israel.
[Cinderella is a black-haired beauty. The fairy godmother uses a frog to make the coachman. At the end no mention is made of the fates of the two stepsisters and stepmother.]
Bates, Katharine Lee, ed. Cinderella. Color Illustrations by Margaret Evans Price. Black-and-white Illustrations by Dorothea Snow. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1931; rpt. 1939.
[The stepmother detests Cinderella for her gentle voice which makes the voices and manners of the stepdaughters seem sharp, selfish, and hateful. Cinderella keeps the house clean enough “for the Queen of Cats,” but still the child had “only a scolding for supper” (p. 8). The stepdaughters are very fashion conscious, but “Ash-girls don’t go to balls at the palace,” so Cinderella stays home. After the Fairy Godmother transforms dress, pumpkin, mice, and lizards and Cinderella attends the ball, she shares the fruit and sweetmeats the Prince gives her with her stepsisters. For the second night at the ball she asks if she might attend and wear Jovette’s yellow dress, but the sisters mock her. This time she overstays. As the clock strikes midnight she “sprang up and ran out of the ballroom like a startled deer” (p. 34). None can overtake her flying feet, but she loses her slipper. Though the stepsisters jeer her when she asks to have her chance of fitting the slipper, after her marriage she gets them husbands at court.]Katharine Lee Bates’s edition was reprinted as a Tip-Top Elf Book, with illustrations by Helen Endres and William Neebe, with cover picture by Barbara Clyne. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1956, on the hundredth anniversary of the Rand McNally & Company.
Bierhorst, John. The Glass Slipper: Charles Perrault’s Tales of Times Past. New York: Four Winds Press, 1991.
[Cinderella, pp. 51-65.]
Brooke, William J. “The Fitting of the Slipper.” In A Telling of Tales. New York: Harper and Row, 1990. Pp. 51-74.
Brown, Marcia. Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper, freely translated from Perrault and illustrated by Marcia Brown. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954.
[The older step sister, Javotte, insultingly calls Cinderella Cinderseat. But at the ball Cinderella is kind and talks with the stepsisters and gives them oranges to eat. They don’t recognize her, but in the end Cinderella forgives them. Brown’s illustrations reflect the elegance of Louis XIV’s court. Mary J. Collier, under Criticism, comments on the pictorial treatment in this edition of Cinderella as a child playing at being adult even when she appears with the prince at the end, a representation that appeals to a child’s Oedipal fantasies about being “big.”]
Brown, Shirley. Cinderella. Illustrated by Henry Markowitz. New York: CBS Records, 1968.
[Large, colorful children-like drawings, with magic marker effects. The stepsisters are Horribella and Terribella, who get invitations to the ball, though Cinderella does not. The fairy godmother arrives and instructs her to get the pumpkin, mice, rat, and lizards. She then gives her a gown, but Cinderella has to ask for the shoes. After the ball when the herald finally, on the third day, finds the owner of the lost slipper, he wonders how she could possibly go to the palace looking as she does. The fairy godmother arrives in the niche of time to transform her into something presentable. After she marries the prince she fills the palace with music and laughter.]
Bruna, Dick. Cinderella. Written and Illustrated by Dick Bruna. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company, 1966.
[For very young children. Instead of a fairy godmother, a pigeon comes to give Cinderella a lovely yellow dress, yellow slippers and the admonition to leave by midnight. She overstays, loses her yellow slipper that fits neither naughty sister, and the Prince finds Cinderella to be just the girl he has been looking for.]
Bryant, Robyn. Cinderella. Illustrated by Zapp. My Storytime Classics Library. Montreal: Tormont Publications, 1995.
[Bryant combines Perrault’s pumpkin story with the Grimms’ lentils and birds to give a lively narrative of Ella, the mean widow Javotte, and her two spoiled daughters Gertrude and Hortense. The birds help the dark-haired Ella pick up the lentils from the ashes and, at the end, a dove appears and touches Cinderella on her shoulder to whisper, “Your mother says that you will live happily ever after.” And indeed she did! The last scene depicts Cinderella, still in rags but with her slippers on, seated sidesaddle on a white horse as the prince leads her through the village toward the castle on the hill. See Cinderella 1995 below for a description of My Storytime Classics Library.]
Carruth, Jane. Cinderella. Illustrated by Elisabeth and Gerry Embleton. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1972.
[Embleton here, as in his Beauty and the Beast, likes to use moles as pictorial audiences of events unfolding in the narrative. He uses 17th-century settings for his full page illustrations. The transformation of the mice uses stop action from trap to white horse, all amidst fairy dust. The wedding scene depicts the couple exiting from the gothic minster to a trumpet fanfare, into the village square surrounded by two-story wattle-and-dob buildings, as courtiers, soldiers, and villager applaud.]
-----. “Cinderella.” In The Most Beautiful Book of Fairy Tales. Westport, CT: Joshua Morris, Ind., 1981.
Carter, Angela.Carter has “translated” several of the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, including “Cinderella” and “Donkey Skin.”
[See Sleeping Beauty and Other Favourite Fairy Tales.]
Chase, Mary Jane. Cinderella. A Junior Elf Book. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1966.
[After Cinderella wins the prince she forgives the sisters and, after they have improved their manners, marries them to two fine gentlemen.]
Choroa, Kay. “Cinderella.” In The Child’s Fairy Tale Book. New York: Dutton, 1990, pp. 53-62.
[Detailed illustrations.]
Cinderella. London, 1915.
[Superb illustrations, often reprinted.]
Cinderella. Pictured by Gladys Hall. Kiddieland Series. New York: Cupples & Leon Company, 1915.
[15” x 8”. Full color cover drawing of Cinderella peeling potatoes, plus four full color full page illustrations. Numerous ink drawings. Back cover is of Cinderella getting out of the pumpkin coach as her four attendants bow. The characters are Raggedy Anne-like, short and round - quite charming.]
Cinderella & The Sisters. Retold by Ronald Stover. Illustrated by Lynette Hemmant. Oxford Graded Readers. Junior level. 750 headwords. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972; 12th impression 1995.
[Cinderella (pp. 7-19) is based on Perrault. The Sisters is also a Cinderella narrative. See Cinderella Educational Materials.]
Cinderella. Illustrated by Phil Smith. Troll Associates, 1979.
[A young teen Cinderella. Haunting illustrations.]
Cinderella. A Brimax ‘Story Time’ Board Book. London: Brimax Books England, 1983. Designed for children 2-5. 12 sides, including covers.
[At the outset the stepsisters laze about eating fruit and candy, playing with the puppy, and embroidering, while poor Cinderella scrubs the floor. By the end the cross stepsisters will have to do “all the work!”]
Cinderella. Text and Illustrations by The Mushroom Writers and Artists’ Workshop. London: Hippo Books, Scholastic Publications Limited, 1986.
[This version emphasizes Cinderella’s good relationships with the animals. At night the mice curl up in her lap. The fairy godmother’s collecting of the animals to transform them into horses, coachmen etc. is lively and extensive. At the ball all are amazed at Cinderella’s beauty, her tiny waist and tiny feet. Cinderella leaves by midnight. Next day the sisters boast of their experience, and Cinderella asks if she might borrow Charlotte’s yellow dress to go herself, next night, but is refused. Next night the fairy godmother sends her on, more magnificent than before. This time she overstays her time and, fleeing in haste, loses the slipper. After the fitting, where the stepsisters fail but Cinderella succeeds, the sisters are shocked, then repentant, and Cinderella forgives them. They are attendants at her wedding.]
Cinderella. Illustrated by Fiona French. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
[Cinderella is fair with dark hair; the Prince is swarthy, like a Spanish officer. The stepsisters wear green. Cinderella’s ball gown is white with pink and red trim; her wedding dress reds and orange with a magenta cloak trimmed in green and blue floral patterns, with bouffant sleeves. She carries a fan.]
Cinderella. Kodansha Nihongo Folktales Series 6. Illustrated by Yasuji Mori. Tokyo, New York, and London: Kodansha International, 1993.
[A straightforward adaptation of Perrault in simplified modern Japanese, with Westernized illustrations, though with some Japanese gestures. Strong Disney influence in the representing of Cinderella. Uses only Kana script. Includes at the end an English translation and four pages of explanatory notes for classroom use or self-help.]
Cinderella. The World of Fairy Tales, no. 7. Illustrated by Rose Art Studios. Tokyo: Froebel-kan Co., Ltd., n.d. [199?].
[This handsomely illustrated version of Perrault uses dolls to tell the story. Cinderella has bright blue Orphan Annie-like eyes and long blonde hair. Her ball gown is red with white-lace underskirt, pink trimmings and lots of pearls. 8 thick cardboard pages.]
Cinderella. My Storytime Classics Library. Story adaptation by Robyn Bryant. Illustration and graphic design Zapp. Montreal: Tormont Publications, 1995.
[Zapp has designed a box with lunchbox-like handle to contain five beautifully illustrated classics: Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and Puss ‘N Boots. Each book has 29 pages of text, a stiff cardboard spine, and a handsomely illustrated cover. The double-spread flyleaves depict a fairytale scene with mountains, a distant village with a windmill and church spire (upper left), a fairy castle (upper right), a tower by a cliff (center), a stone well (lower left), and a remote cottage in the wood (lower right). The top of the box depicts Cinderella’s castle, the frontside the prince approaching Sleeping Beauty, the backside Beauty reviving beast who lies by a fountain in the garden near death,the leftside Red Riding Hood at the bedside of her sick grandmother/wolf, and the rightside Boots introducing himself to the giant prior to tricking him into becoming a mouse. See Robyn Bryant for synopsis of the Cinderella volume, and Robyn Bryant, Beauty and the Beast for that volume.]
Cinderella. Illustrated by Lawrie Taylor. Newmarket, England: Brimax Books Ltd., 1996.
[A thick-page book with 18 sides plus the front and back covers, handsomely illustrated. Each page has a cut-away tab at the top, which identifies key moments in the story; by looking at the tabs in sequence the child may review the story in brief and turn to pages in the story describing events surrounding the tab. The tabs include: 1) front cover, Cinderella with her broom before the fire as the fairy godmother appears; 2) broom and scrub pails, which get the story underway; 3) the invitation to the ball; 4) the stepsisters dressed up; 5) the fairy godmother; 6) a pumpkin; 7) Cinderella in her ball dress; 8) the prince; 9) the clock at midnight; 10) the glass slipper. The narrative at the foot of the pages is succinct, but nicely done.]
Cinderella. Translated and Illustrated by Diane Goode. New York: Knopf, 1988.
[A straight-forward retelling of Perrault, handsomely illustrated, especially in the transformation scenes where the mice turn to horses in a sequence of nine stop action drawings and the lizards become footmen in seven stages. Cinderella goes twice to the ball. After the fitting of the slipper Cinderella forgives the sisters. Goode includes the Moral. The book was issued in a slipcase edition that included a reading of the story by Jessica Lange, with music by Blane & DeRosa Productions.]
Cinderella. Retold and illustrated by Hilary Knight. New York: Random House, 1978.
[This splendidly illustrated version follows the plot of Perrault closely, though with pleasing rhetorical variants, such as the Fairy Godmother speaking her incantations in verse: “A plump orange pumpkin, / I’ve been told,/ Will make a fine carriage / Of crystal and gold.” Then, “Little mice, very nice! / They’ll be two footmen / In a trice!” “Here, old rat, a playful pat! / Now you’re a coachman / Jolly and fat!” “Lizards will complete our needs, / They’ll become four / Stamping steeds!” “Guinea-fowl feathers, and bottles of blue, / Mothwings and cobwebs sprinkled with dew! / I’ll mix them with berries and sassafras, / And dress you in gossamer with slippers of glass!” The fairy is always in the air, wears glasses, has wings as well as wand, and is about a third Cinderella’s petite size. The prince is quite plump. Cinderella arrives at the ball at 9:00.]
“Cinderella.” Illustrated by Jennie Harbour. In My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales. New York: Derrydale Books, 1993. Pp. 23-32.
[Five superb pen and ink drawings of Cinderella, and one remarkable full-page watercolor. Because of the fine illustrations, this volume has become a collector’s item.]
Cinderella. Retold and Illustrated by Nola Langer. New York: Scholastic Press, 1972.
[Yolen, “America’s Cinderella” (1977), singles out this edition as an example the sugarsweet, meek and spineless American sanitized and mass-marketed Cinderella who forgives all–“a fall from grace for Ms. Langner” (p. 29). At the end the sisters weep and beg for forgiveness. Cinderella says that she is sure they “will never be mean to me again,” and they reply, “Oh, never,” “Never, ever.”]
Craft, Kinuko Y.Cinderella. Designed by Mahlon F. Craft. New York: SeaStar Books, A Division of North-South Books, 2000.
[The illustrations depict an imaginary setting around the time of Voltaire. The story follows Perrault, in the main, though in this version she meets the Prince in the wood. She thinks he is lost, but his concern has been with her as she grieves for her lost mother and, more recently, father. The illustrations to the book are gorgeous, with stunning full-page landscapes of the Prince’s meeting her in the wood, the golden carriage flying through the air across hills and rivers toward the distant castle, and Cinderella before her cottage after the coach and attendants have been turned back into pumpkin, mice, and lizards, as well as the usually illustrated moments in the narrative. There are several double-page spreads of the transformation of mice into horses, the ballroom filled with dancers, and Cinderella’s flight down the stairs after the second ball. The tale itself is told in framed and illuminated panels which face the full page illustrations.]
Crump, Fred, Jr. Cinderella. Retold and illustrated by Fred Crump, Jr. Nashville, Tennessee: Winston-Derek Publishers, 1990.
[A retelling of Perrault’s glass slipper Cinderella, with a few touches from Disney’s movie, such as the names of the stepsisters and Cinderella’s imagining that with one of her sisters’ ribbons and a string of their beads she might be able to fix herself up for the ball. The characters in this retelling are all African American, and the fairy godmother speaks in rap.]
Delaware, David.Cinderella. New York: Simon & Schuster, Green Tiger Press, 1993.
[The story is set in Venice, where Cinderella’s father has made his fortune in the shipping business. He is so busy that he comes home only once a year. He sends presents from around the world for Ella’s sixteenth birthday, but she wishes he were there in person. A boy in a gondola sees her and is wowed by her beauty. She too thinks of the boy, who, her mother tells her, is Duke Fidelio, son of the Grand Duke. Her mother becomes ill and dies. Ella’s father returns and sends her to boarding school. Two years later he remarries, and the stepmother demands that Ella leave school and come home to be the maid. The stepsisters Livia and Zenobia have moved into her room, and Ella is forced to sleep by the kitchen hearth. The Grand Duke gives a ball, which, after much dressing, the stepsisters attend. The fairy godmother appears as Cinderella weeps on the balcony; she converts a pumpkin into a gondola, gives her suitable dress, and an admonition to return before midnight. The gondolier reminds her in a squeaky voice that he will not wait for her a minute beyond twelve. At the ball Fidelio approaches her in a black mask and remembers her from the gondola. They converse in the garden. At midnight she flees, losing her slipper. At the twelfth stroke of twelve the gondola disappears, the gondolier turns into a huge rat, and Ella has to swim to shore. Next day Livia and Zenobia lament that no one danced with them at all. Then the palace page comes by requiring that all try on the slipper. In the fierce competition to make the slipper fit Livia breaks it into a thousand pieces. But Cinderella appears, takes the other slipper from her pocket and slides it onto her foot. The stepfamily is horrified, the page pleased, and Fidelio comes from the gondola to claim his bride. The stepfamily never recovers from the shock. The more they think about Cinderella’s good fortune the more jealous they become and live long, unpleasant lives. Fidelio becomes Grand Duke and the city of watery streets prospers under their reign.]
Deverell, Christine.Cinderella. Illustrated by Brian Robertson. A Sleepy Time Book. Robbinsville, NJ: Grandreams Books Ltd., 2002.
[A straightforward adaptation of Perrault. At the ball the Prince is so taken with Cinderella that he can’t eat. The stepmother and stepsisters are “white with rage” when the slipper fits Cinderella. No further mention is made of them. When Queen, Cinderella is always kind to her servants and invites them to the annual ball.]
Downing, Julie. Cinderella. Illustrated by Julie Downing. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1993.
[The stepfamily loves the fuss of Cinderella’s wedding, despite their previous cruelty, and, after the marriage, the Prince holds on to Cinderella when the clock strikes twelve, just in case she might run away again.]
Easton, Samantha. Cinderella. Illustrated by Lynn Bywaters. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel (Ariel Books), 1992.
[A pocket sized book (ca. 5” x 7”), beautifully illustrated with brilliant colors and minute detail.]
Eckert, Rosemary. The Story of Cinderella. Toronto: Weed/Flower Press, 1970.
[Rosemary Eckert was six years old when she wrote the story and lived in Willowdale, Ontario. The Preface by B. P. Nichol notes that the story is by someone raised phonetically with spelling that humanizes the story and “gives it an immediacy and relevance now.” The tale includes the fairy godmother, pumpkin, and mice. At the shoe fitting “the two step sisters triyed to chas her away” but “in came her foot fiting perftly” and the prince “new at once she was the girl that he had danced with. And thats the story of Cinderella.” November 28, 1969.]
Edens, Cooper. The Three Princesses: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White: The Ultimate Illustrated Edition. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.
[Mrs. Edgar Lucas’ adaptation of Robert Samber’s translation of Perrault’s Cinderella, accompanied by 54 illustrations compiled from different classic editions. This is truly the ultimate illustrated edition; the colors are superbly reproduced with a majority of full page illustrations, mainly by English, American, French, and German illustrators between 1860 and 1930.]
Edens, Cooper, and Harold Darling. Favorite Fairy Tales. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1991.
[“Cinderella,” by Charles Perrault (pp. 82-91), is printed with five full page, full color illustrations by Millicent Sowerby (1915). Retold without the moral.]
Elwell, Peter. Cinderella. Illustrated by Jada Rowland. Chicago & New York: Calico Book/Contemporary Books, Inc., 1988.
[Includes a reconciliation with father at the end and a parting letter from Fairy Godmother.]
England, Mary. Our Favourite Nursery Tales. London: Frederick Warne, & Co., n.d.
[Includes Cinderella (unpaginated). Mainly follows Perrault, but with a few new details: Cinderella is seventeen at the time of the ball. When she puts on the slipper the Prince knows at once that she was “his beautiful partner at the ball.” The sisters rage, and the fairy godmother threatens to turn them into cats. But Cinderella forgives them and hopes the Prince does too. The Prince puts the slippers under a glass shade and shows them to his children and tells them each in turn the story of how Cinderella went to the ball. The cover (in color), by Gordon Robinson, shows Cinderella peeling potatoes before the hearth. She wears a red babushka and has long golden braids. Her skirt is checkered yellow and green. The four ink drawings for the tale itself are by Dudley S. Cowes. The one of Cinderella seated before the fire with her broom, while the cat drinks from a bowl, is particularly well done. The book sold for a shilling.]
Erlich, Amy. Cinderella. Illustrated by Susan Jeffers. New York: Dial, 1985.
[Susan Jeffers gets top billing in this edition, and deservedly so. The drawings are done with a fine-line pen and dyes.]
Fowles, John. Cinderella. Illustrated by Sheilah Beckett. London: Cape, 1974.
[Beckett’s exquisite pencil drawings are elegant and lavish in an art noveau/Rackham style. Neil Philip (see Criticism) uses this edition to illustrate the tendency of modern editions to sentimentalize the language of Perrault in clichéd retellings: “Even the distinguished novelist John Fowles falls into this trap in his version of Perrault’s story. His text is peppered, or rather sweetened, with words like ‘horrid’, ‘nasty’, and ‘nice’, trigger words which expect a reaction without working for it, and so conceal from the reader whose imagination has never properly been engaged the deeper levels of the text. A note of petulance creeps in: ‘It was so unfair.’ The Fairy Godmother gains ‘a secret little smile’, and her no-nonsense conversation is softened and elaborated. Perrault’s ‘Hé bien, seras-tu bonne fille? dit sa Marraine, je t’y ferai aller’ becomes ‘“Hm,” said the Fairy Godmother, “I see. Supposing I find a way to get you in–will you promise to be a good girl for evermore?”’” (p. 141). But, despite Philip’s criticism, the illustrations make up for any deficiency in the telling of the tale, and many will prefer Fowles’ somewhat witty narrative, perhaps even because of its sentimentality.]
Galdone, Paul. Cinderella. Illustrated by Paul Galdone. McGraw-Hill, 1978.
[Adapted from Perrault.]
Goode, Diane, translator and illustrator. Cinderella. New York: Knopf, 1988.
[A straight-forward retelling of Perrault, handsomely illustrated, especially in the transformation scenes where the mice turn to horses in a sequence of nine stop action drawings and the lizards become footmen in seven stages. Cinderella goes twice to the ball. After the fitting of the slipper Cinderella forgives the sisters. Goode includes the Moral. The book was issued in a slipcase edition that included a reading of the story by Jessica Lange, with music by Blane & DeRosa Productions.]
-----. Cinderella: The Dog and Her Little Glass Slipper. New York: Blue Sky Press, 2000.
[See Miscellaneous Cinderellas.]
Graham, Amanda. Cinderella; Alex and the Glass Slipper. South Australia: Keystone Picture Book, 1992.
[The first half the book is devoted to a retelling of Perrault’s Cinderella, with pumpkin coach, glass slippers, and the happily ever after. At the midpoint you encounter the ending of Alex and the Glass Slipper–upside down. Turning the book over one then reads Alex’s story as the back has become the front. See synopsis under Male Cinderellas, below.]
Graham, Eleanor. Bedtime Stories: Cinderella, Snow White. Illustrated by Masha. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1946.
[A Wonder Book, with washable covers and new long-life binding. Masha's illustrations are quite well done. The cover shows a little boy sitting on his bed in his green bunny slippers with his fairytale book resting on his knees and pillows propped up for back support. He admires Cinderella's fairy standing on the index finger of his left hand, while Snow White's dwarfs peer ovfer the top of the book and dangle from his elbow. His pet turtle on the bed spread is quite taken with the dwarfs. To his right a much guttered candle provides light. The book sold for 29 cents.]
Hadaway, Bridget. Fairy Tales. London: Octopus, 1978.
[Basically Perrault, but borrows from Grimm, or perhaps the pantos, to include a stepsisters disfiguring of her feet: “So greedy was she to become a princess that she actually snipped off her big toe with a pair of scissors and managed to squeeze her foot into the slipper. But the royal messenger saw the blood through the glass and disqualified her.” The prose is quaintly ponderous; for example, when Cinderella arrives at the ball “tongues began to wag behind fluttering fans, matronly dowagers with marriage-able daughters could not help looking askance beneath their heavily painted eyelids at this usurping stranger.”]
Hague, Michael. Cinderella and Other Tales from Perrault. Illustrated by Michael Hague. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.
[No acknowledgement of translator is given. Cinderella (pp. 45-54) has two full page illustrations; the end papers of the book also include a double spread of the pumpkin coach approaching the palace.]
Hayes, Sarah. Cinderella and Other Stories. New York: Derrydale Books, 1985.
Hillert, Margaret. Cinderella at the Ball. 1970.
[See Cinderella Educational Materials.]
Jerrard, Jane. Cinderella. Illustrated by Susan Spellman. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 1993.
[A simple retelling, with pumpkin, six mice, and a white rat for transformations. The Fairy Godmother watches over the whole story and shares in the joy of the slipper fitting at the end. The prince marries Cinderella that very day. The stepsisters are left unnamed.]
Karlin, Barbara. Cinderella. Illustrated by James Marshall. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989.
[A retelling with a difference: the fairy godmother moves in with them to assure happiness.]
Koopmans, Loek. Cendrillion. Text adapted by Géraldine Elschner. Illustrations by Koopmans. Zurich: Nord-Sud, 1999.
[In French. Elschner follows Perrault in precise detail, with Cendrillon sleeping on a straw mattress in the attic and doing all the unpleasant tasks about the house. She becomes so tired that she often lies down in the ashes by the kitchen fire. The fairy godmother appears after the others go to the ball, giving Perrault’s several instructions. Koopmans’ pumpkin that Cendrillon brings from the patch is about as big as she is. Her dress is golden covered with jewels and flowers that dazzle all at the ball, including the prince. The ball is illuminated by red, white, and blue Chinese lanterns. She escapes on time and “learns” from her sisters what happened at the ball. The next night she goes again in a gown even more beautiful than the first. After midnight Cendrillon escapes more swiftly than a deer, but not in time. She loses her glass slipper on the stair and flees into the dark wood. The prince searches for the owner of the slipper. Once identified, Cendrillon forgives the stepfamily and she and the prince fly away on an airbourne charger to the astonishment of birds, he in front and she behind with her trailing veil stretching across the sky.]
-----. Cinderella. Translated by Anthea Bell. New York: North-South Books, 1999.
[See the French version for synopsis.]
Lang, Andrew, ed. Perrault’s Popular Tales. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888.
Le Cain, Errol. Cinderella, or, The Little Glass Slipper. Illustrated by Errol Le Cain. London: Faber and Faber, 1972; New York: Bradbury Books, 1973; London: Puffin Books (Penguin), 1976; rpt. 1977, 1979, 1981.
[A once-to-the-ball adaptation of Perrault, with many felicitous touches. Superbly illustrated with eight full-spread color pictures opposite boxed narrative with intricate borders on the adjacent pages, interspersed with seven comparable layouts in black and white. With the covers and end pages there are 12 full page illustrations in all. Cinderella’s world is both diegetic and non-diegetic, her immediate world accompanied by mice, lizards, and a friendly cat, but overseen simultaneously by threatening faces of step-relatives from the margins while, more assuringly, the watchful face of the godmother also appears in corners, or from a stary realm, or amidst the awe-inspiring clouds. Cinderella works in an affected society but in the perview of an ever-present benevolent nature. The animals usually provide commentary on the scene. The cover presents a garden scene, with Cinderella raking leaves while the step-family has tea. In the shadows along the garden wall a large pumpkin is growing amidst the flowers. In the foreground cat looks across the way at a mouse hiding by the pumpkin and a lizard watches the scene from afar. The frontispiece shows the coach with six high stepping horses with manes like wings followed by three tailed footmen passing between a forest and a pond, which creates a double image in a world of moonlight and fish, dragonflies, and lilypads. Le Cain often uses stop-action designs to show how the mice transform into horses, the lizards into footmen, or princess back into poverty.]
Lenski, Lois. Cinderella and Other Stories. New York: Platt & Munk Co., 1919. With Numerous Illustrations in Black and White. By LLL. No. 657: For Children Four to Ten Years Old.
[Cinderella in rags getting ready to try on the slipper provides the handsome cover; the picture is repeated as an ink drawing for the frontispiece. Other ink drawings for the Cinderella story include Cinderella at the fireplace with a black cat watching her warm her hands; Cinderella preparing the two sisters’ hair for the ball; the little fairy godmother charming the pumpkin, which has an apprehensive expression on its face; and the coach setting out after the wedding. The book includes as well “Hop-o’-my Thumb’s Wanderings” and “The Good Bargain.”]
-----. Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper. New York: The Platt & Munk Co., 1922. 4to.
[Twelve pages in stiff pictorial wraps on linenlike paper. Star No. 2000. Lenski provides six color prints and six black and white illustrations. The story follows Perrault but is abbreviated.]
Magner, Carolyn. Cinderella by Charles Perrault. Illustrated by Kathy Mitchell. Dream House: Mount Washington Press. Hong Kong: Ottenheimer Publishers, 1993.
[None in the stepfamily are given names. They are simply hateful. Cinderella is embarrassed by her raggety clothes. The fairy godmother has a Burne Jones beauty about her as she appears elongated in the air, with swirling wand and flowing hair to make the transformations. The same slim elongated style is used to depict Cinderella as she appears to try the slipper. “‘It’s you!’ the Prince exclaimed with joy, taking Cinderella’s delicate hand. Magically, in a sparkling cloud, the girl in ragged clothes was transformed into a beautiful Princess. ‘Thank you, fairy godmother,’ Cinderella whispered.”]
Malipiero, G., ed. Cinderella: A Story by Perrault. Illustrated by R. Canaider. Bologna, Italy: Printed in Finland, 1969.
[This nicely illustrated fourteen page book with large print is designed for children to read and enjoy on their own. Each page has a large half-page color illustration.]
McClintock, Barbara. Cinderella: Retold and Illustrated by Barbara McClintock. From the Charles Perrault Version. New York: Scholastic Press, 2005.
[This handsome book follows in a graceful style the details of Perrault's original plot. But its strength is the illustratations done in an eighteenth-century cartoon style, all in color, often full page or double spread. McClintock has won several prizes for her art work (three New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book awards and The Boston Globe - Horn Book honor). The pictures in this book were inspired by travel in France: The royal palace is based on Versailles and the Paris Opera and the costumes and hairdos reflect the time of Louis XIV. According to the dust jacket McClintock has been influenced here by the work of Watteau, Fragonard, the films of Jean Cocteau, and the Tintin comic books. A recurrent motif throughout the illustrations is Cinderella's cat, who like Tintin's dog, provides a light commentary on the action as it unfolds - often engaged, surprised, angry in her support of Cinderella, or preoccupied with some otherwise extraneous detail. The cat does not go to the ball, but she does enjoy a comfortable pedastal perch in the garden party after the wedding. Through most of the story the stepsisters' favorite prop is their mirrors. One sister is fat and complacent, the other thin and cranky. The stout stepmother, with her heavy eyebrows, enjoys the wedding party in the company of a distinguished court gentleman, while the stepsisters, in grand costume, find consolation with wigged gentlemen who seem interested in their conversation - suitable noblemen whom, we are told, they wed. Everyone lives "happily ever after, forever and a day."]
La Merveilleuse Histoire de Cendrillon Racontée Par L’Image. No. 7. Paris: Les Éditions Modernes, n.d.
[A 16 page cartoon version with 90 drawings by G. Niezab. The tale is told twice, beneath each drawing (six frames per page) and then dramatized through the dialogue within each frame. In this version Cendrillion goes to the palace herself after the prince has failed to locate the owner of the slipper. The revelation scene, used as the cover of the booklet, takes place in a grand hall where the wigged prince, in his bows and ruffles, exclaims: “Quoi, c’est cette petíte servante qui a réussi a mettre la jolie pantoufle de vair!” To whom the aproned servant girl in her babushka and clogs replies, “Oui, mon prince, c’est moi! Et j’ajouterai que je possé de la seconde pantoufle,” which she holds before her as a scornful room of courtiers haughtily look on.]
Meeks, Esther K. Cinderella. Illustrated by Doris Stolberg. Chicago: Wilcox & Follett, 1948.
[In this version Cinderella has three cruel and selfish sisters. But the fairy helps only her, gives her a gown, and transforms the pumpkin, rat, lizards, and mice. After the ball the Prince seeks her out, her foot fits the glass slipper, and they marry. She is generous to her sisters even though they were never kind to her.]
Merrill, Anna Darby. The Story of Cinderella. Illustrated by Juanita Bennett. Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company, 1935.
[A large 9¾ X 12⅞” book, handsomely illustrated. Marietta's father, who married again after her mother’s death, is drowned on a trip back from China. The stepmother and her two daughters enslave the little girl and change her name to Cinderella. When the ball is announced she is denied the privilege of going. A beautiful fairy godmother helps her, however, transforming mice and pumpkin into coach and horses, and with a “One, Two, Three-Smiles, Courage, Love; One, Two, Three-Gifts from above,” she sends her to the ball with admonitions to leave before twelve. The herald asks her name and she replies, “The Princess of Ashguard! (How true that is she thought!)” The Prince loves her at first sight in her swishy pink satin gown, which in the illustrations changes to green, and then to yellow, as if by magic. As she flees at midnight, the Prince marvels to see her coach turn into a pumpkin. To find her the Prince has a second ball, and a third. Cinderella wonders why she must be kept “wanting things I can’t have,” to which the godmother replies, “Because it’s natural,” then sends her on as before. Now she appears in white and quite overshadows her stepsisters (Carlotta and Dorothea), beautiful though they are in the silken gowns Cinderella had been forced to make for them from her father’s sea-chest. After the last night she loses her glass slipper. The prince searches for her, reassured by the king and queen, who loved the girl too. Even the footman finds it strange: “What would mice be doing running away from a feast!” he wonders. When she hears the announcement that the Prince is looking for the one who fits the slipper, she puts on the other and dreams of the Princess of Ashguard, among her ashes. When the Prince arrives, Carlotta and Dorothea try to force their feet into the slipper but are unable to. They scream for Cinderella to bring the shoehorn. The Prince immediately recognizes her gentle face and asks, “Show these unseeing people, once for all, who you really are.” She claims it’s a mistake, that she is only Cinderella. But the Prince asks her to obey, “You are-my-very-own!” So she puts on the slipper. The radiance glows from the sparkling glass illuminating her beauty. The fairy godmother transforms her, but her eyes outshine the diamonds. The king and queen are notified, and Cinderella and her prince are married, their lives to be governed by a bond of love. As the organ sings “Smiles- Courage-Love,” a gentle voice echoes the song in Cinderella’s heart and “in her hair glowed the star from the Fairy Godmother’s wand.”]
Miller, Alice Duer. Cinderella. Illustrated by Constantin Alajalov. New York: Coward-McCann, 1943.
[Verse adaptation of Perrault by the author of The White Cliffs, Come Out of the Kitchen, and Gowns for Roberta. Poor Cinderella’s mother dies when Cinderella is only four or five. Her father marries out of a sense of duty to his child a sophisticated woman with two daughters of her own, Gismonda and Isabella, who, with all their highbrow accomplishments, scorn poor Cinderella. The father recognizes that his loveless marriage was a mistake, but he dies when his horse falls on him one morning in the park, and Cinderella is converted to a kitchen drudge. The Prince announces his ball and Gismonda and Bella prepare to attend with a flourish and a hairdresser, leaving poor Cinderella alone at last, in ashes and tears. The fairy godmother appears, clothes her splendidly, then transforms a pumpkin, a Chinese rat, four gray rats, and three mice into forms of transport and attendants. Cinderella arrives at the ball in diamonds and lace to meet the Prince face to face. All buzz and whisper about who she might be–the Duchess Geraldine, the youthful queen of Hyperborea, the child of Atheling the old pirate king? At midnight she flees. A kitchen boy going home to bed finds the pumpkin and takes it to his mother to cook; but no one pays attention to the scullery girl as she departs. In the search for the owner of the glass slipper the Duke endures the insults of Bella and Gismonda as their fittings fail, but he insists that the lovely Cinderella be allowed to try on the shoe. It fits and Gismonda faints, while Isabella advises the Duke to avoid being a fool by presenting an ignorant drudge to the Prince, but the Duke says the Prince must be judge. The Prince accepts her in rags and offers her gems. She says that those things don’t matter to her, and the wedding takes place. The Fairy, an old friend of the King, rides by on her wand and blesses the event. There is feasting and fireworks and all are happy, so the book says.]
Morris, Ann. The Cinderella Rebus Book. Illustrated by Ljiljana. New York: Orchard Books, 1989.
[Follows Perrault, mainly, with fairy queen, pumpkin, mice, glass slipper, etc. But here the three sisters are full siblings and, instead of a ball, they have a Christmas party. During the wedding the ugly sisters stay home arguing.]
Moore, Marianne. Puss in Boots, The Sleeping Beauty, & Cinderella: A Retelling of Three Classic Fairy Tales Based on the French of Charles Perrault. Illustrated by Eugene Karlin. New York: Macmillan; London: Collier-Macmillan Ltd., 1963. Pp. 33-46.
[“The young man who had been trying to find a foot to fit the slipper looked hard at Cinderella and, thinking her very beautiful, said it was true that he had been commissioned to request every young lady to try the slipper on; then he asked Cinderella to sit down. He put the slipper on her shapely foot and saw that she had no trouble getting it on, that it fitted like a mould” (p. 44).]
The New Walt Disney Treasury. New York: Golden Press, 1971.
[Marginal animation drawings from the 1949 movie accompany a minimal text.]
Noel, Susanna. “Cinderella.” Illustrated by Susanna Noel. In Favourite Fairy Tales. London: Treasure Press, 1971.
Patience, John. Cinderella. Retold and Illustrated by John Patience. Once Upon a Storytime Series. Ashland, Ohio: Landoll, 1993.
[Bright illustrations throughout, with 19th century allusions, particularly on the title page. Nice stop-action sequences of mice and lizards as they change to horses and footmen. Clever brideshow double page as the women line up to try the slipper as one page reads the names and another sounds the trumpet. Doublespread end papers of coach and six in black silhouette crossing a bridge to approach the castle after dusk.]
Perlman, Janet. Cinderella Penguin; or, The Glass Flipper. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1982.
[See Miscellaneous Cinderellas.]
Perrault’s Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Gustav Doré. Translated by A. E. Johnson. Dover, 1969.
Perrault’s Complete Fairy Tales. Illustrated by H. Robinson. Dodd, Mead, 1961.
Pienkowski, Jan. Cinderella. London: Heinemann: Gallery Five, 1977.
[Pienkowski’s illustrations are mainly silhouettes, somewhat in the style of Arthur Rackham. They are often quite clever. The book is ca. 3 1/4" x 4 3/8".]
Piper, Watty. Cinderella. Illustrated by Eul Olie. With Verses by Kate Cox Goddard. New York: Platt & Monk Inc., 1934. No. 300A.
[12 pages, including front and back covers. Five color illustrations, including the cover which shows Cinderella in her finery looking at herself in a mirror held by the Fairy Godmother. There are six ink drawings as well, for ten pages of narrative in all, with over half of each page devoted to illustration. The adapter follows Perrault in a lively, efficient telling. The edition does not identify the author, though it does give the copyright and publisher.
[This version was subsequently reprinted in Eight Fairy Tales ed. Watty Piper. New York: Platt & Monk Inc., 1938. The Eight Fairy Tales edition includes Peter Pan, Cinderella, Dick Whitting and his Cat, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, The Three Bears, and Tom Thumb. Each tale concludes with an eight-line verse moral by Kate Cox Goddard. The verses for Cinderella read:
Cinderella looks so sweet
In dainty dress of lace
She glances in the mirror
And sees a smiling face.
I guess we would be happy
If we had such small feet
To wear a wee glass slipper
And then a Prince to meet.]
Robinson, Ian. Cinderella. Illustrated by Gerry Embleton. London: Award Publications Ltd., 1980.
[In this version even the ugly sisters rejoice at their sister’s good fortune and are never cruel or hateful to her again.]
San Souci, Robert D. Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1998.
[The tale is told by a poor washerwoman who, when her mother died, received from the woman a wand of mahogany which, if tapped three times, could grant wishes. The fisherwoman serves as nurse for a lovely woman on a grand estate, who names the poor woman godmother to her child, Cendrillon. But shortly thereafter, Cendrillon’s mother dies, and her father remarries. He soon has another child named Vitaline. The stepmother and Vitaline enslave Cendrillon. As she does the washing on the rocks by the river her godmother meets with her, worried over what has happened to her hands, clothing, health, and general welfare. But Cendrillon remains cheerful, until one day when she learns of a ball Prince Paul will give in hope of finding a bride. The stepfamily sees to it that Cendrillon cannot attend, but the godmother uses her wand and converts a big round breadfruit into a coach - to, to, to!; then she turns six agoutis in a cage into carriage horses and five brown field lizards into tall footmen. Then she changes a plump manicou into a coachman. Last of all, with three more taps, Cendrillon is dressed in a trailing gown of sky-blue velvet. She has a lovely turban, a silk shoulder scarf of pale rose, rings, bracelets, four strands of gold beads, and, most important, a pair of pink embroidered slippers. The godmother transforms her own clothing as well and the two go to the ball together. The prince is amazed at Cendrillon’s beauty and dances only with her while her “servant,” the godmother, eats chocolate sherbet. At midnight the godmother whisks Cendrillon away. After the twelfth bell all the magic disappears, and Cendrillon and the old fisherwoman trudge home. Cendrillon does not appear the next day, because she is too ill with heartbreak. So the godmother comes to attend her. They hear a commotion downstairs as the stepmother and Vitaline attempt to put on the shoe. As they struggle to make a fit, the godmother calls out, “If you cut off those big toes, it would be a fine fit.” The madame sends the washerwoman away. She leaves the madame, but does not leave the house. Instead, she transforms Cendrillon into her majesty of the night before so that she might reclaim the slipper. But then she changes her mind and with three more taps restores Cendrillon to her old clothes. “No more spells,” the godmother insists. The prince recognizes her instantly and places the slipper on her foot as true love gleams in their eyes. The wedding is splendid and the godmother eats nine helpings of chocolate sherbet as she watches them dance.]
Schermelé, Willy. Cinderella and The Glass Slipper. Retold and Illustrated by Willy Schermelé. London: Juvenile Productions, n.d.
[Schermelé’s 1950’s edition is sweetly illustrated, with lots of adoring animals bringing happiness into Cinderella’s life. As in Grimm, birds help her sort the peas from the cinders–tomtits, robins, sparrows, and pigeons. But this is a fairy godmother/pumpkin/glass slipper story, with hushed romance as well as fairy charm. After the wedding feast Ella forgets not her animal friends and slips out to thank them for their friendship. The Prince comes too; he becomes the best friend of all.]
Schroeder, Alan. Smoky Mountain Rose: An Appalachian Cinderella. Pictures by Brad Sneed. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1997. A paperback edition with a different cover was published by Puffin Books, 1997.
[After her mama’s death, pa and Rose live happily in the Smoky Mountains until pa marries the widow Gertie, who had two daughters, Annie and Liza Jane. They make Rose do all the work. A rich feller on the other side of Tarbelly Creek gives a shindig that sets everyone wild. Rose would like to go but the sisters start howlin’, “Lawd-a-marcy! Who’d want to dance with a dirt clod lak you?” They set off for the shindig leaving Rose to cry by the pigsty. But one of the hogs comes over and starts talking to her and turns a mushmelon and two field rats into a wagon with white horses. She then dreses Rose up fancy with a pair of sparklin’ glass slippers. Annie and Liza Jane are outraged to see her at the shindig, but Seb dances with nobody but her. “Look at her,” sneered Gertie, “sashayin’ round lak she’s the belly o’ the ball.” But at midnight Rose hurries home, losing a slipper while Seb hollers “Come back!” Next day the stepmother and her daughters are especially mean to Rose until they learn that Seb is looking for the girl whose foot will fit the slipper. Their feet prove too big, but Seb spots Rose near the pigsty and recognizes her. The shoe fits, the hog starts snortin’, and suddenly Rose is wearin’ the exact same dress she had on at the shindig. Rose and Seb get married but Rose don’t turn her back on her stepsisters. She says she loves ‘em “like soup loves salt,” and from then on they don’t give her no grief. Seb and Rose live to an old age and are about the happiest twosome in all Tarbelly Creek.]
Serkin, Amalia. See The Story of Cinderella, below.
Shorto, Russell. Cinderella. Illustrated by T. Lewis. New York: Birch Lane, 1990.
[First you read Cinderella’s story, almost identical to Perrault's version. Turning the book over, you then read "Cinderella: The Untold Story," as presented by Dora, stepsister to Cinderella and sister to Della, neither of whom is wicked, nor is Donna, their kind, hard-working mother. But they all have trouble with Cinderella, who perpetually makes up stories with happy endings that favor herself.]
Smith, Mary Carter. “Cindy Ellie.” In Best Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival. Jonesboro, Tennessee: National Storytelling Press, 1991. Pp. 83-90.
The Story of Cinderella: Illustrated in Color Photography. Dolls designed and made by Amalia Serkin. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Inc., 1945.
[Sixteen color photographs of dolls in suitable settings to convey and accompany a retelling of Perrault’s story. Acknowledgment is made to the London Museum for permission to photograph the model of the Coronation coach. The dolls are superb, as is the composition of the photographs. The text includes 13 ink drawings that are set amidst the text. The photographs appear on the recto side, with the text printed on the verso after p. 4.]
Tales from Perrault. Illustrated by Tony James Chance. Translated by Ann Lawrence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
[A second title page reads Charles Perrault’s Tales of Mother Goose. Eleven tales, including “The Little Glass Slipper,” “Riquet the Tuft,” “Griseldis,” and “Donkeyskin,” are linked by a frame narrative which begins with Madame la Marquise and her daughter leaving Paris for her country estates speaking with Monsieur Perrault, the Academician, who wishes them a safe journey. Madame’s daughter has enjoyed their Paris visit, especially Perrault’s stories, so he tells a short one, “Little Red Cap,” before they leave. The women discuss the ending, wishing Red Cap could have been saved by the woodcutter, then say their goodbyes. Each story subsequently is introduced by a letter from Perrault addressing the circumstances of Mademoiselle’s rustication. “The Princess of the Sleeping Wood” tells of a girl in more secluded circumstances than Mademoiselle’s, with comments at the end about the advantage of deferring marital joys. The next letter from Perrault replies to Mademoiselle’s dissatisfaction with Beauty’s having to wait a hundred years, and warns against impatience with the story of “Bluebeard.” Next Mademoiselle complains that Perrault is trying to put her off the idea of marriage altogether, so he tells the story of “The Master Cat,” then, after discussion of the merits of that story, “The Fairy Gifts,” with its consideration of reward. Then comes “The Little Glass Slipper,” which follows an extended discussion of the value of tales from antiquity, especially the story of Cupid and Psyche. It is presented as “one of the prettiest tales I know.” Mademoiselle observes that Perrault failed to supply a moral for the tale so in his next letter he supplies a couple, with discussion of beauty and wit in heroines along with meekness and the dangers of being insipid; this is followed by the tale of “Riquet the Tuft,” which leads to more debate about beauty, ugliness, love, and invisible charms. Perrault then tells of “Little Thummie,” a story about a large poverty-stricken family that works hard. The next story is “Griseldis,” told as a model of Patience, a tale of one who would be laughed at in Paris, where women insist on wielding power. Madame and Mademoiselle like this story and, in his letter, Perrault discusses debates he has had with others over various points in the story. His next story is “Donkeyskin,” which Madame criticises for having too many morals. The last tale of “The Ridiculous Wishes” he tells as a trifle, knowing that Madame and Mademoiselle have such good sense and intelligence as to take delight in it even though it is foolish.]
Topor, Roland. Charles Perrault: Contes Texte présenté et commenté par Roger Zuber. Illustrations by Roland Topor. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1987.
[See Topor's full page ink drawing and watercolor of young Cendrillon, naked beside a pumpkin, adjusting her hair as she looks down at the slipper that rests on the delta between her legs.]
“Van Gool’s” Cinderella. London: Twin Books, 1992.
[Cinderella plays with her dolls, telling them a story they have heard many times. It is the Cinderella story: After the stepsisters go to the ball, Cinderella gets her dolls out and plays like she is going too, with a pumpkin coach and little horses made from spools with wine cork heads. Fairy godmother appears and makes the dolls real and Cinderella goes to the ball. She flees at midnight, losing her glass slipper. Her coach and dolls are returned to doll form and Cinderella finds herself sitting on the kitchen floor, except that she still has the other glass slipper. After the prince finds her and the shoe fits, the fairy godmother transforms her back into her princess form, and she and the prince are married. She brings her beloved dolls to the palace and late at night the dolls come back to life, remarking on how happy they are that Cinderella is happy.]
Walt Disney’s Cinderella. Authorized Edition. Adapted by George Wheeler. A Tell-a-Tales book. Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Col, 1956.
[The series includes Original Stories, Old Favorite Stories, Religious Stories, and Stories About Your TV and Movie Friends, in which this Cinderella is included. The illustrations are Disney-like, though not of the quality of most Disney illustrators.]
Walt Disney’s Cinderella. New York: Random House, 1974.
[A Disney’s Wonderful World of Reading book, with new drawings based on the 1949 movie. “Designed to encourage youngsters to read by themselves.”]
Walt Disney’s Cinderella. Loughborough, Leicestershire England: Ladybird Books, 1985.
[Disney illustrations grace a retelling for young children.]
Walt Disney’s Cinderella. A Golden Super Shape Book. Racine, WI: Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1996.
[Brief narrative, with many drawings based loosely on the Disney film. Ample numbers of animals encourage Cinderella’s incorrigible spirit.]
Walt Disney. Cinderella’s Magic Adventure: Choose Your Own Adventure. Toronto: Bantam Book, 1985.
[“This book is about you – and Cinderella. The orphan Cinderella longs to go to the Prince’s ball. Whatever happens in the story depends on what you decide to do.” For example, the narrator meets poor Cinderella weeping. Two questions are raised. “If you take Cinderella to the palace turn to p. 4”; or “If you decide to try to cheer her up, turn to p. 6,” The first option gets Cinderella to the ball in rags and they have to hide. If you hide in the well, then…? Or if you hide in the shed, then? Other options open up: If you pick a pumpkin by the fence, then what; or if you pick one near the scarecrow then…” Or, if at the ball you try to warn Cinderella about the approach of midnight, then what? Or if you decide to dance yourself, then? Should you try to help her by picking up the slipper? Or should you follow her and give her a ride in your coach? Each question has its own narrative sequence which brings the choice to an end. In the last version the protagonist tells the archduke where to find Cinderella. The shoe fits and you get to watch the marriage. “You beam with pleasure as you watch the happy couple. Everything is ending happily and all because of you!” (p. 43) – the last ending.]
Windsor, Mary. Cinderella: A Fairy Story. Illustrated by Juanita Bennett. Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Co., 1935.
[A jumbo-sized book, with large illustrations of blonde Cinderella with long 1930s curled hair. When in her finery she looks with her innocent smile like a prom queen, wearing her first lipstick.]
The Wonderful Story of Cinderella. A Dean Board Book. New York: Playmore, Inc., 1979.
[A ten page board book.]
Worcester, Retta S., and Jane Werner. Walt Disney’s Cinderella. New York: Golden Press, 1950.
Cinderella Come To Life Stories. London: Sandle Brothers Ltd., 1951.
[An eight thick-cardboard-page book with four pages of text and two elaborate double-spread pop-ups, the first of Cinderella’s arrival at the ball as she steps from the coach; the second of the wedding itself.]
Kubasta, V. Cinderella: An All-Action Treasure Hour Pop-Up Book. Illustrated by V. Kubasta. Distributed by Brown Watson (Leicester) Ltd, copyright 1972. Rpt: Prague: Artia, 1982.
[Five pop-up images with moving parts: Cinderella weeps in the kitchen as the Fairy Godmother appears; the coach departs for the ball, with bowing footmen and wand waving fairy; Cinderella arrives at the ball in a splendidly bustled dress; the prince meets Cinderella, then hides her behind a curtain while others bow and try to peek; Cinderella flees down the staircase, losing her slipper; the wedding feast with the new couple flanked at the table by king and queen and a grand Bavarian wedding cake rising in the center. This final scene of the feast is especially well done, with moving parts that make the servants wave their arms in celebration of the event while a cat and dog pop out from either end of the bench. The story is an efficient adaptation of Perrault. The front cover shows Cinderella descending the staircase, losing her slipper; the back cover shows the fitting as the mean and fat stepmother watches in dismay, along with her two ugly daughters who have taken their big shoes off. The chamberlain removes Cinderella’s wooden clog and places the radiant slipper on her foot. The 1982 edition is a precise reprint of the first edition.]
-----. Cinderella: All Action Pop-up Book. Leicester, England: Brown Watson, c. 1997.
[A slightly modified reprint of the well-designed and much reprinted Kubasta edition, with its twelve pages with spine at the top to create six fairly complex pop-up scenes with text at the bottom horizontal pages. The front cover of this reprint shows Cinderella transformed in radiance by the fairy godmother with the fireplace in the background. The back cover has a mandorla of her sitting by the fire in her raggety dress. The cover images are by a different artist.]
Cinderella Fairy Tale Pop-up Book. No author, publisher, or date given [1980's?].
[The narrative is based mainly on Perrault’s glass slipper story, though the illustrations are closer to Grimms, with the lentils sorted by the helpful birds and the dove in the tree who helps her as her mother might have done. In the narrative the animals prove to be good friends. A frog becomes her coachman.]
Cinderella Pop-Up Picture Story. Illustrated by Pamela Storey. Toronto: Brown and Watson, 1989.
[Six pop-up double spreads: Cinderella in the kitchen meets the godmother; she sets out for the ball; she meets the prince while the stepmother scorns her; the stepsisters scorn her at the ball; Cinderella flees at midnight losing her slipper on the stair; the wedding feast. The cover depicts the Prince presenting the slipper to the patchwork Cinderella.]
Cinderella. My Favorite Pop-Up Book, no. 20005. New York: Modern Promotions. A Division of Unisystems, Inc., n.d. [1990's]
[Four pop-up panels: Cinderella scrubbing the floor while the stepmother, daughters, and two puppy dogs watch; The young and pretty fairy godmother appears to scraggly Cinderella in the rose garden to prepare her for the ball; Cinderella flees down the palace stair, losing her slipper, as the Prince pursues; The slipper fits, to the amazement of all. The cover shows Cinderella, wild hair flowing in the wind, waving from the coach as three white horses dash toward the palace.]
Cinderella: A Look and Play Book, with a Special Fold-Out Palace. Pictures by Susan Rowe. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. A Division of Penguin USA. 2006. $6.95.
[The first twelve pages tell the story with text on the left and full-page illustrations on the right. At the end is the fold-out palace, with base ca. 5 inches square and a green steeple that fits over the box reaching to a height of about 9 inches. Between the two turrets is a functional balcony. Doors and windows open to reveal the palace interior where Cinderella may dance or relax in her own stand-up space.]
The Fantastic Fairy Tale Pop-Up Book. Includes Four Miniature Storybooks. New York: Random House, 1992.
[The four pop-up settings are for Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood. The miniature texts are in pockets placed at the base of the residence, to be removed and read aloud while the child plays with the edifice that rises when the book is fully opened flat and placed on the table, or whatever.]
Faust, Wayne. Cinderella. Illustrated by David Wenzel. Design and paper engineering by Roger Culbertson. Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers, 1994.
[A pop-up book with an audiocassette that stores inside the book, narrated by Annie Potts. Through paper mechanics Cinderella scrubs floors, moves her eyes as the fairy godmother enters, rides in a bumpy pumpkin coach while a moon comes out and she waves goodbye to her fairy godmother; the prince picks up the slipper, then slips it onto her foot, and a castle unfolds into which the bride and groom enter. The book is the same dimension as the cassette it holds.]
Pop-Up Theater Proudly Presents Cinderella. Produced by Richard Fowler and David Wood. New York: Larousse Kingfisher Chambers Inc., 1994.
[Pop-up Theater with stage, curtain, four scrims, and a full cast of characters, mainly from Perrault’s version of the story. A play script is included that gives all the necessary stage directions, set changes, and dialogue between the several characters. The script is written in form of a play, in rhyming couplets. The tale is well told and the dialogue is excellent. Repeatedly, the mice come to Cinderella’s support, whether in frightening the step sisters away or getting the slipper to the prince.]
Umansky, Kaye. Cinderella. Curtain Up! Photocopiable Plays. London: A & C Black, 1996.
[Play script and ink drawings of all characters, with descriptions. See Drama.]
Cinderella. A Look and Play Book, with a Special Fold-Out Palace. Pictures by Susan Rowe. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, n.d. [c. 1997].
[5¾ ” x 5¾ ”. 10 pages with illustrations on recto, story on verso, with an 11th and 12th page folding out into a turreted castle with roof, floor, and windows and doors that open. Outside the pumpkin carriage is parked and heralds sound trumpets from the balcony; inside the ball is in full swing with a pop-up Cinderella and Prince dancing, while the stepmother and sisters pop up and watch. A magnificent multi-tiered wedding cake pops up as well. The castle is nicely engineered.]
Cinderella: Fairy Tale Pop-up. New York: Playmore Inc., Publishers and Waldman Publishing Corp, 1999.
[This series of four pop-up books includes also a Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White. Each has five horizontal pop-ups with text and continuing artwork on the facing page, which becomes the horizontal plane to a vertical backdrop out of which the figures pop out. The artwork is excellent. The five Cinderella panels depict 1.) Cinderella scrubbing the kitchen floor as the two stepsisters mock her, deliberately spilling more tea on the floor; 2.) the preparation of the stepsisters for the ball under the supervision of the stepmother, with clothes strewn everywhere; 3.) Cinderella transformed by the fairy godmother and ready to get into the coach at 10:35 p.m.; 4.) Cinderella fleeing the ball, leaving her slipper on the stair; 5.) and Cinderella fitting into the glass slipper to a happy prince and weeping sisters. She is still in her rags, but the mice seem very pleased. A miniature version of this pop-up was also published in the same year. The 10 1/4 X 8 version sold for $6.95; the 6 3/8 X 4 5/8 version for $3.95.]
Cinderella Pop-Up Book. Totowa, NJ: Grandreams Limited, 1999.
[One in a series of six pop-up books on common fairytales (Peter Pan, Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Snow White, and Puss in Boots being the other five) printed with spine at top so that when the book is opened the perpendicular page lifts the pop-up illustration, with the text on the flat page. Six horizontal pages of text and six vertical pop-ups. Quite handsomely done. The artist-designer is not identified.]
Cinderella Pop-Up. Edmonton, Alberta, CA: Creative Publishing (A Division of Transglobal Communications Group Inc.), 2003.
[One in a series of Fairy Tales Pop-Up Books that includes Beauty and the Beast (see Beauty and the Beast), Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, and Pinocchio. No artist is identified. The cover shows the Prince, in his red jacket with gold trim, reaching toward Cinderella, in her blue ball gown, who with an alarmed look heads for the stairs with her bare foot showing. The coach is in the background with the attendant holding the door open. One of the blue horses has already turned back into a mouse. People at the ball watch. The first of five pop-up pictures shows Cinderella scrubbing floor while the stepmother hovers over her and the stepsisters gossip in the background; Pop-up 2 shows the coach ready, surrounded with fairy dust as the fairy godmother waves her wand. One mouse is yet to be transformed, and Cinderella is still in her rags. Pop-up 3 shows Cinderella in her blue gown dancing with the Prince as the people watch. Pop-up 4 shows her fleeing down the stairs with the Prince in pursuit. Pop-up 5 shows Cinderella smiling in her rags with the slipper on and the Prince, with his right hand taking her left hand, while in his left, he holds a diamond ring to place on her ring finger. She looks mighty pleased and the stepsisters look dumbfounded: one gasps in protest and the other spills coffee down the front of her pretty dress. The stepmother just steams in anger.]
Reinhart, Matthew. Cinderella: A Pop-Up Tale. Little Simon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.
[This 10½ X 8¼ book with a 2 inch wide spine is the ultimate Cinderella Pop-Up book. Designed around six double page full three-dimensional spreads, each of the six sets includes one or two booklets that not only tell the story, but, in turn, open up into additional pop-ups that work into components of the double spread setting. The first double spread set consists of a standing cottage with shrubberies and animals. Cinderella looks out of the window toward a standing gazebo, where the stepsisters are having tea while the stepmother rushes toward the cottage shouting orders at Cinderella. There is also a covered well, with shiny water inside, a fish pond, and a chicken coop with doors and chickens inside at the edge of a wood with standing trees where deer feed. In the upper right corner of the estate is the pumpking patch. As you read the story in the booklet in the lower right corner, you turn the first page of the booklet to encounter a double spread with narrative on both sides, where Cinderella, upside-down slides down the chimney (as the page is opened) into the hearth, as she cleans out the soot. The next page-turn of the booklet opens into another two page spread, this one of the king telling his surprised son about the ball where he is to choose his bride. The second large double spread setting shows the dressing room in the cottage with the two stepsisters putting on their wigs and fancy gowns. Cinderella tugs on the corset strings of one sister. The booklet this time extends along the full length of the left side. On the first page turn the double-spread pop-up is of the fiendish-looking stepmother gesturing as she gives orders; at the bottom is a scroll that opens to reveal the invitation to the ball. The second pop-up page of the booklet shows the fairy godmother flying through the air over the pumpkin patch as she gestures with her wand. When you open up the third of the six large double spread settings a huge pumpkin coach appears, pulled by six white prancing horses. Cinderella stands before the coach as the fairy godmother prepares to transform her dress. The booklet is in the lower left. Through a window you see the head of a large black rat, but as you turn the page the rat stands up and unfolds into a smiling coachman. Through a second window you see a row of dancing lizards which, upon turning the page, transform into six footmen, all dressed in green and yellow. The fourth large double-spread setting opens up to show Cinderella, her red hair flowing behind, moving across a tesselated floor in her spectacular ball gown (ca. 7 inches in diameter and 3 1/2 inches high up to her waist) with real-satin flowing blue ribbons around the complete circumference of the gown. There are two booklets for this setting, one in each lower corner above which are rosebushes where rabbits play. The left booklet opens up into a double spread of the king and queen pointing out the approaching Cinderella to an eager Prince, who gestures toward her. The righthand booklet shows princess Cinderella seated at a table in the palace, sharing a roast chicken with the two step-sisters who wolf down drumsticks without recognizing that the mysterious princess is really Cinderella. The fifth double-spread setting is of the ball itself where five couples dance on the tesselated floor before windows that mirror their movements; they twirl as the page opens to create the effect of actual dancing. Nobility stand around the dance floor watching the exhibit. The stepmother looks on in anger as Cinderella and the Prince adore each other. Two ladies make a pass at a young courter, and the king and queen move close to the prince in admiration. Again, the set has two booklets: the left one has a clock in the foreground showing three minutes before midnight. Through the window you see the anxious Cinderella hurrying away. As you open the booklet her gorgeous gown turns into the old rags as Cinders pops up and rushes past a pumpkin as the black rat and white mice scamper before her. As you open the right booklet, the stepmother, now back home, closes the door of a closet, thus hiding Cinderella from view while the two sisters address the prince, who carries the glass slipper. The kind animals peek at the scene through the window. They move about as the page opens. The sixth and last major setting is of the turreted castle with the king, queen and steward on the rampart, while others wave from windows and birds fly out of bushes and trees. There is one booklet on the lower left. When you open it, having read about Cinderella's confident request to put on the slipper, the first double spread shows the slipper slipping on to her foot. When you turn to the second spread of the booklet, the draw bridge drops, a crowd of townspeople pop up and wave, and a bar sliding beneath the road opens up a grassy spot to reveal the Prince and Cinderella on a horse as they ride away. Cinderella gestures at the townsfolk and a portion of the path reveals the words "The End," as what has now become a right corner booklet informs us that "Cinderella and her prince had found each other at last and would live happily ever after." The book is well-worth the $24.95 at which it is priced.]
Smith, Keri. Cinderella. Story-in-a-Box. Design by Kristine Brogno and Keri Smith. Typeset in Aunt Mildred. Vancouver, BC: Raincoast Books, 2001.
[The box opens out into a playing area with a wardrobe with a latch on the left that holds one Cinderella paper doll, one mouse paper doll, one press-on ballgown with accessories, along with a whiskbroom, dustpan, purse, magic wand, and crown. When the wardrobe door is opened and the contents removed, there is a storage area/broom closet. In the right side of the box is a fireplace and mantle above which is a picture of the stepsisters. This panel folds down to open up a pop-up stairway with a tesselated floor in the foreground and window and chandelier in the background, that is, a stage on which Cinderella can perform her duties and make her entrances and exits in work clothes or ballgown. The box also includes one story book that tells the basic story from Perrault, with line drawings along the way to whet the imagination of the play's director and performer. It is a cleverly designed project.]
The Story of Cinderella. Illustrated by Alan Leiner. A Child Guidance Action Book. Bronx, NY: Child Guidance Products, Inc., n.d.
[This remarkable action book has figures on the recto side of the page placed under plasticine, who move when the page is opened. The story is told on the left (verso) pages. The artwork is quite fine. Five moving images.]
For general discussion of Perrault and his tales, with good bibliographies, see:
Barchilon, Jacques and Peter Flinders. Charles Perrault. Twayne's World Author Series, volume 639. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981.
[Includes a chronology and the following chapters: 1.) Life; 2.) The Préieux Poetand the Public Servant; 3.) The Polemicist and Apologist of his Age; 4.) Perrault's Fairy Tales as Literature; 5.) Formal and Nonformal Elements in The Fairy Tales; 6.) Last Years and Last Words, 7.) Conclusion.]
Malarte, Claire-Lise. Perrault: A Travers la critique depuis 1960. Annotated Bibliography [Biblio 17]. Paris, Seattle, Tubingen: Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature. 1989.
Perrault’s Tales of Mother Goose. The dedication manuscript of 1695. With Introduction and critical text by J. Barchilon. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1956.
Soriano, Marc. Les contes de Perrault: culture savante et traditions populaires. Paris: Gallimard, 1968.
Aschenputtel: Ein Märchen der Brüder Grimm. Illustrated by Inge Steineke. Freiburg, Basel, Wien: Herder, 1994.
[The text is based on the 1857 version of Grimm. The illustrations are splendidly done, with end papers of flying birds, and many full page illustrations and intertextual images such as Aschenputtel sorting the lentils with the help of the birds, her dressing of the stepsisters, the tree by her mother’s grave providing her with a gown, the festival, her father cutting down the dove cote, her escape into the tree, and her flight down the staircase, and her fitting of the slipper; but also many scenes not often represented, such as the death of her mother, her father’s choosing a new bride, the deportation of Aschenputtel to the kitchen as the stepsisters steal her clothes, the father providing the sisters with a trunk full of new clothes while Aschenputel returns to the cellar with the branch from the tree, the stepmother with knife preparing to mutilate one daughter’s foot as the other approaches the prince, leaving behind bloody footprints, and the birds flying from the tree at her mother’s grave to blind the stepsisters.]
Ashpet: An Appalachian Tale. Retold by Joanne Compton. Illustrated by Kenn Compton. New York: Holiday House, 1994.
[Based on Richard Chase’s version, above: Ashpet, a servant girl bound out to Widow Hooper and her two daughters Myrtle and Ethel, does all the washing, fire-tending, and animal care. They keep her under a washtub and never let her go anywhere. In summer the girls attend picnics while Ashpet does the chores. She’s so busy that the fire goes out. Widow Hooper sends Myrtle to Granny’s house to fetch fire but Granny demands that she comb her hair in return, so Myrtle refuses. Ethel then goes but she comes home empty handed too. Ashpet is sent next. She brushes Granny’s hair real nice and learns about going to church next meetin’. Ashpet returns with the fire. Sunday comes, but Ashpet has to stay home and do the chores. Granny appears. She straightens up the cabin in an instant, and presents Ashpet with the prettiest red calico dress and red shoes. So she sets out to meeting, promising to be home before midnight. Everyone’s eyes are on Ashpet, but especially the doctor’s son thinks she’s pretty. He takes her for a walk by the river where they laugh and talk. Midnight comes and as she rushes home she loses one of her red shoes in the bushes. The doctor’s son finds the shoe and seeks her. Next morning the widow scolds her for sleeping late. But Doc Ellison’s boy comes by looking for the owner of the shoe. Widow Hooper hides Ashpet under the washtub, but the shoe won’t fit Ethel or Myrtle. A crow flies in and snatches the slipper. As Doc’s son pursues the crow he trips over the washtub, discovering Ashpet. He gives the Widow a purse and walks out the door with Ashpet. The story spreads around Eagle Nest Mountain and all the way down to Crabtree Cove where the Widow had to move to avoid ridicule. But Ashpet and the doctor’s son lived happily as could be.]
The Brothers Grimm Cinderella. Illustrated by Agusti Asensio. Adaptation by Eduard José. Retold by Jane Belk Moncure. Parramón Ediciones, S.A. English Edition: The Child’s World, Inc., 1988.
[Based on José’s La Cenicienta, a glass slipper story attributed to Grimm. Birds and mice help Cinderella get her work done. The fairy Godmother converts a pumpkin into a coach, and she loses her slipper at the ball. After the revelation Cinderella asks that the stepfamily not be punished but the messenger banishes them until they change their ways. Ultimately, they return from the desert and plead with Cinderella for forgiveness, which she grants with open arms, and they all live happily in the kingdom.]
Castles and Dragons. Illustrated by William Pène du Bois. Child Study Association. New York: Crowell, 1958.
[Includes Grimms’ Aschenputtel, retold by Walter de la Mare (pp. 109-125); and a Native American variant, “Little Scarred One,” retold by Caroline Cunningham (pp. 59-67).]
Chase, Richard. Ashpet. In Grandfather Tales, selected and retold by Richard Chase. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948. Pp. 115-123.
[The story of Ashpet is told by Tom Hunt, in response to hearing "Catskins": An old woman has two daughters. They keep a hired girl Ashpet, who does all the work. Ashpet is pretty but they keep her under a washtub in case anyone comes around who might make comparisons. Just as they are preparing to go to meeting their fire goes out, and they have to borrow. So they send the oldest girl to an old witch woman they usually scorn. The girl is so proud she just sticks her hand through a crack in the log to ask. The old woman will give her fire in return for having her hair combed. But the girl refuses. The second girl goes and is refused too. So they send Ashpet. She combs the witch’s hair and is given a live coal which she brings home in a dry toadstool. The others get fixed up and go to meeting, but Ashpet has to stay home to clean up the house. The old witch appears, sings a song, and the dishes roll down to the creek, clean themselves, then come bumping back where they belong. The old woman then takes a mouse, a piece of leather, a rawhide string, two scraps of shoe-leather, and a piece of rag from her purse. She sings again and the mouse becomes a horse, the leather a saddle, the string a bridle, the rag a pretty red dress, and the two pieces of shoe-leather a pair of slippers. So Ashpet goes to meeting and the king’s son can’t take his eyes off her. He rides home with her but she eases off one of her slippers and kicks it into the “bresh.” When he stops to look for it she gallops home, hides the mare in the woods and the dress in the house and gets ashy again. The boy takes the slipper all over the country looking for the one it fits. When he comes to the old woman’s house they hide Ashpet under the tub. The woman trims the heel and toes off her oldest daughter, the slipper fits, but a little bird tells the boy where Ashpet is. The next oldest grabs the slipper, trims her feet, and squeezes in. Again the bird speaks up. The old woman tries to shoo the bird away, but it lights on the tub and the boy finds Ashpet. The slipper fits. She washes her face and puts on the red dress and other slipper and rides off with the king’s son to get married. The sisters visit Ashpet and get her to go swimming with them. They know that Old Hairy Man lives in the water hole. When Ashpet gets into the water Old Hairy Man abducts her. He brags about how thick his hide is: no shot can pierce his skin. The only place he is vulnerable is on a little mole on the back of his left shoulder. The king’s son raises an army to search for Ashpet. When he comes to the cave Ashpet runs out and stands over the deep hole so they see her. They come across in boats and start shooting at the Old Hairy Man, but the bullets just bounce off. Ashpet tells them to shoot him in the back of the left shoulder and finally they do and knock him out cold. Ashpet runs for her life. But the Old Hairy Man comes jumping and hollering “You got my woman!” So the king’s boy arrests the old woman and her two girls and throws them into the deep water hole. The Old Hairy Man grabs them and takes ‘em in his cave. “They’re down there yet, I reckon.” See Tom Davenport’s film adaptation of Chase’s Appalachian story under Movies.]
Cinderella. Produced by Rudolph J. Gutmann. New York: Highfield Publications, 1946.
[A charming sanitization of Grimm in 12 pages, including front and back covers. Page size is c. 10½ by 7 inches. Cinderella and her two sisters live in a small house. No mention is made of their parents. Cinderella finds a hazel twig and plants it. It grows “soon” and a little bird likes the tree and, in appreciation, says it will grant Cinderella wishes. The two older sisters are invited to the king’s ball. Cinderella has to stay home, but wishes she had a beautiful dress. The bird brings her a lovely outfit. The prince likes her best of all. As she leaves the ball at midnight she loses one of her golden slippers. The prince says he will marry the one who can wear it. The sisters try it on. One’s toe is too big, and the other’s heel. “Is there any one else here?” the prince asks. “Yes,” replied the sisters, “our kitchen maid.” The slipper fits and they marry. Cinderella is the most beautiful maiden in the land and the prince the handsomest. No mention is made of what happens to the sisters. The book has lovely three-quarter page pictures (all in color) for each page, with full page illustrations for the covers, Though cartoon like, the pictures are lovely.]
Cinderella. From Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Translated by J. Collins. Pictures by Ruth Elsasser. London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1978. Stuttgart: J. Ch. Mollinger Verlag GmbH Wolfgang Militz Co., 1978.
[The stepsisters’ faces are white and fair, but their hearts “black and nasty.” Cinderella plants the hazel twig brought by her father on the grave of her mother. It grows into a beautiful tree with birds in it that throw down whatever she wants. They help her sort the lentils from the ashes and dress her in silver and gold for the ball. After the first feast she hides in the dove cote. The rich father destroys it but they do not find her. After the second feast she hides in a tree, which they cut down, to no avail. After the third feast they search for the one who will fit the slipper; the sisters mutilate themselves to fit but the birds expose their deceit. After Cinderella fits the slipper white doves sit on each of her shoulders. As the sisters ride shoulder to shoulder beside her each dove picks out one eye of each stepsister. The sisters change sides and then get their other eyes picked out. The impressionistic illustrations for this edition are quite fine.]
de la Mare, Walter. Animal Stories. New York: Scribners, 1939.
[Includes an “Aschenputtel” that follows Grimm somewhat, but with a more pleasant ending: the father does not attack the dovecote. The birds reveal the sisters’ deceit as they mutilate themselves to fit the slipper, but they don’t peck out their eyes.]
Egan, Louise Betts. The Classic Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Philadelphia: Ariel Books, 1989.
[Includes Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, The Bremen Town Musicians, Rapunzel, The Shoemaker and the Elves, The Frog Prince, The Fisherman and his Wife, and Hansel and Gretel. The tales are illustrated by various artists: Erin Wise provides the Cinderella pictures. Egan’s telling of the tale draws mainly on Perrault, rather than the Grimm brothers. There is a fairy godmother, the pumpkin-mouse-rat-lizard transformations, once to the ball, a midnight bell and lost glass slipper and shoe fitting followed by Cinderella’s final transformation. The closest thing to a grim note is in the conclusion: When the cruel stepmother and daughters ask Cinderella for forgiveness the prince orders his servants “to drive them out of the kingdom, and they were never seen again” (p. 15).]
Grimm, Jakob and Wilhelm. Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Translated by E. Lucas. Illustrated by F. Kredel. Grosset and Dunlop, 1945.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Translated from the German by Lucy Crane and Done into Pictures by Walter Crane. Stratford Edition. New York: F. M. Lupton Publishing Co, n.d. [c. 1910?].
[No table of contents. Aschenputtel appears on pp. 118-125.]
Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Charles Folkard. London: 1911.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, with Introduction by Orton Lowe. Sixty Illustrations and colored plates by Edwin John Prittie. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 1924.
[Thirty-six tales with color plates for Sleeping Beauty (“It looks quite easy. May I try to do it?”), Hansel and Gretel (“Stretch your finger that I may feel if you are getting fat”); Cinderella (Cinderella left one of her glass slippers on the floor), and The Goose Girl (Bending over the brook, she drank). The tales include numerous line drawings: six for Cinderella (The poor child was sent to live in the kitchen, There on the hearth in front of her stood an old woman, The daintiest pair of glass slippers that ever were seen, There was no doubt as to whom he would choose, Cinderella in her fright ran so fast, and The king sent out all his heralds and trumpeters); four for Red Riding Hood (So sweet and pretty that everybody loved her; “Good morning,” said the wolf, and trotted away; The wolf reached the Grandmother’s cottage and knocked at the door; and “The better to eat you with”); six for The Goose Girl (The lock of hair fell out of her bosom; They traveled on till they came to the king’s palace; A strong wind snatched his hat off; the king bade him tell all that happened; The old king stood outside and listened; and the rightful princess bride); Snow-White and Rose-Red, with a drawing by Monro S. Orr (The end of his beard was fixed in a split of the tree). The end covers show an enlarged version of Cinderella fleeing down the stairs. The cover shows two children, under the spell of a fairy observing Goose Girl, Snow-White and Rose-Red, Red Riding Hood, and The Valiant Little Tailor passing before them.]
Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Jiri Trnka. London: Paul Hamlyn, 1961.
Hirushja. Shqipëroi: Agim Doksani. Dituria: Shtëpia Botuese, 1997.
[An Albanian version of Grimm’s Aschenputtel, with study questions and cut-out Cinderella with cut-out clothes. “Në ndihmë të shkollës fillore.”]
Hogrogian, Nonny, adapter and illustrator. Cinderella. New York: Greenwillow, 1981.
Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm. With pictures by Walter Crane. New York: Macmillan Books, 1886.
[This splendidly illustrated edition has been reprinted in facsimile by Dover Publications (New York, 1963), and by Crown Publishers (New York: Avenel Books, 1973). The frontispiece is of Sleeping Beauty. The title page uses an elaborately ornamented H (for Household) which is part of the structure of a house before which a crane reads an old book on the steps. Each of the fifty-two stories has a head and a tailpiece, along with an ornamented initial to start the story; the volume includes full page illustrations for The Goose Girl, Faithful John, Rapunzel, The White Snake, Mother Hulda, The Robber Bridegroom, The Almond Tree, The Six Swans, Snow-White, and the Golden Bird. The Avenel facsimile includes only 19 if the tales, and excludes Aschenputtel. In the original the headpiece for Aschenputtel (pp. 20-25) shows her welcoming the birds and the tailpiece depicts her putting on the slipper, with her wooden clog set aside. The decorated capital T for “There” shows her praying beneath her mother’s tree, from which a dove flies upward. For the Goose Girl the headpiece shows her and Conrad herding geese, and the tailpiece shows two horses pulling wildly the nail studded barrel in which the false waiting woman is killed. Crane’s full page illustration of the story is one of the finest in the volume. The tailpiece for The Frog Prince shows the iron band breaking from faithful Henry’s heart “because it was now so relieved and happy.”]
Mabie, Hamilton W., ed. Fairy Tales from Grimm. Pictures and Decorations by Ethel Franklin Betts. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, c. 1930.
[Includes Hansel and Grethel, The Valiant Little Tailor, The Frog Prince, Little Red-Cap, Cinderella, Hans in Luck, Snow-White and Rose-Red, The Water of Life, Rumpelstiltskin, The Poor Miller’s Boy and the Cat, The Six Swans, and Little One-Eye, Two-Eyes and Three-Eyes. Cinderella (pp. 52-61) has one color illustration: “She ran away so quickly that he could not overtake her,” in which he Prince stands in a distant doorway as Cinderella in white ballgown with yellow fringe approaches the bottom of the stairs, her fan dangling loose at her side and her white veil flowing behind as she flees with hand over her heart. Urns of flowers adorn the stairway.]
Rogers, Anne, trans. Grimm Cinderella. Illustrated by Svend Otto S. New York: Larousse & Co., 1978.
[Superb illustrations in 18th century peasant dress. Text follows the original closely, with bird admonitions in verse.]
[See also Jacob’s “Rushen Coatie” and Angela Carter’s revisions of Grimm under Miscellaneous Cinderellas.]
Chase, Richard. Mutsmag. In Grandfather Tales, collected and retold by Richard Chase. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1948. Pp. 40-51.
[Told by Delia: An old woman had three girls, Poll, Betts, and Mutsmag. Mutsmag, the youngest, does all the work but the sisters treat her mean. The old woman dies, leaving her cabbage patch to Poll and Betts and an old knife to Mutsmag. The older girls eat the cabbage without giving Mutsmag a bite, then set off to make their fortune. Mutsmag would go too, but they tell her to fill a riddel (sieve) with water. She puts clay in the bottom and accomplishes the task, so they have to let her come along. Down the road they tie her to a laurel bush, steal her journey cake, and leave her. She uses her knife to get free and catches up. Then they lock her in a shed, but a fox helps her out in return for a fat goose, which she helps him to. Again she catches up. They decide to call her their serving girl and come to a house where an old woman lives. She says they can stay. Poll and Betts sit by the fire while Mutsmag scours the pots. The woman has three daughters of her own, sleeping in the loft. All go to sleep but Mutsmag. A giant comes and the old woman tells him she has three fine fat pullets to eat; he will know them from her girls because her girls got nightcaps on. Mutzmag quickly slips the nightcaps off the three girls and puts them on herself, Poll, and Betts. The giant pulls the nightcapless girls down, wrings their necks, and throws them to the old woman, who recognizes them as her own. As the old woman and giant fight Mutsmag uses her knife to rip the bed clothes into strips, and they escape through a hole in the roof. They come to the king’s house, and he sends them back to destroy the giant and old woman. Poll and Betts go the other direction, but Mutsmag takes a half bushel of salt with her and pours it down the giant’s chimney into the cooking pot. The giant says the meat’s too salty and sends the woman out to fetch water from the stream. It’s dark so the woman throws out her light ball. Mutsmag catches it on her knife and extinguishes it in the stream. The woman trips and breaks her neck. Mutsmag cuts off her head and takes it to the king. He gives her a bushel of gold and sends her back to get his ten-mile-stepper that the giant has stolen. This time she takes a needle and thread and a pocket full of barley. She finds the horse but it has bells on and the giant comes running. She hides under a trough and the giant leaves. She tries again untying the horse but the bells dingle again and she is caught. She says, “Don’t feed me butter or honey,” so the giant locks her in the hen house and makes her eat. Then, when he decides to kill her she says, “Don’t put me in a sack and beat me to death ‘cause I’d howl like a dog and squall like cats and my bones would crack and pop like dishes breaking and my blood would run like honey.” So that’s what the giant does. He ties her in a bag and goes out to cut a club. She cuts open the bag with her knife, sews the bag back up with the dog and cats inside along with the giant’s dishes and his biggest pot of honey. He comes in and whacks the bag. It howls, bones crack like dishes, and honey drips out. Meanwhile Mutsmag has got the horse and escaped across the river. The giant pursues and wonders how she got across the river. She says she picked a hole in a rock, tied it around her neck, and “skeeted the rock across.” So the giant tries but drowns. Mutsmag goes to the king and gets two more bushels of gold, one for returning the horse and one for slaying the giant.]
[See also Mutzmag, directed Tom Davenport, under Movies.]
de la Mare, Walter. Molly Whuppie. Illustrated by Errol Le Cain. London: Faber and Faber, 1983; New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1983; New York: Penguin Group Puffin Books, 1985.
[Superbly told and illustrated, with verses each time the giant cries after Molly and Molly replies. Retold from Joseph Jacobs (1898). See Jacobs, below, for synopsis.]
Finlay, Winifred. “Cap O’Rushes.” In Cap O’Rushes and Other Folk Tales. Illustrated by Victor Ambrus. Eau Claire, Wisconsin: E.M. Hale and Company, 1974. Pp. 1-14.
[A doting father buys his three daughters expensive gowns, then asks how much they love him. The youngest replies as much as fresh meat loves salt and is cast out. To obtain employment she dirties her hands and face, makes a cap and cloak of rushes, and gets a job scrubbing and scraping. But she keeps the dress her father gave her and appears at the ball with it, to the bedazzlement of the prince. He vows to marry her and won’t eat till he finds her. Cap O’Rushes bakes for him and places a sapphire in the gruel. She is identified and they wed. The father is invited, but the feast is served without salt. Only then does the father realize she loved him best of all.]
Green, Ellin. “Cap O’ Rushes.” In Best Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival. Jonesboro, Tennessee: National Storytelling Press, 1991. Pp. 91-95.
Haviland, Virginia. Favorite Fairy Tales Told in England. Illustrated by Bettina. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1959.
[Retold from Joseph Jacobs (1890) Includes "Molly Whuppie" (pp. 44-55) and "Cap o' Rushes" (pp. 76-88).]
Jacobs, Joseph. “Cap O’ Rushes.” In English Fairy Tales. Illustrated by John D. Batten. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898; rpt. Dover, 1967. Pp. 51-56.
[First published by Jacobs in 1890. The daughter loves her father as fresh meat loves salt and is cast out. She covers her fine clothes and hair with rushes from the fen and gets work in a scullery. Three times she takes off the rushes and goes to the dance in her fine clothes, where the prince falls in love with her. Dying of love, he gets gruel from Cap o’ Rushes into which she inserts a ring. When she is discovered the prince marries her. At the wedding feast she has dishes served without salt. Her father recognizes how much the food needs salt and figures out that she loved him very much.]IMAGES: “Cap O’Rushes”
-----. “Mollie Whuppie.” In English Fairy Tales. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898; rpt. Dover, 1967. Pp. 125-130.
[First published by Jacobs in 1890. A man and woman have too many children and can’t feed them. Travelling homeless the three daughters come upon a giant and beg for food. They escape the giant and come to a grand house. The master will give in marriage his eldest son to Mollie’s eldest sister if Molly steals the giant’s sword; his next son to the middle sister if Mollie steals the giant’s purse; and Mollie herself to his third son if she steals the giant’s ring. She accomplishes the first two tasks swiftly but is caught by the giant when she tries to steal his ring. He puts her in a bag with a dog, a cat, a needle and thread, and shears. Mollie escapes but the giant’s wife wants to see inside the bag, and Mollie sews her in. The wife gets a drubbing from the giant, but Mollie escapes with the ring and is married. See Tom Davenport's movie Mutzmag for a cinematic adaptation.]
-----. “Rushen Coatie.” In More English Fairy Tales (1894); rpt. in English Fairy Tales. Illustrated by John Batten. Everyman’s Library Children’s Classics. London: David Campbell Publishers, 1993. Pp. 367-371.
[On her deathbed a queen reassures her daughter that a red calf will help her in her loneliness. The king remarries an ill-natured wife with three ugly daughters. The princess is relegated to the kitchen and called Rushen Coatie. She is given only a thimbleful of broth, a grain of barley, a thread of meat, and a crumb of bread to live on. But the calf instructs her to find cheese and bread in its ears, so Rushen Coatie thrives despite the wicked stepmother. The new queen then kills the calf to make sweetbreads, but the dead calf instructs the girl to take its bones and hide them under a grey stone. The bones then tell the starving girl to go to church at Yuletide and supplies her with clothes and a pair of glass slippers. At church the prince falls in love with her. She hastens home, however, and the red calf again feeds her. This happens a second time. As she would return home again, she loses one of the slippers. The prince proclaims he will marry the one the slipper fits. The first two ugly sisters try on the shoe, which does not fit. The stepmother hacks off the toes and heels of the third to make her foot fit. But a raven warns from the bush that she is the wrong bride and tells where “Pretty Feet” and “Little Feet” may be found beside the cauldron in the kitchen. The prince returns to find Rushen Coatie, who flees to the grey stone in the field where the red calf dresses her. She then approaches the prince and the slipper jumps out of his pocket onto her foot. They are married and live happily.]
Lines, Kathleen. “Cap o’ Rushes.” In Tales of Magic and Enchantment. London: Faber and Faber, 1966. Pp. 21-31.
Lurie, Alison. “Cap o’ Rushes.” In Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales. New York: Thomas Crowell, 1980> Pp. 84-91.
Minard, Rosemary, ed. Womenfolk and Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Suzanna Klein. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976.
[Tales “I would want my daughters to emulate or my sons to identify with Women.” Includes Walter de la Mare’s “Molly Whuppie,” pp. 20-29; and Joseph Jacobs’ “Cap O’ Rushes,” pp. 77-82.]
Nimmo, Jenny. The Starlight Cloak. Pictures by Justin Todd. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1993.
[In Irish tale Oona was the third daughter of King Curucha. Her mother dies, and she is sent to be raised by a foster mother whom she calls Mother Brigid. When she is fourteen she is called back to the palace by her father who goes off to war. The elder daughters, Sorcha and Deirdra, are ordered to look after Oona. But they assign her cruel tasks of scrubbing the floor and waiting on them. When the king returns he finds Oona very thin. She does not tell him of the abuse, for fear that it will lead to more. Mother Brigid is sent for and for a time Oona regains her health. Brigid brings another orphan with her, a boy named Little Cormac, who plays flute, loves Oona, and helps her when he can. But in winter she is forced to live in a freezing attic. We learn that Prince Ermania has been forced into an agreement to marry Sorcha. They meet at church each Sunday. Mother Brigid asks Oona if she would go and offers her a white dress and sky-blue shoes, along with a white mare with a silver bridle. She attends church and is recognized by none. The prince falls in love with her. But she knows that things must not move too fast and leaves. Spring comes. Oona again goes to church, this time in a robe the color of the rainbow and slippers of emerald. Again she leaves as the prince becomes too familiar, but he gets one of her green shoes. He searches for the one that it will fit. When he comes to Oona’s palace Sorcha locks Oona in a chest. As the prince is ready to leave he asks about Oona. The perfidious sisters say she is sick. But Cormac reveals the hiding place. The prince recognizes her and they are married. Deirdra overcomes her jealousy, but Sorcha vows revenge. The prince goes to war and Oona grieves in his absence. Sorcha pretends to make amends and goes to the coast to look out to sea awaiting the prince’s return. Sorcha pushes her over a cliff, and she is swallowed by a whale. Cormac hears Oona still playing her flute from within the whale, so Cormac and Mother Brigid go to the prince. Bridgid urges speed and gives the prince a flaming horse clothed with fiery stars and a magic arrow. As he flees he spews out a shower of pearls, tiny fish, and Oona. The three return to the palace like the rising sun. Sorcha flees. When King Curucha returns he condemns the evil daughter. But she is never seen again. Cormac leaves the court on the flaming horse. You can see him making magic in the sky at night as he walks in his starlight cloak.]
Pullman, Philip. Mossycoat. Illustrated by Peter Baily. London: Scholastic: Home of the Story, 1998.
[A widow and daughter live in a poor cottage. An ugly hawker comes by and asks to marry the daughter. Following the mother’s advice the girl says she will if he brings her a white satin dress with gold sprigs. A week later the hawker returns, drooling. The mother tells the girl to try the dress on. She looks exquisite, but refuses the thought of marrying so ugly and coarse a man. The mother tells the girl that she can’t go on her honeymoon in her wedding gown so the girl asks for a going away gown. They fly to the coast and shoot the whale with the arrow the color of all birds. A week later the hawker returns with just such a dress. Now she asks for a dancing dress with patent leather slippers with diamond buckles. And in a week the hawker returns. The gown fits, the shoes are great, but the mother says to wait until morning because she has to wash her hair. But the mother has made the girl a gown out of moss which she puts on her and the girl escapes. The cloak is magic and can make dreams come true. Mossycoat takes a job in a kitchen. The other servants call her Lady Muck and Bossyboots. But she remains patient. The mistress of the house invites Mossycoat to go to the ball as their guest. Mossycoat declines. After all leave she puts on the white satin dress and goes alone. All marvel at her beauty, but none recognize her. She leaves early and mysteriously. At the next ball she dresses in the color of birds dress. Again she leaves early leaving all to speculate on her beauty. The prince finds the slipper and sets out to find her. The queen mother leads them to Mossycoat. The prince immediately recognizes her, and they are married. The cruel and lazy slubberdegullions are dismissed. Mossycoat and the prince have a basket of children and live on happily. Compare Allerleirauh and Donkey Skin Cinderellas under Basic European Texts, above, and Hooks, Moss Gown, under Like Meat Loves Salt.]
See Cap o’ Rushes, Finlay and Jacobs, in particular; also Dundes (1976) on the King Lear analogue, under Criticism.
Calvino, Italo. Italian Folktales. Translated by George Martin. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.
[First published in Italy in 1956. Tale 54: “Dear as Salt,” a tale from Bologna, of Zizola, the youngest of three daughters who loves her father as salt loves meat and is cast out. The queen, to save her, hides her in a candlestick which is then purchased by the Prince. Zizola sneaks out and eats up the Prince’s food. People wonder where it went. The second time she tries the Prince catches her, falls in love, and will marry her. The wedding is planned but none know who the bride will be. The Prince says he’ll marry the candlestick. And so it happens, except that at the right moment Zizola steps out to say “I do.” At the wedding feast her father is fed unsalted food. He sees his mistake, and the family is reunited. I think they are still dancing to this day, Calvino concludes.]
Chase, Richard, ed. Like Meat Loves Salt. In Grandfather Tales. Collected by Richard Chase. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1948. Pp. 124-129.
[This analogue is told by a girl in the back of the room in response to Ashpet: An old king had three daughters. He went to town and promised to bring each what she wished. The oldest asked for a green dress, the next for a red dress, and the youngest, whom the king loved better than the others, a white dress. When he returned he pinned a white rose on the green dress and asked the oldest how much she loved him. She said “more than life.” The second got her dress by responding “more than words.” The youngest said “I love you like meat loves salt.” When questioned what that meant she replied that she loved him as much as duty will allow. The king became angry and locked her in a tower on the prairie. The Duke of England rides by, sees her there, climbs up, rescues her, and takes her to England as his bride. The other daughters marry too. The king gets old and lonesome and goes to live with the eldest. She scorns him, and he goes to his next daughter. She puts him in the stable to sleep. Meanwhile the husbands wage war on England. The youngest girl and the duke come over and find the king wandering around crazy with honeysuckle vines for a crown. They care for him and find the elder sisters stuck in a thornbush. Their husbands put them there. “Good enough for ye!” says the old king. The duke wins the war and takes the king back to England. The youngest serves a meal without salt. The king complains. Then she brings him a dish of salt and just stands there. He understands and gets his senses back. He sends his servant across the water to fetch the white dress and a whole bough of white roses, fresh as the day they were picked. The king gives them to his daughter.]
Han, Suzanne Crowder. “The Value of Salt.”
[See Asian Cinderellas.]
Haviland, Virginia. “The Princess Who Loved Her Father Like Salt.” In Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Greece. Illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1970. Pp. 21-27.
[The king, angered at his youngest daughter who says she loves him as meat loves salt, marries her to a beggar who befriends a fish who gives him three pomegranates filled with diamonds. The king comes to dinner and is served food without salt, thereby learning how much his third daughter did indeed love him. Adapted from Richard McGillivray Dawkins’s Modern Greek Folktales (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953).]
Hooks, William.Moss Gown. Illustrated by Donald Carrick. New York: Clarion Books, 1987.
[The Like-meat-loves-salt trope substitutes for the more usual incest problem of the Allerleirauh/Many Furs stories to precipitate the heroine’s flight from her father. An elderly gentleman of the Old South asks his three daughters (Retha, Grenadine, and; “my little Candace”) how much they love him, promising to divide his plantation among them according to their answers. The two elder daughters flatter him, but the youngest replies that she loves him more than meat loves salt. Disappointed in her answer and in a rage he gives the land to the two and casts out Candace. As she flees a wind carries her into a cypress swamp where she meets the gris-gris woman who gives her a gossamer gown with the promise to help her when need be. Candace puts on the gown but as morning comes it turns into rags and gray moss. She comes to a mansion where the mistress pities her and sends her to the kitchen to help with the chores. She tells the First Cook that her name is Moss Gown. The Young Master announces a ball to which all are invited, providing they have ball gowns. None imagine that Moss Gown could attend, but the gris-gris woman appears and restores her gossamer gown. At the dance the Young Master loves her but she slips away as the Morning Star begins to fade. Next night another dance is announced, again the gris-gris woman helps Moss Gown, and again she dances with Young Master until the Morning Star pales. The Young Master goes into a grievous decline for loss of his love, won’t eat, and wastes away. Moss Gown asks permission to take him his supper. None imagine that she could help, but she slips to her room, calls once more on the gris-gris woman and appears before Young Master with his supper. They talk until the Morning Star pales and her gown again turns to rags. But Young Master would love her despite the change–“rags and tatters could never hide your beauty.” They are married. At the wedding feast an old man approaches, her father who has been cast out by the older daughters. He does not recognize Candace, but she does him. She invites him to the feast and serves him meat without salt. Then he recognizes her and the meaning of her earlier reply. They are reconciled and the Young Master acknowledges that he loves Candace more than meat loves salt.]
Jaffe, Nina. The Way Meat Loves Salt: A Cinderella Tale from the Jewish Tradition. New York: Henry Holt, 1998.
[A Yiddish tale from Poland. A rabbi has three daughters - Reyzeleh, Khaveleh, and Mireleh. Reyzeleh becomes a seamstress; Khaveleh is a fine singer. Mireleh has no special gift, but the rabbi loves her best. The rabbi decides to test his children to determine which loves him most. One daughter replies “as much as diamonds”: the second, “as much as gold and silver.” But Mireleh replies, “Father, I love you the way meat loves salt.” “No more than salt?” the rabbi says, and drives her away. Past the synagogue she meets an old man with a flowing beard. He sends her to Rabbi Yitskhok ben Levi, a renowned scholar of Lublin, giving her a magic stick which will help her if she taps the ground three times. Then the old man disappears. At Rabbi Yitskhok’s she is given a place to stay and work. She sleeps in the attic. A wedding feast is announced in Cracow. But Mireleh must stay behind. She uses her magic stick to make a dress and roses for her hair and a pair of satin slippers. In Cracow all are amazed at her beauty. Rabbi Yitskhok’s son is enamoured of her but she will not speak. The boy plots a means to entrap her so that she must speak to him. He puts pitch outside her door. Mireleh’s slipper sticks in the pitch, but she uses her magic stick to get home, albeit with one slipper. The boy travels from village to village seeking the owner of the slipper. Then Mireleh says, “Let me try.” Shocked the boy is amazed that it fits the beggar. That night Rabbi Yitskhok and his wife have the same dream: “Your son must keep his vow and promise, or misfortune will follow.” Mireleh explains her life and with a tap of the stick she is transformed. She reassures the boy that the wand is a blessing, and they are married. Her father is invited to the feast. She serves him meat without salt. He says it tastes terrible. Then she reveals herself, and he recognizes his stupidity. The family is reunited. Then the old man reappears. He is Elijah the Prophet, who blesses them. Later, Mireleh breaks the wand in two and gives half to each of her two daughters so that good fortune might be shared.]
Lang, Andrew. The Dirty Shepherdess. In The Green Fairy Book. New York: Dover Publications, 1965, pp. 180-185. First published 1892. Transcribed from the French by M. Sébillot.
[A king with two daughters decides to give his kingdom to the one who loves him most. The elder loves him as “the apple of my eye, the younger as she looks upon “salt in my food.” Disappointed, the king casts the younger out, who taking her clothes and treasures proceeds into the countryside. To gain employment she makes herself ugly by putting on muddy beggar rags, tangling her hair, and covering her hands and face with dirt. After working for a time as a shepherdess she decides to try on her splendid robes when no one is looking. Washing in a stream she adorns herself, but is seen by the prince, who runs after her. She escapes when he trips, and he thinks he must be a victim of witchcraft. But he dreams of nothing else and asks for bread baked by the kitchen girl in the distant farm. She washes up, puts on her rings, and bakes the bread–a small loaf. One of her rings slips off into the dough and is found by the prince, who will marry the one it fits. When she is discovered she tells her story. Her repentant father is invited to the wedding and served saltless bread for breakfast. When he complains she explains the riddle. He allows he had misinterpreted her words. For the rest of the wedding feast they give him bread made with salt, and he says it is the best he’s ever eaten.]
Offer, Charles. “Salt Above Gold.” In Salt Above Gold and Other Bohemian Folk Stories. New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1968. Pp. 7-23.
Ure, Jean. “The Salt at Dinner.” In Rumanian Folk Tales. New York: Franklin Watts, 1960. Pp. 74-83.
See also Basile, under Basic European Texts.
Cenicienta. Narrados por Sarah Hayes. Traducidos por Maria Puncel. Ilustrados por Gill Tomblin. Madrid: Altea, 1989; rpt. 1990.
[A retelling of Perrault’s Cinderella in Spanish. Also includes Juan el Vago and La Reina de las Abejas. The illustrations are nicely done with figures often thrusting or bulging beyond their frame. Cenicienta forgives the stepsisters (“las hermanastras”).]
Haviland, Virginia. “Cenerentola.” In Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Italy. Illustrated by Evaline Ness. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1965. Pp. 2-19.
[Retold from Giambattista Basile’s The Pentamerone, ed. E. F. Strange (London: Macmillan, 1911); the redaction follows John Edward Taylor’s translation, 1847. See Cat Cinderella in Basic Texts for synopsis of Basile.]
Hearth Cat (Portugal). In Consiglieri Pedroso, Portuguese Folk-tales. Translated by Henriqueta Monteiro. London: The Folk-Lore Society, 1882. Also included in Stith Thompson’s One Hundred Favorite Folktales (see General Collections). A smoothed out version appears in Sierra, Cinderella (pp. 61-64).
[Sierra notes that this Cinderella tale “is unusual because the helpful animal, the giver of dresses, and the prince are one and the same being” (p. 153). A widower has three daughters. The elder two are extravagant and lazy; the youngest does all the work and is called Hearth Cat. The stepfather brings home a fish. Hearth Cat likes its yellowness and keeps it alive, first in her room, then, at its request, in the well. It calls her to join him in the well. She declines but on the third day leans so far over the well talking with the fish that she tumbles in. It leads her to a palace of gold and gems, takes her to a chamber, gives her an elegant dress and golden slippers, advising her to go to the festival as her sisters have done. He even provides a splendid carriage. She must return home before her sisters do, however, and return the clothing to the well. At the ball the king falls in love with her. In her haste to leave before her sisters she loses a slipper. The king announces that he will marry the owner of the slipper. The sisters return and find her in rags at the hearth. Next day the fish asks her to marry her. She wonders how that can possibly be managed, but he pleads and she agrees. Instantly he is transformed into a handsome prince; he has been placed under an enchantment. She should attend the fitting of the slipper next day and, when it fits, decline marriage, telling the king that she is engaged to his missing son, whom she has released from enchantment. Her sisters mock her as she sets out, but she goes anyway. The palace guards refuse her entrance, because of her rags. But the king grants permission and when the slipper fits asks to marry her. She declines, telling his majesty of the lost prince. The king is delighted, sends for his son, and the wedding of the prince and Hearth Cat is celebrated. The sisters remain at home, in a jealous rage.]
Lang, Andrew, ed. “Catherine and her Destiny.” Translated by Mrs. Lang from Laura Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Mahrchen, Leipzig: Engelmann, 1870. In The Pink Fairy Book (1897). Illustrated by H. J. Ford. New York: Dover Publications, 1967. Pp. 167-173.
[A great merchant’s greatest treasure is his only daughter, Catherine. A beautiful woman with a little wheel in her hands [St. Catherine?] offers the child a choice–a happy youth or a happy old age. Catherine chooses the latter. A few days later the merchant loses his ships at sea and dies of disappointment. Catherine goes into service to earn her bread. Everywhere she goes disaster follows. But always the beautiful woman, her Destiny, follows picking up the pieces. So it goes for seven years, through several stints of service. Catherine repeatedly climbs a mountain with a basket of bread which she leaves for another lady also called Destiny. The one lady pleads with the other that Catherine is still kind, despite affliction, and has suffered enough. So her Destiny gives her a ball of silk to take care of. The king is to marry, and all the tailors embroider fine clothes for the occasion. But they cannot finish their work for lack of the right color of silk thread. Catherine brings hers. It is the right color. The king would buy it from her for its weight in gold. But it outweighs all the gold pieces of the king’s treasury. The king threatens her with death, but after hearing her story he concludes that she shall die his queen; he will marry no one else. So Catherine lives happily and contented to the end of her life.]
-----. “The King Who Would Have a Beautiful Wife.” Translated by Mrs. Lang from Laura Gonzenbach’s Sicilianische Mahrchen, Leipzig: Engelmann, 1870. In The Pink Fairy Book 1897). Illustrated by H. J. Ford. New York: Dover Publications, 1967. Pp. 162-166.
[A king would marry a maiden as beautiful as the sun, but could find none. A servant comes upon a tiny roadside house and asks for water. Two women live here, one eighty and the other ninety, but they have beautiful hands. The servant sees the beautiful hand as it passes him water through the lattice and tells the king. The king would inquire further. The old woman tells the servant that she and her sister are poor and must work for their bread. When asked how old they are she says they are fifteen and twenty years old. The king would have the fifteen year old, but she insists that her skin is fair and that she must not appear in the sun. So she travels to the palace in a closed carriage, wrapped in a thick veil. She then insists that the tapers are too bright–“would you have me turn black?”–so they feast in the dark, are married and bedded. Then when the king removes her veil he sees a wrinkled old woman. He flings her out the window, but her clothes catch on a nail in the wall. Four fairies happen by and see her hanging there. One wishes her youth, another beauty, the third wisdom, and the fourth a tender heart. Next morning the king looks out the window, rescues her, and prays her forgiveness. The ninety-year-old sister then visits. The queen says she is a neighbor who is silly in the head. But the old woman insists that she is kin and wonders how her sister became young and beautiful. The queen loses patience and says she had her old head cut off and a new one grew in its place. The old woman goes to a barber and insists that he cut off her head so that she may be young and beautiful. The barber complies, but the old woman dies. “Il faut souffrir pour etre belle,” the barber marvels.]
Mincieli, Rose Laura. “Cenerentola.” In Old Neopolitan Fairy Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963. Pp. 24-34.
Vittorini, Domenico. "Cenerentola." In Old Italian Tales. Illustrated by Kathryn L. Fligg. New York: David McKay Company, 1958. Pp.63-68.
[A man had three daughters. His love was for the two older ones; the youngest one, Cenerentola, was left to the menial work. The father goes on a trip. The older two ask for beautiful clothes on his return; Cenerentola asks for a tiny bird called Verdeliò. After the father returned a ball is announced. Cenerentola is left behind polishing pans. When the others are gone Cenerentola calls on her bird asking to be made a beautiful as the sun. Verdeliò gives her an exquisite sea-green gown with diamonds, along with two purses of gold coins. The prince dances only with her. At midnight she flees distracting her pursuers with gold coins that she scatters behind her. The second night she goes again, more beautiful than before. This time she escapes by throwing handfuls of sand in her pursuers eyes. For the third ball she asks Verdeliò for the most beautiful gown of all. This time she loses her slipper as she flees. The king searches for the one who fits the slipper. At first the older sisters deny that they have a third sibling. But the bird says they do, and Cenerentola gets to try on the shoe. It fits, and she sets off in the royal coach, leaving her father and sisters dumbfounded. She becomes a kind and gentle queen.]
[See also Calvino, under Like Meat Loves Salt, where, as in Basile’s Cat Cinderella, the heroine is named Zizola.]
Cohlene, Terri. Little Firefly: An Algonquian Legend. Illustrated by Charles Reasoner. Vero Beach, FL: Watermill Press, 1990.
[After her mother’s death Little Firefly lives with her father and two hateful sisters. They make her do all the work and sleep by the fire where she becomes singed and scarred. In scorn they call her Little Burnt One. Word comes that the Invisible One will take a bride. The two sisters imagine that he will choose one of them. But in her sleep Firefly is visited by her mother, who tells her to go to the Invisible One. She collects cranberries and prepares a dress of birch, moccasins from corn husks, and decorates her hair with silver birth leaves. As she sets out in her canoe her sisters mock her. But as the sun sets she arrives at a wigwam across the lake. She offers to work for the old woman she finds there. But the woman insists that she meet her brother. Around the bend Little Firefly sees the Invisible One and accurately identifies his bow as the rainbow and his bowstring as the Star Bridge of Souls. The older woman bathes Firefly and she weds the Invisible One. The last sixteen pages of the book provide a picture history with commentary of the Algonquins.]
Cunningham, Caroline. “The Little Scarred One.” In The Talking Stone. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939.
[The sisters, who cannot see the Invisible One, abuse the Little Scarred One until she is mutilated. But only she can see that the Invisible One’s bowstring is the rainbow. And only she becomes his bride. See Rafe Martin’s adaptation below, and Judy Sierra’s retelling.]
Cushing, Frank Hamilton, ed. “The Poor Turkey Girl.” In Zuni Folk Tales. New York: G.P. Putnam, 190l. Pp. 54-64; rpt. in Neil Philip, The Cinderella Story, London: Penguin, 1988. Pp. 79-86. Retold as well in Judy Sierra, Cinderella, Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1992. Pp. 122-127. See also Tedlock.
[In Matsaki, or the Salt City, there are many wealthy families who have great flocks of turkeys. A poor girl looked after them. She lavished kindness upon them and the turkeys were so obedient and grateful that they would enable her to attend the festival. They took her old rags and by dancing over them transformed them into a splendid gown. And they provided her with jewelry. But, having so transformed her, they demanded that she remember them and not stay too long at the dance. So she went to the festival and every Zuni wondered who the beautiful maiden was. The finest youth danced with her until the sun went down. The turkeys concluded that she had forgotten them and left their cages and went up the valley behind Thunder Mountain. She ran after them calling for them but too late. Her clothes became rags again, and she returned weary and grieving in despair. One can see the turkey tracks on the Canyon Mesa walls, their song graven in the rocks, and there are turkeys in abundance in that region still. But if the poor be poor in heart and spirit as well as in appearance, will they not be poor to the end of their days?]
Finding the Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuni Indians. Translated by Dennis Tedlock. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972; rpt. 1976.
[Includes “The Girl who Took Care of the Turkeys” (pp. 65-74), with fifteen page introduction on how two Zuni (Andrew Peynetsa and Walter Sanchez) chant the stories. For synopsis of “Turkey Girl” see Cushing, above.]
Haviland, Virginia. The Faber Book of Native American Legends. London: Faber, 1979. Also printed as Native American Legends. Illustrated by A. Strugnell. Philomel, 1979.
[Includes the Zuni “Poor Turkey Girl” and “The Indian Cinderella” (a Micmac tale).]
Macmillan, Cyrus. Canadian Wonder Tales. London: Bodley Head, 1974.
[Contains both Macmillan’s Canadian Wonder Tales and Canadian Fairy Tales; includes “The Indian Cinderella,” the Micmac version used by Virginia Haviland, and, in an Algonquin variant, by Rafe Martin.]
Martin, Rafe. Rough-Face Girl. Illustrated by David Shannon. New York: Putnam Publishing Group (Philomel), 1992.
[An Algonquin Cinderella. The beauties cannot answer the invisible king’s riddles, but Rough-skin, through her knowledge of nature, can, and she is transformed and taken to be the Invisible King’s bride.]
Nibak, Tonik. “Cinderella.” In The People of the Bat: Mayan Tales and Dreams from Zinacantán. Collected and translated by Robert M. Laughlin. Edited by Carol Karasik. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1950. Pp. 149-155. The literal version of the tale, together with the Tzotzil original is published in “Of Cabbages and Kings: Tales from Zinacantán,” Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, no. 7, 1977.
[Maria Cinderella is an orphan in the care of a pig killer whose mistress makes her wash the tripe, grind corn, make tortillas, and fix meals. A little old man appears to her by the river and offers her a sash which will do the work for her. She receives a star on her forehead, and then, through his intervention, goes to the fiesta where she dances with no one but the prince. When she leaves she loses her metal shoe, which is charmed so that only she may wear it. The prince searches for her; her stepsisters would cut their feet to make the shoe fit, and try to deny the kitchen orphan the chance to try on the shoe. But the prince insists that she try it on, it fits, and he marries her. “I don’t know if they published the banns,” but she becomes a favorite of the king. She continues working even though she does not have to. “She worked because we get used to working.” She is well-loved. The teller of the tale has an orphan daughter too. But he treats her well. Tonik is a woman tale teller who claims, in the course of her telling the tale, that she takes her orphan child to the movies, a point that Laughlin says must be very unusual (if true), given the poverty of the region. The sash is also unusual, since leather sashes are not worn by Zinacantecs. The dance is Ladino-style, where men and women dance together, unlike traditional dancing in Zinacantán (p. 212).]
Pollock, Penny. The Turkey Girl: A Zuni Cinderella Story. Illustrated by Ed Young. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1996.
[Alone and in poverty a young girl decides to herd turkeys. They help her to have confidence and clothes as well, but on condition that she leave by midnight. She does not and the turkey’s disappear, never to return. She is left in grief as her dress becomes again rags, and her sandals nothing more than yucca fibers.]
San Souci, Robert D. Sootface: An Ojibwa Cinderella Story. Illustrated by Daniel San Souci. New York: A Doubleday Book for Young Readers/Delacourte Press, 1994.
[After the death of their mother, and while the father is away hunting, the two older sisters beat the youngest sister, smear her face with ashes, call her Sootface, and make her do the dirty work. The villagers ridicule her too. She dreams and sings to herself a song of hope. A mighty warrior living across the lake with his sister is sought by many women, even though he is invisible to all but his sister. He tells his sister that he will marry the woman who can see him, so women come from afar. They are asked what he looks like what his bow and bowstring are made of. Sootface’s sisters try but fail. Despite the mockery, Sootface herself sets out to meet the test. She clothes herself in birch bark with a necklace of wildflowers. Always she is thinking, dreaming. She meets the hunter in the woods, with his bow made of the rainbow and strung with the Milky Way, the Path of Souls. When she reaches the wigwam, she answers the questions correctly and washes the hurt and sadness away as easily as she washes the ashes from her face. She is beautiful when the brother arrives. He changes her name to Dawn-Light, and they are married. All are happy but her sisters, who now have to do the cooking and cleaning for themselves.]
Sierra, Judy, ed. “The Invisible One.” In Cinderella, ed. Judy Sierra. Illustrated by Joanne Caroselli. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1992. Pp. 119-121.
[A Micmac tale. Oochigeaskw, the youngest of three daughters to a widower, is abused by her eldest sister and forced to work at the fire where her body becomes so scarred by burns that the people call her burnt-face girl. At the edge of the village lives a woman who attends her brother who is invisible. He will marry the one who can see him. The older sisters attempt to describe him but only tell lies, for they have seen nothing. Oochigeaskw would try. She dresses in her deceased father’s moccasins and, though she is mocked by the village for trying, goes to the woman and answers her questions about her brother correctly: his sled string is the rainbow, and his bowstring is the Milky Way. The sister of the Invisible one combs her hair, which becomes long and like a blackbird’s wing. Her eyes now shine like stars. The sister gives her a wedding garment, and the Invisible one enters the wigwam and says, “Truly you see me,” and they marry.]
[See also Valgardson, under Miscellaneous Cinderellas.]
Domítíla: A Cinderella Tale from the Mexican Tradition. Adapted by Jewell Reinhart Coburn. Illustrated by Connie McLennan. Auburn, CA: Shen’s Books, 2000.
[Domítíla’s parents are extremely poor. They live in the Mexican state of Hidalgo working hard to build an adobe house. Her mother teaches her leather work and cooking, always reminding her to do every task with care and always to add a dash of love. But a torrential rain destroys their unfinished casa, turning the adobe to mud. They must start over again. To help out Domitila goes to the great house of Timoteo and his grandmother where she works as the second cook. One evening she prepares nopales for the master. At first he scorns the peasant food but the abuela reminds him to show respect for the common people. He apologizes and tries the cactus dish. He finds it delicious and asks the secret. Domítíla tells him there is no secret; she simply cooks the way her mother taught her. That night news comes that Domítíla’s mother is dying and she leaves immediately. Next morning the third cook prepares the meal. Timoteo finds it unpalatable and, finding one of the leather straps so finely tooled by Domítíla, sets out to find her. The mother has died, and Domítíla stays with her father. In his search for Domítíla Timoteo comes upon Malvina, who thinks that she can trick him into marrying her own daughter. She sends him the wrong way and goes herself to Domítíla’s casa, where she prepares a wretched meal. But the father is lonely and marries her. She shifts all the work onto Domítíla while she and her daughter Pereza lounge about. Timoteo learns more of Domítíla at the country market, where all know of her cooking skills. But again Malvina intercepts him and sends him the wrong direction. This time, however, he comes upon Domítíla in the desert and recognizes her by her sandals. She knows how hungry he must be after his long journey and fixes him a tortilla filled with delicious nopales. He tells her of his journey, and she realizes the treachery of Malvina. After a visit to Domítíla’ mother’s grave they return to the Governor’s mansion and are married. Malvina and her lazy daughter Pereza flee. Abuelo gives Domítíla a lovely shawl that had belonged to mother. As Domítíla raises her children she reminds them to do everything with care and always to add a generous dash of love.]
dePaola, Tomie. Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story. Illustrated by Tomie dePaola. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2002.
[Adela becomes pregnant and Fransco sends for Esperanza to care for the baby as she did for for Adela and others in the family. Adela dies shortly after childbirth, but Francisco loves his daughter, names her Adelita, and Esperanza cares for her as she grows to be a beautiful young woman. Francisco takes a new wife, Señora Micaela de la Fortuna, who has two daughters, Valentina and Dulce. Esperanza does not like the marriage, for the Micaela and her daughters are “cold ones.” At first they get on well enough, but when Francisco dies Adelita is sent to the attic, with only hand-me-downs to wear. The stepsisters are mean and hateful, but Adelita finds warmth and happiness with Esperanza, who tells her family stories. But then Señora Micaela sends Esperanza away, even though she would gladly work for nothing. They learn that Señor and la Señora Gordillo are having a fiesta for the homecoming of their son Javier. Adelita is glad because when she was little she used to play with Javier. But Señora Micaela would not think of permitting Adelita to attend. After they leave Adelita hears a tapping at the door. Esperanza appears and shows Adelita to the storeroom and her mother’s trunk. She takes out a lovely white dress and a magnificent rebozo (shawl) embroidered with birds and flowers. Then, vamonos!, they hurry to the party. Adelita introduces herself as Cenicienta (Cinderella) and Javier immediately falls in love with her and proposes. But Adelita slips away, knowing that Javier would never be permitted to marry a kitchen servant. Next day the step family jokes about Cenicienta, who had no slipper to lose. But the next day Javier comes looking for her. She hangs the rebozo out the window; he sees it and is thrilled, comes to the house and asks to see her. Señora Micaela de la Fortuna praises the worthiness of her two daughters, but Javier rejects them just as Adelita appears in her mother’s dress and wearing the shawl. Dona Micaela is amazed. Javier asks for Adelita’s hand in marriage. She gives her name but explains that she is an orphan. He asks permision of the Señora, who, after a pause, agrees. The stepfamily is invited to the wedding, and so is Esperanza, who is taken into the service of Javier and Adelita. And they live muy felices por siempre. The book has a page of Spanish phrases at the end, with a pronunciation guide as well.]
Hayes, Joe. Estrellita de oro; Little Gold Star: A Cinderella Cuento. Retold in Spanish & English by Joe Hayes. Illustrated by Gloria Osuna Perez and Lucia Angela Perez. Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. 2000.
[Arcia’s father remarries, a woman with two daughters. At first things are okay, but then the mother (named Margarita) advances her daughters and demotes Arcia to the kitchen where she works and sleeps by the stove. Her shepherd father gives each of the girls a lamb. Arcia cares for her and asks her father to shear it for her. He does, but when she goes to the stream to wash the fleece an eagle swoops down and takes it. Arcia pleads, but the eagle places a gold star on her forehead. The envious stepsisters want one too, but when they go the river the one receives a donkey ear on the forehead; the other receives a green horn in hers. A party is announced at the palace. Little Gold Star goes and the prince falls in love with her. He searches everywhere to find her. When the prince comes to Arcia’s house the mean sisters hide her away, but the cat tells where she is. Once she is found she marries the prince.]
Salinas, Bobbi. Cinderella Latina / La Cenicienta Latina. Retold, Illustrated and Published by Bobbi Salinas. Oakland, CA: Piñata Publications, 2005.
[A bilingual retelling of La Cenicienta, with notes on cultural expressions and names, along with the music to "Allá en el Rancho Grande." The Romero family lives on a ranch in the Southwest owned by Don Pedro and his wife Doña Margarita. They raise their daughter Serena well, teaching her many crafts. The mother dies one morning while gathering herbs, but her spirit lives, on bringing joy to the household. Serena thrives on her books, music, friends, and unexplored future. Then Don Pedro marries an attractive widow, Doña Cornelia, with two daughters, Bella and Dulce, who are idle just like their mother. Then Don Pedro dies. Only Serena keeeps the estate going, doing all the chores and shopping while the others go to parties. Serena studies medicine with her mother's friend Doña Flora. The sisters mock her: "Why don't you just marry a doctor!" A Carnaval Costume Ball is announced to raise money for the César Chavez Scholarship Fund, hosted by Emiliano, a rancher's son. Los Coyotes will be playing salsa music and singing corridos. The sisters take baths and mud facials in preparation, buy fancy clothing, and go to the fiesta in their fancy red convertable. Serena has nothing to wear, but Doña Flora opens her mother's trunk and finds a red dress. She also provides beautiful sandals. Senena looks like her mother and know she must be watching over her. Serena uses Flora's van to drive seniors to the fiesta. They must be back by midnight, Doña Flora insists. Emiliano greets the seniors, but does not see the driver. When she appears at the fiesta, after parking the van, everyone is stunned by her beauty. She is a great salsa dancer and has a grand time with Emiliano. At midnight she flees losing a huarache; the seniors are already waiting in the van. But none know where she disappeared to. Not even the security guard notices who is driving Flora's van. Serena walks on home after dropping the van off and gets their just before the rest of the family does. Emiliano searches for the owner of the huarache. He arrives two weeks later at the ranch. The sandal fits Serena, who provides the matching huarache as well. The happy couple spend many happy hours together. But then Serena informs Emiliano that she must go away to continue her education. Years later she returns with her medical degree and opens La Clinica de Mujeres — a women's clinic for the poor. Emiliano continues his work with farm workers while teaching at the People's School. Serena and Emiliano marry.]
San Souci, Robert D. Little Gold Star: A Spanish American Cinderella Tale. Illustrated by Sergio Martinez. New York: Harper-Collins, 2000.
[In New Mexico a widower sheepherder named Tomás lives with his daughter Teresa. A widow with two daughters convinces him to remarry. She proves to be a shrew and the sheepherder moves into the high mountains, leaving Teresa to work as servant to the cruel woman. He brings his daughter a lamb, but the woman kills it and tells Teresa to wash the fleece in a stream that she may make a pillow of it. At the stream a fish steals the fleece away. As Teresa weeps a woman in blue appears and tells her to go into the mountains to help an old man take care of a baby. She does this lovingly and the woman in blue returns the fleece shining white and places a golden stair on the Teresa’s forehead. When Teresa returns home the stepmother demands to know where the star came from. When Teresa tells the story the woman touches the fleece, which becomes muddy again, so she sends Inez to wash the fleece. The fleece is stolen and the woman in blue appears. She sends Inez to the old man, but Inez scorns the child, pulls the old man’s beard, and rather than receiving a star on her forehead is given horns on her head. The woman in blue returns the fleece and Inez goes home to tell the story. This time Isabel goes and all happens as before, but for her scorn of the old man and the child she receives ass’s ears. Don Miguel holds a fiesta in honor of the town’s patron saint. The two stepsisters attend, leaving Teresa behind. But after her chores are over she goes to the fiesta in her plain white dress. Her star outshines all the jewelry of the others and the prince falls in love with her. The stepmother sends her home in disgust, but Don Miguel seeks her out. The stepmother locks her in the room, but when Teresa touches her star and wishes she could see him again, the cat goes down stairs and tells the Don where Teresa is, then claws the mantillas from the heads of Inez and Isabel, exposing the horns and ass’s ears. The Don then sends a letter requesting Teresa’s hand in marriage. The stepmother refuses to grant the request until Teresa completes three tasks: first she must gather ten bottles of birds’ tears, then stuff twelve mattresses with birds’ feathers, and finally prepare a tableful of fine food. There seems to be no hope that she can do this until the woman in blue, who is in truth the Virgin Mary (the old man and the baby being Joseph and the baby Jesus), and tells her to touch once more the star. Birds come to fill the bottles and stuff the mattresses and prepare the meal. So the stepmother relents and the wedding takes place. The other women gradually become more kind: their horns and ears disappear and her old father returns. She and Miguel live lovingly all their days and the little gold star remains a sign of heaven’s blessing on them and their children.]
See also Valgardson, under Miscellaneous Cinderella.
Afanasèv, Aleksandr. Russian Fairy Tales. Translated by Norbert Guterman. Illustrated by A. Alexeieff. New York: Pantheon Books, 1973.
[First published in Russian in 1856. Includes ten Cinderella variants (see synopses below). The Pantheon edition includes a commentary by Roman Jakobson (pp. 631-651). “The fairy tale performs the role of a social utopia.... it is a type of dream compensation” (p. 650). See also Post Wheeler’s translation of Afanasèv, Russian Wonder Tales, New York: Century, 1912, which is the source for Sierra’s version of “Vasilisa the Beautiful” (pp. 92-103). And Russian Fairy Tales, retold by Gillian Avery, with illustrations by Ivan Bilibin. Children’s Classics Everyman’s Library. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995, which contains Pushkin’s Introduction and eleven tales, including “Vassilissa the Beautiful and the Witch Baba Yaga” (pp. 33-54) and “Marya Morevna” (pp.69-90).]A. The Golden Slipper (pp. 44-46)
[An elderly couple give their two daughters fish. The elder eats hers and the younger releases hers in a well. The mother favors the elder daughter and dresses her for Mass but makes the younger husk two measures of rye. The girl goes to the well and weeps. The fish tells her to dress and go to Mass and the rye will be taken care of. She goes and is so beautiful that she is not recognized. She leaves early to get home and change. The mother and sister comment on the beautiful woman at Mass, observing that the priest could not take his eyes off her. Next day the mother and elder sister go to Mass again, leaving the younger to husk three measures of barley. Again the fish helps out, she is most beautiful in church, and the priest eyes her. But this time he puts pitch on the stair and claims her golden slipper. He announces he will marry the owner. When he arrives at their house he asks after the younger daughter but the mother says she is too dirty. But she appears despite her mother. The slipper fits and she marries the priest. They live happily and prosper.]
B. The Frog Princess (pp. 119-123)
[A king has three sons whom he instructs each to shoot an arrow. The woman who returns the arrow will be the shooter’s bride. The arrows of the elder two are returned by a princess and a general’s daughter, but the arrow of little prince Ivan was returned by a frog. After the weddings the king asks the brides to present him with gifts so that he might determine which is the most skillful. Ivan doubts his frog/wife can make anything, but as he sleeps she sheds her skin, turns into a beautiful woman, and makes an exquisite shirt which the king will wear on holidays. The other shirts are fit only to bath in or to be worn by peasants. Then the king asks the wives to bake bread. This time the two women spy on the frog and see her put dough in an old oven. They do the same, but the frog tricks them, changes into a woman and bakes a bread such as her father ate only on Sundays. The bread of the others is slack-baked and inedible. Then the king holds a ball to see which daughter-in-law dances best. Now Ivan truly sobs. But the frog reassures him. She sheds her skin and dresses herself in a marvelous raiment. Ivan is overjoyed. The other women try to imitate her and put bones and drip water in their sleeves as the beautiful woman seems to do. When the king dances with Ivan’s bride she whirls and waves her right hand: beautiful lakes and woods appear and flights of birds ascend. All are amazed. When she finishes dancing all that she created vanishes. The other women dance but when they wave their arms bones fall out and water douses the guests. After the ball Ivan finds the frog skin and burns it. The wife, who is really Elena the Fair, laments that if only he had waited one day she would have been free of the curse. But now she must flee. He pursues and after several trials finds her just as she is about to be married to someone else. She scolds him for taking so long. But Ivan and Elena take off with the speed of birds. And though the false groom pursues them they get back to Russia on their flying carpet where the pursuer cannot enter. Ivan and Elena prosper for the glory of all people.]
C. Vasilisa the Priest’s Daughter (pp. 131-133)
[A priest’s daughter dresses and behaves as a man. People call her Vasily. She rides horses, drinks vodka, hunts, and is an excellent shot. The king’s son hears of her and decides to test her to see if she is a man or woman. Guided by an old witch he hangs up embroidery and a gun, thinking if she is a woman she will admire first the embroidery. But when she appears she scolds the king for hanging female fiddle-faddle in the palace. So the king is unable to determine her gender. She did notice the embroidery first, but scorned it. So he tests her again, following the witch’s advice: he should serve her food with pearls in it. If she puts the pearls in a pile she is Vasilisa; if she throws them under the table she is Vasily. At supper she finds the pearls, throws them under the table, and scolds the king for putting such womanish fiddle-faddle in the food. So the king tries a third test and invites the youth to bath with him. But while the king is undressing, she enters the steam bath and leaves. She then sends him a note: “Ah, King Barkhat, raven that you are, you could not surprise the falcon in the garden! For I am not Vasily Vasilyevich, but Vasilisa Vasilyevna.” The king gets nothing for his trouble for Vasilisa was a clever girl, and pretty too.]
D. Burenushka, the Little Red Cow (pp. 146-150)
[A queen has only one daughter, Maria. When the queen dies and her husband remarries and has other daughters, one with one eye, and another with three eyes. The stepmother dislikes Maria and orders her to take the cow to pasture. In the field the cow assists Maria, feeding her and dressing her in fine attire. The stepmother, wondering why Maria does not starve, sends little one eye to spy on her. But Maria sings her to sleep so she does not see how Maria eats, drinks, and dresses. So the queen sends her three-eyed daughter to spy. Maria sings two eyes asleep but forgets about the third. The daughter tells and the queen orders the cow butchered. Maria asks for at least a bit of the entrails, which her old father grants her. She hangs them on the gatepost and a bush with sweet berries grows up thereby, with all kinds of singing birds in it. Prince Ivan comes by and asks for berries from the bush. The elder daughter tries to gather them but the birds pick at her eye. The younger daughter tries but is likewise driven away. When Maria tries to gather berries all the birds help. Ivan is so pleased that he marries Maria. Sometime later she gives birth to a son. But on a visit home the stepmother turns her into a goose. An old tutor takes the son into the field and the mother meets him, sheds her goose form and nurtures her son. Next day Ivan goes into the field and sees the transformation. While the mother is nursing the baby he burns the goose skin. He then grabs Maria who turns into a frog, then a lizard, then into various kinds of insects, and at last into a spindle. But Prince Ivan breaks the spindle, then throws it behind him and before him, thereby catching the beautiful woman. They return home. The stepmother and her daughters cry out against her and climb atop the gate post, but Prince Ivan shoots the false wife and lives happily with Maria and they prosper.]
E. Baba Yaga (pp. 194-195)
A peasant’s wife dies and he remarries. The new wife dislikes the peasant’s daughter by the first wife. So he takes her into the woods to a hut standing on chicken legs. He orders the hut to turn around and enters by the back way. Catching the Baba Yaga off guard (her head is in one place, her right leg in a corner, and her left leg in another) he asks that the Bony-legged One take his daughter as a servant. The girl agrees to serve and the Baba Yaga promises to reward her. As she is working mice appear and ask for gruel. The daughter feeds them and they help her with the tasks. Baba Yaga increases the tasks but again the mice help. Meanwhile the stepmother sends the husband to see if his first daughter is dead but finds out from the dog that she is thriving. So she sends her own daughter. But when the mice come out she strikes them with a rolling pin, even on the second chance. Yaga becomes angry and breaks her to pieces and puts her bones in a basket and returns them to the stepmother. When the dog announces that the basket contains bones, rather than a young lady’s return, the false wife groans and moans. But the tale teller gets a crock of butter for his tale.]
F. Daughter and Stepdaughter (pp. 278-279)
[A widowed peasant marries a widow; both have daughters. The stepmother would rid herself of the peasant’s daughter and sends her to live in a mud hut in the woods where she is to spin and cook for herself. She feeds a mouse a spoonful of kasha. At midnight a bear breaks into the hut, demanding that she play blind-man’s buff with him. The mouse tells her not to fear and distracts the bear who can catch neither. At last the bear congratulates the girl at her skill and rewards her with a drove of horses and cartful of goods. Next morning the stepmother sends the peasant to collect the girl’s bones. But the dog announces that the daughter is returning with horses and a cartful of goods. The stepmother is both disappointed and filled with greed. She sends her own daughter to the hut. The girl scorns the mouse, and when the bear breaks in she chatters with fear, thus revealing her whereabouts. The bear ties a bell to her and plays blind-man’s buff, catching her easily. Next day the stepmother sends the peasant to collect her, and the dog announces their return: “Bow wow wow. Her bones are in the basket and the cart is empty.” The woman won’t believe, but it’s true. She dies of grief next day. The peasant lives with his daughter and soon welcomes into his house a wealthy son-in-law.]
G. The Armless Maiden (pp. 294-298)
[A wealthy merchant and his wife die, leaving a son and daughter. They go to another town and set up in trade. The brother marries a sorceress who is jealous of the sister. While her husband is away she breaks all the furniture in the house and says the sister did it. The husband says they can get more. When the husband is away a second time the wife cuts the head off his favorite horse and blames the sister. Again the husband is patient, saying, “Let the dogs have what is theirs.” A third time he must leave and asks the sister to help his wife should she have a baby. The sorceress murders the baby and says the sister did it. So the husband tells his sister that they must go to Mass in the middle of the night. She objects but he insists. The cart gets caught in a bramble in the woods and the brother tells her to untangle it. When she gets down he cuts off her arms at the elbow and abandons her. She wanders for years and finally arrives in a village where she is taken in as a beggar woman. After a time the son of a wealthy merchant falls in love with her and would marry her. At first his parents object but a priest gives his blessing. They have a child whose arms were golden to the elbows, with sides studded with stars, the brightest moon in his forehead, and the sun near his heart. The grandparents send a message to the father who is away but the sorceress intercepts the message and rewrites the message, saying that she has given birth to a monster, half dog, half bear which she conceived in the woods. The husband is shocked but replies that they should care for the child until his return. Again the sorceress intercepts the message and substitutes a letter saying that the mother and babe should be cast out. As the new mother wanders in the woods she comes to a well. As she attempts to get water the child falls in. She cries out in distress and an old man tells her to reach in and lift the child out. She says she cannot because she has no hands. He tells her to try anyway and as she does her arms and hands are restored. Filled with joy she returns to the city where her husband and brother are living. They invite her in, insisting that a beggar woman tells the best stories. The woman says she knows no stories but will tell the truth. She then tells the story of her life. Repeatedly the sorceress tries to interrupt but the brother and then her husband insist that she continue. At the end she identifies the brother’s wife as the sorceress. Her husband asks for further proof, and she shows him his son with the golden arms, etc. The sorceress is tied to a horse and dragged through the fields until only a braid of hair is left. Then the new husband and his family return to the grandparents and all live happily and prosper.]
H. Baba Yaga (pp. 363-365)
[A widower remarries. The new wife dislikes his daughter, beats her, and would destroy her. She sends her to the Baba Yaga, but she goes first to her aunt who advises her to take a ribbon, some oil, some bread, and some ham. Baba puts her to work spinning, planning soon to eat her. The girl is kind to the maid, giving her a kerchief. She gives ham to the cat and the cat gives her a comb and a towel and tells her to run. The dogs would tear her but she gives them bread and they let her pass. The gate would stop her but she oils its hinges. The birch would lash her eyes but she ties it with a ribbon. Baba Yaga returns and beats the cat for not scratching out the girl’s eyes. But the cat says she has served many years but not been given even a bone, while the girl gave her ham. Baba Yaga starts thrashing the dogs, but he reminds her that she never gave them even a crust. The gate reminds her that she never even poured water on the hinges let alone oil, and the birch too had never been tended even with a thread, let alone a ribbon. Baba Yaga pursues but the girl puts her ear to the ground and hears her coming. She lays the towel on the ground which turns into a river. Baba Yaga can’t cross so she goes home and brings oxen who drink the river dry. Again, as she approaches the girl the girl places the comb in the ground. It turns into a thick forest through which the Baba Yaga cannot pass. When she gets home her father asks where she has been. She tells of the stepmother’s plan and the old man shoots his false wife to death, then lives in prosperity with his daughter.]
I. The Sea King and Vasilisa the Wise (pp. 427-437)
[Three times a king wishes to shoot a young eagle perched on a tree, but each time the eagle talks him out of it, promising to be useful to the king some day. The king takes the bird to his castle promising to feed him for three years. In the first two years the eagle devours all the king’s cattle and sheep. He asks to go free but is unable to fly. So the king borrows cattle and feeds the bird a third year. The bird then takes the king on his back and casts him into the sea where the king is wet up to the knees, then into a second sea where he is wet to the waist, and then into a third sea where he is wet to the neck. Each time he asks the king if he is afraid before being rescued. At last he explains that he did this to let the king know how he felt when the king threatened to shoot him. Then he takes him to his sister’s cottage, but the sister scorns the king and sets her dogs on him. The eagle burns the sister’s cottage down as punishment and takes the king to his second sister’s place. She too scorns the king and is punished by the eagle. He then takes him to the home of his mother and eldest sister. They welcome the king and give him payment for all the eagle ate in the king’s house, providing him with a ship and two coffers, the red one to be opened in his back yard and the green one to be opened in the front yard. The king is waylayed on an island and out of curiosity opens the red coffer out of which came cattle of every king, completely filling the island. Overcome with grief he weeps until a man comes out of the water and says he will help him get the cattle back into the coffer if he gives him that which he does not know is in his house. The king agrees, the cattle are returned to the coffer, and he returns home to discover that his wife has given birth to a son. He opens the coffers: the red one fills his estate with cattle and the green one provides a splendid garden in which to dwell. Years later he walks by the river and the old man appears and claims his son. They surrender the prince by the seashore. He looks around and enters a thick forest where Baba Yaga lives. She instructs him to go to the seashore where twelve spoonbills will come and turn into lovely maidens and bathe. He should steal the shift of the eldest maiden. He will also meet Eater, Drinker, and Sharp Frost, whom he should take with him. He does as commanded. The lovely maiden pleads to have her shift returned, promising him help when he needs it. He complies and she returns to spoonbill form and flies away. The Sea King then invites him to a feast, ordering him to build a great crystal bridge. As the prince weeps at the impossible task Vasilisa the Wise appears at his window and offers to help. She puts him to sleep and builds the bridge. Then the prince is ordered to grow an orchard with songbirds and fruit laden trees overnight. Again he weeps and again Vasilisa puts him to sleep and accomplishes the task. The king then orders him to choose the same girl from a group of identical women three times in succession. Vasilisa the Wise gives him signs to accomplish the task and next day three times he chooses her and marries her. They then attempt to return home. But the king sends pursuers after them. Vasilisa puts her ear to the earth and hears them coming. She turns her horses into a well, herself into a ladle, and her husband into an old man. The pursuers are tricked and return home to be executed by the Sea King. He sends more pursuers. This time she turns the prince into an old priest and herself into an ancient church. These messengers return and are likewise put to death. This time the Sea King pursues them himself. Vasilisa turns her horses into a river of mead with banks of pudding. The Sea King eats and drinks until he bursts. So Vasilisa and the prince return to his father and mother. Vasilisa tells him to go first and greet his parents but not to kiss his sister else he forget his wife. He forgets her command, forgets Vasilisa, and is to be married to a rich queen. Vasilisa bakes a cake for the wedding with a pair of doves and some cheese in it. At the feast the cake is cut and the doves fly out, squabble over the cheese and remind him of his wife. The prince remembers Vasilisa, jumps up and takes her by the hand and seats her beside him. Thenceforth, they live together in prosperity and happiness.]
J. Vasilisa the Beautiful (pp. 439-447)
[When Vasilisa is eight years old her mother dies leaving her a doll which, if fed and cared for will protect her against trouble. The merchant remarries, a woman with two daughters Vasilisa’s age who abuses Vasilisa. Vasilisa grows in beauty, the other daughters in ugliness. She feeds her doll choice morsels at night and is consoled by the doll who helps her with her work. The woman repeatedly sends Vasilisa into the woods, hoping the Baba Yaga will devour her, but her doll always leads her home safely. One autumn the stepmother gives the three maidens work, the oldest making lace, the second knitting stockings, and Vasilisa spinning. One of the sisters snuffs out the candle, and Vasilisa is ordered to go to Baba Yaga to get some light. She goes to her room, feeds her doll whose eyes glow like candles, and then sets out. She comes to the Baba Yaga’s hut made of human bones with skulls piked all about; the doors have human legs for doorposts, human hands for bolts, and mouths with sharp teeth for locks. A horseman in white rides by, then one in red, then one in black and the eyes in the skulls gleam. Then the Baba Yaga rides up in a mortar which she prods with a pestle and smells Vasilisa’s presence. She invites Vasilisa in and makes her prepare food, clean the hut, wash the linen, and sort grain. She feeds her doll and it helps her with the work. At dawn the white horseman returns, at sunrise the red one. Baba Yaga arises amazed that the work has all been done. At dusk the black horseman flashes by. Again the work has been accomplished. The witch sets more tasks but the doll helps. Next day she asks Baba Yaga about the three horsemen–the white being bright day, the red the sun, and the black dark night. But she does not ask about the three pairs of hands or things inside the house. Baba Yaga asks how she accomplishes the tasks and Vasilisa tells of the doll from her mother. Baba Yaga says she wants no blessed ones in her house, gives her a lighted skull for the stepsisters, and Vasilisa set out home. The light of the skull burns the stepmother and her daughters to ashes. Next day Vasilisa buries the skull, locks up the house, and goes to town where an old woman gives her shelter to wait for her father’s return home. To pass the time Vasilisa spins on a loom made with the help of the doll. The old woman takes the linen to the Tsar who is amazed at the gift and orders shirts made of the cloth. None will work with such fine material so Vasilisa is called upon to do the work. She makes a dozen shirts. The Tsar demands to see the needle woman and to reward her with his own hands. He marries her. When her father returns he is overjoyed. Vasilisa cares for the old woman and carries her doll in her pocket to the end of her life.]
K. Maria Morevna (pp. 553-562)
[Prince Ivan has three sisters, Maria, Olga, and Anna. At the death of their mother Ivan promises to give his sisters in marriage when suitors come. After a storm a falcon comes and asks for Maria. She consents and the bird takes her away. Time passes and after a storm an eagle appears and asks for Olga. She too consents. Another year passes and after a storm a raven asks for Anna, who agrees. Ivan does not like living alone and seeks his sisters. He meets the beautiful queen Maria Morevna and marries her. The queen is a great warrior. In the closet Ivan finds Koschey the Deathless in chains, asking for water. Ivan gives him three kegs and Koschey gets his strength back, breaks the twelve chains and abducts Maria Morevna. Ivan sets out in search of her. He meets sister Maria. Her falcon will help search, but asks for a silver spoon in return. Ivan gives it to him. He then meets Olga and her eagle. The eagle also will look and asks for Ivan’s silver fork. He then meets Anna and her raven, who asks for the prince’s silver snuffbox. He then comes upon Maria Morevna who weeps and asks why Ivan disobeyed her and released Koschey the Deathless. Ivan says don’t look back, just come away now while Koshchey is away. Koshchey over-takes them, forgives the first time, because of the water, and takes Morevna with him. Ivan steals his wife away a second time, then a third time. Now Koshchey cuts Ivan into tiny pieces and puts the pieces in a tarred barrel and throws it into the sea. At that moment the silver blackens in the houses of his three sisters. The eagle hurries to the sea and seizes the barrel and pulls it ashore. The falcon flies for the water of life and the raven for the water of death. Restored to life Ivan sets out again to seek his wife. Ivan returns to Morevna and asks where Koshchey got such a good horse. It came from Baba Yaga for whom Koshchey served as herdsman. He also has a handkerchief which, when waved three times, makes a bridge across even a river of fire. Morevna steals the handkerchief and Ivan visits Baba Yaga. On the way he threatens to eat a bird’s chick but does not when the bird says she will help him. He begins to take some honey from a bee hive; the queen bee asks him not to and he refrains. He meets a lion cub and would eat it, but does not at the lioness’s request. He arrives hungry at Baba Yaga’s and tells her that he has come to earn a horse. All he has to do is tend them for three days; if he fails he will lose his head. In the field the mares scatter in all directions. But the bird tells him that other birds have chased them all home. On the second day, after Baba Yaga has scolded the horses and told them to scatter, the lioness keeps them all together and they return to the fold. On the third day the mares again scatter and all seems lost for Ivan until a bee tells him where to find a mangy little colt wallowing in a dung heep. He gets the colt and hides. The bees drive the mares home. At midnight Ivan mounts the colt and comes to the river of fire. He waves the handkerchief and crosses on the thin bridge. Baba Yaga pursues but in trying to cross the bridge it collapses and she falls into the river of fire. Ivan fetches Maria Morevna and they flee. Koshchey pursues but this time Ivan is ready for him. He challenges him with his sabre and with the help of his horse defeats the monster, burns him, and scatters the ashes to the wind. He returns to his sisters’ families and they feast in kingdoms now bounteous.]
Almedingen, E. M. “Vassilissa the Beautiful.” In Russian Folk and Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Simon Jeruchim. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1963, pp. 9-26.
[First published in 1957. Based on Afanasiev’s edition, 1856, annotated above. In Almedingen’s well-told version Vassilissa’s truth transforms the loathsome old king into a youthful prince, fit to be her husband; after which her shipwrecked father is found and blesses them.]
Arnold, Katya. Baba Yaga and the Little Girl: A Russian Folktale Retold and Illustrated by Katya Arnold. New York: North-South Books, 1994.
[A little girl, daughter of a merchant, is abused by her stepmother. Once when her father is away the stepmother sends the girl to her sister, the Baba Yaga, for a needle and thread to sew her father a shirt. But the clever girl first goes to her own aunt who reassures her and gives her a ribbon to tie on a birch so that it will not lash her eyes, some oil so that the gate hinge won’t creak, some bread to feed the wild dogs, and some ham for the cat so that they will not tear her apart or scratch out her eyes. The Baba Yaga invites the girl into her hut that stands on chicken legs. The Baba Yaga gives her the needle and thread but makes her work for her preparing the fire and getting water for stew. She plans to cook the little girl. But the girl knits her father’s shirt and feeds ham to the cat. The cat gives her in return a magic towel and comb. The girl gets by the wild dogs by giving them bread, oils the gates’ hinges so that they let her pass silently; the birch would lash her eyes but she ties it with a ribbon. As she flees, Baba Yaga pursues, but the girl throws the towel to the ground, and it turns into a river. Baba Yaga drives her oxen into the river, and they drink up all the water. As she approaches the fleeing girl a second time the girl throws the comb behind her, which turns into a dense forest. Baba Yaga tries to gnaw her way through the forest but the trees break off her teeth, and she has to return to her chicken leg hut. When the girl returns home her father has too. She tells him what happened, and he throws the false wife out. The girl gives him the beautiful shirt she has made, and they live happily ever after.]
Bushnaq, Inea, ed. The Little Red Fish and the Clog of Gold. (Iraq). In Arab Folktales. New York: Pantheon, 1986; rpt. in Sierra, Cinderella (pp. 104-110).
[A fisherman’s wife drowns, leaving him with a two year old daughter. A neighbor woman, who has a daughter as well, cares for her. The fisherman refuses to remarry, but his daughter convinces him that the neighbor woman would be a good mother to her. So he consents. Immediately the new wife turns against the daughter and would advance her own child. One day, when bringing home the catch, the daughter is addressed by one of the fish, a small red one, who asks to be returned to the water. In return the fish will be a new mother to the girl. She drops the fish into the river and the fish thanks her for her kindness. Later a great merchant is to have a bridal party. The stepmother and her daughter dress well and attend, but the fisherman’s daughter must stay home and work. After they are gone she goes to the river and the red fish appears and gives her a bundle of lovely clothing, a comb of pearl, and golden clogs. The only admonition is that she return home before the stepmother. She goes and everyone thinks she must be the bride. In her haste to leave she drops her clog in the stream. It washes down stream to the palace where the prince finds it in the pool where he waters his horse. He must wed the owner. His mother sets out to find the one the clog fits. The stepmother seals the fisherman’s daughter in the bakehouse, but the neighbor’s rooster tells with a piercing cry that the ugly daughter is on display while the beauty is hidden below. The queen hears, searches, and finds the fisherman’s daughter. The clog fits and the betrothal takes place. The stepmother, in anger, goes to a perfumer and asks for a purge that will shred the bowels to tatters and an ointment that will make the hair fall out. She gives the girl the treatment, but it has no effect. The bride smells of amber and roses. She feels heavy in her belly but under her gown gold pieces fall in thousands upon the carpet and cushions. Meanwhile the master merchant’s son thinks he should marry the new princess’s sister. The stepmother, thinking that the ointment which had a counter effect on the fisherman’s daughter might do wonders for her own child anoints her hair and gives her the purge. When the bride arrives the stink is so strong the merchant’s son chokes. When he lifts her veil it is like opening a grave. So they wrap this bride in her own filth and return her to her mother. The fisherman’s daughter, on the other hand, has seven children as beautiful as seven golden birds.]
Cole, Joanna. Bony-Legs. Pictures by Dirk Zimmer. New York: Macmillan, 1985.
[Adaptation of Vassilissa for young readers. Sasha goes to the witch Bony-legs to borrow a needle and thread for her aunt. Her kindnesses to the squeaky gate, hungry dog, and hungry cat pay off as she herself escapes being eaten by the skinny witch in her chicken-leg house. Her comb helps out too.]
Dolch, Edward and Marguerite. “Vasilisa the Beautiful.” In Stories from Old Russia. Champaign, Illinois: Gerrard Publishing, 1964. Pp. 99-107.
Duddington, Natalie. “Vassilissa the Fair and the Baba Yaga.” In Russian Fairy Tales. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1967. Pp. 116-124.
Estés, Clarissa Pinkola. “The Doll in Her Pocket: Vasalisa the Wise.” In Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. New York: Ballantyne Books, 1992. Pp. 74-114.
[Estés retells the story of Vasalisa from the beginning up to Vasalisa’s return with the fire and the burning of the stepmother and stepsisters to cinders, then presents the story in terms of a Jungian quest for fulfillment of the woman’s psyche. She divides the plot into nine steps: 1) Allowing the Too-good Mother to Die; 2) Exposing the Crude Shadow; 3) Navigating in the Dark; 4) Facing the Wild Hag; 5) Serving the Non-rational; 6) Separating This from That; 7) Asking the Mysteries; 8) Standing on All Fours; 9) Recasting the Shadow.]
Grauer, Rita, adapter and illustrator. Vasalisa and her Magic Doll. New York: Philomel Books, 1994.
[A widow has two daughters, Svetlana and Vasalisa. But she dies, leaving her house to Svetlana and giving Vasalisa only a magic doll. Vasalisa’s beauty makes Svetlana jealous. Though Vasalisa cuts her hair short, she is still praised, so the jealous Svetlana locks her in the house. That night their light is extinguished, and Svetlana sends Vasalisa to the Baba Yaga who lives in the wood in a house that walks on giant chicken legs. Though the birch trees warn her against night riders and the witch, she is protected by her doll. She comes upon the Baba Yaga, asks for the light, but the izba flees saying “You must catch me first.” Vasalisa pursues, but the Baba Yaga leaps into a river with towering flames arising from its surface. Suddenly a horseman emerges from the flames, sweeps her up, and carries her through the flames to safety. There before her is the hut of the Baba Yaga, surrounded by a fence of human bones with skulls atop each post. Inside the witch lives in the flames. Baba Yaga asks for gifts but settles for cooking. Baba Yaga then sleeps but awakens to see Vasalisa holding her doll. She asks for it. So Vasalisa kisses the doll and gives it to Baba Yaga forever. In return the witch gives her fire. She returns to Svetlana, who waits for her, sad because of her meanness to her sister. She declares the love for her sister and from that day on, in the tiny village of Drov, candles burn, and Vasalisa hears a voice within her heart and all is well.]
Haviland, Virginia. “Vasilisa the Beautiful.” In Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Russia. Illustrated by Herbert Danska. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1961. Pp. 20-42.
[Retold from Harry Andrews’ literal translation (Moscow: Government Publishing House, 1957) of Alexei Afanasèv (1855).]
Hickox, Rebecca. The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story. Illustrated by Will Hillenbrand. New York: Holiday House, 1998.
[Based on an Iraqi story “The Little Red Fish and the Clog of Gold,” told by Inea Bushnaq’s Arab Folktales (Pantheon, 1986). Maha, daughter of a widowed fisherman, urges her father to remarry. He resists at first, but Maha insists, so he marries a neighbor woman who has two children. The new wife becomes jealous of Maha and places her in servitude, making her scrub, tend the animals, and prepare the meals. Walking home with a basket of catfish, Maha is amazed when a little redfish under the others calls to her. She puts the fish back in the river. It tells her that no kindness ever goes unrewarded. When Maha becomes most upset at the unfairness in her life she goes to the river and converses with her fish. Years go by and the daughter of a master merchant is to be married. All the women gather in their finery for the women’s celebration. Maha, who has none, cannot go. But the fish provides her with fine clothes and jewelry. At the women’s celebration all marvel at her beauty. But when the bride prepares to leave, Maha rushes away to get back home before the stepsisters. As she flees she loses one of her golden sandals, which drops into the water beneath a footbridge. Days later Tariq, brother of the bride, finds the sandal. He tells his mother that he will marry the owner. His mother vows to find the girl. She comes to the stepsister’s house. The sandal fits no one, for they have locked Maha in the oven. But as Tariq’s mother leaves a rooster flies to the top of the oven and crows: “Ki-ki-ki-ko, The one you seek is hidden below.” They open the oven and find Maha locked inside. The mother gives the stepmother a bag of gold for the daughter. But the stepmother remains cruel. She uses the gold to buy an oil that smells foul as rotting fish and causes one’s hair to fall out. She combs the potion through Maha’s hair. Next day when Tariq comes for his bride Maha is unveiled. All marvel at her beauty and sweet rose-scented hair. Tariq’s brother would take one of the sisters as his bride. The stepmother receives another bag of gold and uses some of the same oil on her daughter’s hair, thinking there must have been a mistake in the preparation. But after the parade through the streets, when it came time to lift the bride’s veil, the groom choked on the foul smell and saw that the bride’s head was covered with blisters instead of hair. She is returned to her mother in disgrace. But Maha and Tariq are blessed with seven children and live their days in great joy.]
Kimmel, Eric A. Baba Yaga: A Russian Folktale. Illustrated by Megan Lloyd. New York: Holiday House, 1991.
[A merchant lives by the edge of a forest. His has a daughter named Marina, who is beautiful except for a little horn growing from the middle of her forehead. Her mother dies and the father remarries a haughty woman with a daughter named Marusia. The merchant journeys to foreign lands and the stepmother assumes him dead. She turns Marina into a serving girl, makes her scrub and scour like a slave and sleep with the animals. The stepmother then sends her into the woods to fetch a needle and thread from “Auntie-in-the-Forest.” On the way she gets advice from a kind frog who tells her to feed the dog and cat, oil the gate, and tie a ribbon about a birch tree that moans. Baba Yaga removes Marina’s horn and sticks it in the wall. The animals that she feeds help Marina escape and give her a magic comb and towel to assist her. Baba Yaga pursues but Marina drops the towel which turns into a mighty river, which Baba Yaga cannot cross. She can drink it up, however, and as she gets close again to Marina the girl drops the comb, which turns into a forest too thick to cross. Baba Yaga tries to gnaw her way through, but gives up. When Marina arrives home she finds that her father has returned. When he finds out how the stepmother sent her into the woods he turns her out with her daughter. The stepmother then sends Marusia to the “Auntie-in-the-Woods” with instructions to make her just like Marina. She comes to the frog who asks about her but she throws stones at the frog. When she makes her request of the Baba Yaga she sticks the horn on Marusia’s forehead and it hasn’t come off yet.]
Lang, Andrew, ed. “The Wonderful Birch” (A Russo-Karelian tale). From Eero Salmelainen’s Tales and Fables of the Finns. The Red Fairy Book (1890). Illustrated by H. Ford & L. Speed. New York: Dover Publications, 1966. Pp. 123-132. Included also in Sierra (pp. 75-80).
[A man and wife with only one daughter search for a lost sheep. A witch turns the wife into a sheep and, impersonating the wife, then tells the husband to kill the sheep. The daughter tries to protect the sheep but to no avail. She takes the bones, however, buries them, and a lovely birch tree grows from the mound. The king announces a festival. The witch, her daughter, and the good man will attend; but the good daughter must sort a potful of barleycorns from the cinders. The birch tree gives her a branch to strike the hearth with whereupon all will be right. The girl obeys and the barleycorns fly into the pot. She is given another branch beside which she bathes and is clothed splendidly and given a fine horse to ride to the festival. There the prince pays her attention. She feasts by the prince while the witch’s daughter gnaws bones under the table. The prince thinks a dog is there and kicks it, breaking the stepsister’s arm. The good daughter hastens home to the birch and the hearth but loses her ring in some pitch the prince has put by the door. A second time they go to the festival. This time she cannot go because the witch makes her sort hemp seed. The tree helps as before and a second time she attends the festival. This time she loses her circlet. A third time she is thwarted from attending because the witch dumps a dish of milk in the ashes, which she must extract. This time she loses her slipper at the festival. The prince then seeks the one to whom the three tokens belong. The prince marries her, and they have a child, but the witch turns the princess into a tree and then a reindeer. The prince follows a widow woman who takes a child (his child) into the wood to let the mother nurse it. He catches his wife in her natural form, nursing their child without the reindeer disguise on. He takes the skin and burns it. As he brings his family home in their rightful forms the witch and her daughter flee and are still running.]
Little Rag Girl (Republic of Georgia). Translated by Marjory Wardrop. In Georgian Folk Tales. London: David Nutt, 1894. From Khalkhuri Zghaprebi, ed. M. Agrniashvili. Tiflis: Georgian Folklore Society, 1891; rpt. in Sierra (pp. 88-91).
[A poor peasant lives with his ailing wife. They are so poor their only child is called Little Rag Girl. The mother dies and the peasant remarries a widow with a daughter of her own. The stepmother sends Little Rag Girl to look after a cow, giving her bread but telling her to bring the loaf home whole at the end of the day. The cow, however, offers Rag Girl honey from one horn and butter from the other. The girl grows plump and the stepmother is outraged. So she sends Rag Girl to spin as well as watch the cow. The cow runs away; Little Rag Girl pursues, but drops her spindle into a hole. Inside is an old woman whose head is full of worms. Rag Girl plucks the worms out of her head and strokes her gently. The old woman tells her to go past three springs, a white, black, and yellow one. She should dip her head in the yellow one. She does and her hair becomes golden. The jealous stepmother now sends her own daughter to spin and tend the cow. The cow runs away, her spindle falls into the hole, and the old woman asks for help. But the daughter scorns her disgusting head. The old woman sends her past the springs with instructions to dip her head in the black one. She does and a black horn pops out of her forehead and grows right back even after it is cut off. In anger the stepmother butchers the cow. But the cow has anticipated this and told Little Rag Girl to collect the bones and to bury them. They will then grant her wishes. One holiday the stepmother takes her daughter to church but makes Rag Girl gather a hundred pounds of millet which she spills on the ground and tells her to weep a trough full of tears. A neighbor woman sends her hens and chicks to pick up the millet and gives her a lump of salt and water for the trough. Then the girl goes to the grave and asks for a steed and royal robes. She goes to church and is a wonder. Upon leaving she loses one of her golden slippers by the stream. The king passes by, stops to water his horses, finds the slipper and vows to marry its owner. The stepmother tells the king that her daughter will be the one. She hides Rag Girl under a basket in the corner. The king sits down on the basket, and Rag Girl pokes him with a needle. The stepmother says it is only a turkey. Rag Girl pokes him again and this time he looks. Little Rag Girl comes forth, claims the slipper, it fits, and she becomes the queen. The stepmother is left with a dry throat.]
Mayer, Marianna. Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave. Illustrated by Kinuko Y. Craft. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1994.
[Though the cruel stepmother makes Vasilisa scrub floors and do all the dirty work, her mother’s gift, a doll, consoles and protects her. At midnight their candle goes out and the stepmother, a witch who was planning disaster for the girl, orders Vasilisa into the forest to obtain light from the Baba Yaga. A white and then a scarlet horseman ride by, but they fail to see Vasilisa. The next day she arrives at the Baba Yaga’s hut, placed on rickety stilts of bones with a fence lit up by skulls with light burning in the eye sockets. The Baba Yaga arrives riding a mortar and pestle and gives the girl tasks–soup making, grain cleaning. The doll leaps from her pocket and performs the tasks. Though Baba Yaga is disappointed that she succeeded, for she wanted to eat her, she is pleased with the feast the girl has provided. So she gives further tasks, baking and dusting poppy seed, which the doll helps her accomplish. A black horseman rides by. Vasilisa asks about things outside the hut but not inside, learning about the horseman. The Baba Yaga wonders how she is protected from harm, and she explains, “By my mother’s love.” That so disturbs the Baba Yaga that she gives her a lighted skull and sends her home. The stepmother eagerly takes the skull but it comes to life and consumes the stepfamily in flames. Vasilisa sets out for the village. There her life changes. An old woman looks upon her as her daughter. She keeps occupied by spinning. The old woman gives her fine cloth to the royal commissar. The tzar would see who made such fabric, falls in love with Vasilisa, and makes her queen.]
Mayhew, James. “The Tale of Baba-Yaga and Fair Vassilisa.” In Koshka’s Tales: Stories from Russia. London: Kingfisher Books, Grisewood & Dempsey Ltd, 1993. Pp. 57-69.
[Mayhew blends his favorite versions of the stories to create “a kaleidoscope of folklore” (p. 80), adding new touches of his own. Mainly his sources for Vassilisa are R. Nisbet Bain, Russian Fairy Tales (1892), Robert Steele, ed. The Russian Garland (1916), and Post Wheeler, Russian Wonder Tales (1912). Vassilisa’s father is a blacksmith. When her mother dies leaving Vassilisa a nest of dolls, the father marries a cruel woman with two daughters of her own. When he has to go to a neighboring tsardom to find work the stepmother cruelly enslaves Vassilisa. She feeds religiously the inner doll, however, which in turn tells Vassilisa how to cook, clean, and accomplish whatever she asks. Three times the stepmother sends Vassilisa into the woods, thinking to lose her, but each time, upon the advice of the doll, she finds guidance home, first by a silver horseman, bringer of Bright Morning, then a golden horseman, bringer of Glowing Daytime, then a black horseman, bringer of Midnight. Ordered to fetch light from the forest Vassilisa goes to the Baba-Yaga, for whom she is forced to work. She is kind to the animals in Baba-Yaga’s service and, with the help of Kookolka her doll, whom she continues to feed, spins cloth for Baba-Yaga. She escapes at night with the help of the Baba-Yaga’s bear, crow, and cat, whom she has fed, and, on her own, bravely takes a skull filled with light from the Baba-Yaga’s fence, then returns home. The stepmother and her daughters are burnt to death by the skull’s strange light, but Vassilisa is unharmed. Her father returns and takes her to the tsarevich for whom he now works. With the help of the doll she makes cloth and then shirts for the tsarevich, and, finally, a coronation cloak. He is delighted, needs a wife, sees her in a magnificent silver gown of her making, loves her, and weds her. She keeps her doll in her pocket and always remembers to feed it, just in case she might need it.]
Papalluga; or, The Golden Slipper. In Serbian Fairy Tales. Translated from the Serbian by Madame Elodie L Mijatovich. Illustrated by Sidney Stanley. London: William Heinemann, 1917.
[An old man tells village girls who are spinning in the field while tending cattle along a ravine that their mothers will turn into a cow if they drop their spindle into the ravine. The girls run to look. The most beautiful, named Mary, accidentally drops hers, and it falls into the ravine. When she returns home her mother is a cow. Her father remarries a widow with her own daughter. The stepmother hates Mary because of her beauty and forbids her to wash herself, comb her hair, or change her clothes. She torments her every way she can. She tells her to spin a bag of hemp or she will kill her. By noon Mary has been able to spin little when the cow tells her to put the hemp in the cow’s mouth and it will come out as thread from the cow’s ear. The girl goes home with all the hemp spun and wound. The stepmother gives her more the next day. As before the cow helps Mary. Next day, the stepmother sends her daughter to spy on Mary. The dutiful daughter tells of the cow’s participation and the stepmother orders the cow killed. The cow tells Mary not to cry, but she should not eat any of the meat; rather she should collect the bones and horns and bury them behind the house. The woman now makes the girl do all the duties of a scullion and sleep by the fire. She renames the girl Papalluga (Cinderella) and spills a basketful of millet, telling the girl to gather it all by the time they return from church or she will be killed. The others go to church, but the poor girl weeps over her mother’s cow bones. On the grave a box of fine clothes appears. Two white doves tell her to dress and go to church; the millet will be taken care of. The king’s son sees her at church an admires her. She leaves before the end of the service and returns home, placing the clothes again in the box, which shuts itself and disappears. She finds the meal prepared at the hearth and the millet collected. The stepmother is amazed. Next Sunday the scene is repeated and the prince never takes his eyes off the girl. She returns to her home early as before and finds all in order. On the third Sunday the girl dresses all in gold. All admire her and the prince resolves to watch where she goes. As she slips through the crowd she loses her right slipper. The king determines that the prince will marry the one it fits. When the prince comes to Papalluga’s home the stepmother hides Papalluga under a washtub so that her own daughter might win the prince. The slipper won’t even go over the girl’s toe, however, and the cock crows, “Cock-a-doodle-do! Here she is under the wash-trough!” The prince finds Papalluga and the slipper fits. He takes her to the palace, and they are married.]
Polacco, Patricia. Babushka Baba Yaga. New York: Philomel Books, 1993.
[Baba Yaga is the last of her kind. In her loneliness she yearns for company. She steals a babushka, says goodbye to her animal friends in the woods, and goes into a village. There she is greeted by Natasha who lets her live with them in return for her looking after her little boy Victor. Baba Yaga is happy doing chores and plays with Victor by the edge of the woods. She introduces him to the animals and is quite content. One day she hears the other children telling horrid stories of the wicked Baba Yaga, who eats children. She is crushed at the report and returns to the woods. Later Victor goes into the woods and is attacked by wolves. His mother calls after him–“Will no one help?” Baba Yaga appears and saves him. The villagers change their view of her and accept her as she is, though they rename her Babushka Baba Yaga, and she keeps her long ears covered.]
Small, Ernest. Baba Yaga. Illustrated by Blair Lent. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966.
[Adaptation of Vassilissa, based on several versions written for Russian children.]
Sturges, Philemon, and Anna Vojtech. Marushka and the Month Brothers. New York and London: North-South Books.
[A Czechoslovakian Cinderella: Marushka lives in the Tatra Mountains with her stepmother and stepsister Holena. They make her do all the work, milking the cow and feeding the pig and chickens even in the coldest winter. Suddenly Holena decides she wants some violets. Marushka wanders in a blizzard until she comes upon a campfire with twelve men sitting around it. Marushka recognizes them as the Month Brothers and makes her request for violets. January reminds her that it’s winter, but she convinces him to release March to prepare the bouquet. The step family is astonished at what she’s done and send her back hungry to get them some strawberries. Again old January complies and sends June to Marushka’s aid. But still the step-women are greedy and send her to obtain apples, which September helps her with. But now the mean sister sets out on her own. She finds the encampment of the seasons and, being cold, orders the Months to stock the fire. Enraged, January drives her out of the settlement with a blizzard. Her mother comes to seek her, but both die. Marushka keeps the animals at home and Spring finally returns and Marushka has plenty. The next winter January visits her, and they tell tales.]
von Franz, Marie-Louise. “The Beautiful Wassilissa.” In Problems of the Feminine in Fairytales. New York: Spring Publications, 1972. Pp. 143-157. Rpt. in Dundes, Cinderella: A Casebook (pp. 203-207).
[On her deathbed, a merchant’s wife gives her daughter Wassilissa a doll. The merchant remarries a woman with two daughters. They abuse Wassilissa, sending her into the woods to fetch fire from the Baba Yaga. She complies, but rather than being destroyed, performs the Baba Yaga’s several tasks under the protection of her doll. When Baba Yaga finds that Wassillisa is still protected by her mother she gives her the fire and sends her home. The fire, born in a skull, burns up the stepmother and her daughters. Wassilissa then sets out for town and stays with a lonely woman. She spins fine silk. The woman takes it to the prince who would have shirts made of the cloth. He discovers that Wassilissa has made them and falls in love with her. They are married. Her father returns from his travels and stays at the palace too, as does the old woman. Wassilissa keeps the doll to the end of her life.]
Whitney, Thomas P., trans. Vasilisa the Beautiful. Illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian. New York: Macmillan, 1970.
Winthrop, Elizabeth, adapter. Vasilissa the Beautiful. Illustrated by Alexander Koshkin. New York: Harper-Collins, 1991.
[Winthrop’s telling follows the traditional story closely. In her endnote she observes: “I particularly loved this story because it is a tale peopled by women. From Vasilissa’s mother and her deathbed blessing, to the wicked stepmother, to the wily old witch, Baba Yaga, to Vasilissa’s adopted mother, even to the little doll–it is women who challenge Vasilissa to grow, who sustain her in her troubles, and who rejoice with her in her final triumph.” Koshkin lives in Moscow. His illustrations are detailed period studies from the costume of seventeenth-century Russia, the period which has become “a tradition in illustrating Russian folktales.”]
Zheleznova, Irina. Vassilisa the Beautiful, Fenist the Falcon, Marya Morevna. Retold in English by Irina Zheleznova. Moscow: Goznak, 1976, 1977.
[Three Russian Cinderella stories. The unnamed woman in “Fenist the Falcon” is the youngest of three daughters. The elder two think of nothing but dressing themselves in fancy clothes. The youngest keeps house, is nimble and does whatever she sets out to do better than anyone else. And she is beautiful. Like Vassilisa, she is sent to the Baba Yaga to be eaten, but Baba Yaga helps her to overcome her sisters. The virtuous male in the story is Fenist the Falcon who has a bad marriage. He sees virtue (hard work, meekness, devotion) and true love in the unnamed woman who passes through dense forests and sandy deserts for him and loves him so that she asks for nothing but to see him. So Fenist the Falcon sends away his false wife and weds his true wife, and they live happily ever after. Marya Morevna, the lovely Tszrevna, vanquishes a mighty host, but becomes a maiden in distress when her own beloved Prince disregards her instructions and sets free a monster.]
See also Lang’s “The White Dove” (Danish) and Martin’s “Boots and the Glass Mountain” under Male Cinderellas; and Valgardson, under Miscellaneous Cinderellas.
Dasent, George Webbe, ed. Katie Woodencloak (Norway). From Popular Tales from the Norse. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1888. Dasent translated the tale from Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe, Norske Folke-eventyr (1844). Included in Sierra (pp. 65-74).
[Sierra notes that “Katie Woodencloak” is “a variant of tale type 510B (The Dress of Sun, Moon, and Stars), but it begins and ends like tale type 510A (Cinderella)” (p. 154): A widower king has one daughter, the most clever and lovely princess in the world. After a time he remarries, this time a woman who is a widow with a daughter also. When the king goes to war the stepmother and her daughter starve and beat the princess and send her out to herd cattle. A dun bull befriends her and offers her a magic cloth from his left ear which, when spread out, will provide as many dishes as she likes. The stepmother wonders how the girl remains so well fed and sends the stepdaughter to spy. The king returns and the wife feigns an illness that can only be cured by eating the dun bull’s flesh. The good daughter tells the bull, and they escape into a copper wood. The bull warns her to touch not a leaf, but she does and the bull announces that now he must fight for his life. She should, however, keep the copper leaf. The bull then battles with a troll with three heads, and, though sorely wounded, wins. He instructs the king’s daughter to anoint his wounds with a medicine the troll carried and they proceed to a silver wood, which she must not touch. But she does and again the bull must fight, now a troll with six heads. Again he is victor, but now he is more severely wounded and must wait a week to heal. Next they come to a gold wood. This time she ends up with a golden apple in her hand and the bull must fight a nine-headed troll. The bull wins, but it takes three weeks to recover. They come to a castle and the bull tells her to go to the pigsty, put on a wooden cloak made of lath, and introduce herself to the cook as Katie Woodencloak. But first she must behead the bull, skin him and hide the skin along with the copper and silver leaves and golden apple under a rock. This she reluctantly does and obtains a place in the scullery. She takes water to the prince for his bath, but he throws it on her because she is so ugly. Then she goes to church, but first stops by the rock, knocks, and is given a gown as bright as the copper wood and a horse besides. The prince falls in love with her but she flees. He gets one of her gloves, however. As she flees she tells him she is from Bath Land but that he may never see where her steed takes her. Next Sunday she takes him a towel. He tears it from her hand, throws it in her face, and calls her an ugly troll. But at church she appears in a shining silver dress on a steed all in silver. The prince is dazzled and more deeply in love. As she leaves she tells him she is from Towel Land and drops her riding whip, then escapes he knows not where. On the third Sunday the prince needs a comb and Katie Woodencloak takes one to him. He takes the comb, throws it at her and insults her further. Again she stops by the rock and now goes to church in a golden gown studded with diamonds. The prince puts pitch on the stair and as she leaves gets one of her slippers. He asks where she is from, and she replies Comb Land. He offers her the golden shoe, but she says that he may never see where she goes. So the prince announces that he will wed the woman the shoe fits. The stepsister cuts off her toe and heel to make it fit but a bird announces the deed, noting that Katie Woodencloak’s tiny shoe is full of blood. “Where is Katie Woodencloak?” the prince asks. She appears with a clatter, the shoe fits, and the prince now welcomes her. He is even happier when he learns she is a king’s daughter. Variants of the story appear as Kari Woodengown in The Red Fairy Book, ed. Andrew Lang, with illustrations by H. J. Ford (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1890; rpt. New York: Dover Publications, 1966), pp. 189-201, and as Kari Woodenskirt, in Norwegian Fairy Tales from the Collection of Asbjornsen and Moe, trans. Helen and John Glade (Oxford: University of Oxford Press, 1924), pp. 165-182.]
d’Aulaire, Ingri and Edgar. East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Twenty-one Norwegian Folktales. New York: Viking, 1969.
[Includes “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” (see synopsis under Asbjornsen and Moe, below; and “The Maid on the Glass Mountain.”)]
East of the Sun and West of the Moon, A Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr (1844), and first translated into English by Sir George Webbe Dasent, for Popular Tales from the Norse (New York: D. Appleton, 1859), pp. 266-280. This volume was republished in English, with some additions, as Popular Tales from the Norse (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1888). Also included in Betsy Hearne, Beauty and the Beast (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1993), pp. 66-75.
[A great White Bear offers to make a poor starving husbandman with many children as rich as he now is poor if he will give him his youngest daughter. The daughter consents and sets out clinging to the bear’s shaggy back. He takes her to a castle where she has everything she could hope for. At night the White Bear lies beside her in his human form, but she never sees him. After a time the girl wishes to see her family again. The White Bear agrees to the visit providing she not talk alone with her mother. All goes well until the wheedling mother gets her alone despite her efforts to stay in the company of others. Mom tells her daughter that the man with her at night must be a troll and that she should take a candle and examine him when he is a sleep. When the lass returns and night falls, she discovers that the man is the loveliest Prince ever seen. She leans to kiss him, but drops three drops of hot tallow on his shirt. He awakens and reveals that he has been bewitched by a stepmother to be White Bear by day and man by night. The spell would have been broken if they had been able to live together for one year. But now the ties between them are snapped, and he must set off alone to prison in a castle east of the sun and west of the moon where he must wed a troll princess with a nose three ells long. The girl vows to find her way there to save him. As she searches the way she comes to an old hag who gives her a gold apple and a horse. The horse gets her to a second crag with another hag, who gives her a gold carding-comb and loan of another horse, who gets her to a third hag who gives her a gold spinning-wheel. She then journeys to the East Wind who sends her to the West Wind, who carries her to the South wind. They take her to the wild and cross North Wind who can indeed take her to the place of the trolls. The lassie meets Long-nose and begs to see the Prince while he sleeps. Long-nose agrees to show him to her in return for the gold apple. But the Prince cannot be awakened. Next day the girl offers the troll princess the gold carding comb. But still the Prince sleeps and cannot be awakened. Long-nose chases her from the bedroom when morning comes. Meanwhile the Prince learns from his neighbors that someone comes at night and tries to awaken him. So next night he pretends to drink the sleepy drink but throws it over his shoulder, recognizing that it must be a potion. The lassie gives the troll princess the gold spinning wheel. This time she talks with the Prince, and they make a plan. Next day the prince tells Long-nose he has a fine shirt that he would wear for his wedding but cannot because it has three tallow spots on it. His bride must remove the spots. Long-nose tries but cannot. Her hag mother tries but fails too. All the other trolls then try but the shirt gets black all over. Then the beggar lassie is invited to try. She dips it in water, and it comes out white as driven snow. The trolls flee in a rage, and the Prince and his Princess set free the poor Christian folk whom the Trolls have carried off. They take silver and gold and flit as far as they can from the castle that lies east of the sun and west of the moon.]
East O’ the Sun and West O’ the Moon. Translated by Sir George Webbe Dasent. Illustrated by P. J. Lynch. With an Introduction by Naomi Lewis. London: Walker Books Ltd., 1991; Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 1992.
[Lynch compares Dasent to C. S. Lewis in his love of Scandinavian lore. The bear is king of all animals in Scandinavia, respected for strength and wisdom. Lynch follows Dasent’s 1859 translation closely with his superb illustrations.]
East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Retold and Illustrated by László Gál. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1993.
[Ingrid, beautiful daughter of a poor woodcutter, is given in marriage to a bear. He takes her to his castle and gives her a bell which she need only ring to get whatever she needs. At night a handsome prince comes to her. Subsequently she wishes to visit her family. The bear permits her to return but warns her against talking alone with her mother. She forgets his advice, and the mother convinces her she is married to a troll. She returns and at night lights a candle to see who her partner is. She drips wax on him, he awakens and flees, explaining that now he must marry an ugly troll in a castle east of the sun and west of the moon. But Ingrid pursues her beloved, gets advice from an old woman who gives her a spinning wheel, an old man who gives her a ball, and a giant who gives her a harp; she travels by moose and elk and, with the guidance of the Four Winds, finally gets to the castle of the trolls. She uses the golden spinning wheel, the golden ball, and the harp to gain access to her husband, but he has been drugged by a sleeping potion. Finally she finds him awake, and he suggests that he will marry only the one who can wash the wax from his shirt. The trolls fail, but Ingrid succeeds. The trolls are destroyed and the North Wind bears the couple back to the palace where they had lived before. Now they can live happily together; the old woman, old man, giant, and the Four Winds share in their wedding festivities, which may still be going on.]
Lang, Andrew, ed. Black Bull of Norroway. In The Blue Fairy Book (1889); rpt. New York: Dover, 1965. Pp. 380-384; and in Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales (1894); rpt. English Fairy Tales, illustrated by John Batten, London: David Campbell Publishers, 1993. Pp. 242-248.
[The third daughter sets out on a quest with a black bull who feeds her from his ears. They stop at the house of the bull’s three brothers on consecutive nights whereupon each gives the girl a gift, first an apple, then a pear, then a plum, which she must not break until she is in dire straits. The bull then must battle an old man. The girl must remain utterly still, else the bull will not be able to find her after his victory. She moves her leg, however, thinking the bull has won the battle and thus loses the bull. She serves a smith for seven years then sets out again, climbing a glassy hill. There she meets a washerwoman who makes her wash bloody clothes. She falls in love with a knight, but the washerwoman foists her elder daughter upon him. To thwart the marriage the girl breaks the apple, obtains jewels with which she convinces the elder daughter to let her spend the first night with the knight. But the witch gives him a potion whereby he sleeps all night. The girl breaks the pear to be with the knight the second night, but again the witch puts him to sleep with a potion. While the knight is hunting the third day his friends inquire about moaning they heard in his chamber. He determines that he will stay awake to check out the mystery. The girl breaks the plum, obtains the richest jewels of all which she gives to the daughter; the witch gives the knight a sleeping potion, but he pours it out and meets the girl who tells her story. The witch and her daughter are burnt, and the girl and knight marry. Betsy Hearne includes this story in her collection Beauties and Beasts (Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press, 1993), pp. 92-96. Both Lang and Jacobs adapted the tale from Robert Chambers’ Popular Rhymes, Fireside Stories, and Amusements of Scotland (Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1842 and 1870); Hearne cites other variants, including “The Red Bull o’ Norroway” and “The Brown Bear of Norway,” which is derived from the Scandinavian “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”.]
-----. The Brown Bear of Norway. In The Lilac Fairy Book London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1910; rpt. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1968. Pp. 118-131. With two illustrations by H. J. Ford.
[An Irish king with three daughters asks whom they would like to marry. One says the king of Ulster; one, the king of Munster; but the youngest says the Brown Bear of Norway. She had heard from her nurse that he was an enchanted prince and has often dreamed of him. All laugh at her choice, but that night she awakens into a great hall and marries him. He explains that a sorceress wished him for her son-in-law, but when he refused she turned him into a bear. The enchantment could be broken only if a lady would marry him of her own free will and endure five years of trials without doubts or breach of faith. The prince her husband appears to her only at night. She becomes accustomed to his daytime absence and gives birth to a little boy. One night an eagle steals their child from them, but she remembers that she must endure hardships for five years. A year later they have a lovely daughter, but she is stolen away by a greyhound. They have a third child who is stolen by a lady wrapped in a shawl. The saddened Bear Princess asks if she might visit her family. Her mother and sisters consult a wise old egg woman who advises that their sister should burn the bearskin at night when the prince is out of it, thus breaking the enchantment. So the girl returns to her husband and at night she gives him a sleeping potion, finds the bearskin, and burns it. In the morning he explains that the egg woman was the sorceress and that now she has captured him forever. The wife pursues him all day, and the first night she discovers her eldest child, who, the prince explains, has been cared for by a woman who washes the princess’s feet and restores her strength. Next day the prince sets out again, and the princess pursues him again all day. That night she recovers her daughter. But before they set out on the third day the prince, who can remember her only by night, but not by day, gives her a comb which will cause pearls and diamonds to fall from her hair. The next night she recovers her youngest child and the prince gives his wife a little hand-reel which spins gold and half their marriage ring. But day comes and he, never looking back, enters a wood that opens and closes behind him. The princess calls upon her magic gifts to gain passage and the wood opens to admit her to a palace, a lawn, and woodman’s cottage. She gives the woodman diamonds, pearls, silks, and gold thread, and he agrees to help her. The prince is living with the sorceress’s daughter but the princess cannot gain access to the palace. So she invites the mistress’s footman to her cottage, offers him tea, and asks for a sprig of honeysuckle. When he reaches to pluck it he cuts his hand and she, aided by her magic gifts, asks that a pair of horns spring out of his head. He bawls and roars and all come and laugh at him. At last the princess pities him, the horns drop off, and he is taken into the palace. The prince hears of the event and comes to see who cast the spell on the footman, and the witch’s daughter comes too. They find the girl cutting a pattern from brown paper which turns to the richest silk as she cuts. The witch’s daughter greedily wants the scissors, and the girl agrees to give them to her providing she can wait outside the prince’s chamber one night. But that night she is unable to waken the prince. Next day they again visit the disguised princess, and the witch is taken by the magical comb. Again a bargain is struck, but again the princess is unable to awaken her husband. Next day the prince visits again and she questions him about his sleep. He acknowledges that he has had wonderful dreams the last two nights of one he must have loved in another world long ago; he also observes that his wife has given him something to drink each night. He agrees not to drink the sleepy posset this third night. The lady is fascinated with the hand-reel that spins gold and agrees to let the cottage woman visit her sleeping husband a third time. This time he does not take the posset and awakens to her call: “Four long years I was married to thee; / Three sweet babes I bore to thee; / Brown Bear of Norway, turn to me.” The prince awakens but does not understand the riddles. So she shows him the half of the marriage ring and the charm is broken. His memory returns, and they are reunited. The castle bursts asunder, and the witch and her daughter are never more seen. The couple returns home to be visited by the kings of Ireland and Munster and Ulster. But none are as happy as the Brown Bear of Norway and his family (from West Highland Tales, adapted by Mrs. Lang.)]
-----. The Princess in the Chest (Danish). In The Pink Fairy Book (1897). Illustrated by H. J. Ford. New York: Dover Publications, 1967. Pp. 57-72.
[In his Preface, Lang says that this story “need not be read to a very nervous child, as it rather borders on a ghost story. It has been altered, and is really much more horrid in the language of the Danes, who, as history tells us, were not a nervous or timid people. I am quite sure that this story is not true” (pp. vii-viii): A king and queen have no heir. The king says that he will depart for a year and that when he returns the queen must have a child or be banished. The queen goes to a wise woman who directs her to a magic bud, which she eats. Six months later she gives birth to a little girl. But she is obliged to give the child to the wise woman, who must keep it unseen by the king for fourteen years. The king waits until the day before the princess’ fifteenth birthday then bursts through the door and beholds her. Because he broke the spell she must die tomorrow and he must choose one of three things: either a pestilence on the land, a long bloody war, or the keeping of her in a plain coffin attended by a sentinel every night for one year. He chooses the latter, but it is hard to get sentinels to watch, for at night her ghost moves abroad, threatening to destroy the sentinel. With three days to go a merry smith named Christian fearlessly takes the job. At midnight the princess appears as a waif covered with skins, sees Christian, but does not harm him. Christian agrees to watch a second night. The ghost appears again at midnight and howls that “War and Pest this night begin,” since no sentinel is there. But Christian appears and the ghost attempts to catch him. Christian slams the coffin lid shut on it, noticing that the ghost was less ugly than the night before. The third night Christian attempts to slip away from the watch but an old man sends him back. He slips in at the window and lies stiff as a stone beside the chest as a beautiful princess arises, calls for the sentry and threatens war and pestilence, if he cannot be found. She does not see Christian where he lies and reenters the tomb weeping and closes the lid. Thereupon music and people seem to fill the church, a priest appears, and weds Christian to the princess. When dawn comes the king comes in person and finds Christian and the princess at the altar, sitting hand in hand. Christian reports all that he saw and is married to the princess, getting half the kingdom at once and the rest at the death of the king. Christian, who often drank more wine than was good for him, may have embellished the story.]
Maid on the Glass Mountain, The. In Ingri and Edgar d’Aulaire, East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Twenty-one Norwegian Folktales. New York: Viking, 1969. Pp. 45-57. Also called The Princess on the Glass Hill, in The Blue Fairy Book, ed. Andrew Lang (1889); rpt. New York: Dover, 1965, pp. 332-341.
[A male Cinderella story. For synopsis see Male Cinderellas.]
Mayer, Mercer. East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Illustrated by the author. New York: Macmillan, 1980; Aladdin Books, 1987.
[Drawing on the Norwegian tale (see entries above), Mayer deletes the Cupid and Psyche trope, combining instead Frog Prince and Beauty and the Beast material with a Cinderella who outwits trolls to redeem her prince and found a city: A wealthy farmer and his wife have one lovely daughter. She refuses courtship of the best young men in the kingdom. Then fortune changes. The king goes to war and soldiers take all the farmer’s food. The father becomes ill and the daughter learns to hunt to supply food. Suitors now reject her as a peasant girl. Her mother sends her with a silver cup to the South Wind to obtain healing water for her father. At the South Wind’s spring she finds a frog who will provide the water if she grants him three wishes, the first of which is permission to visit her. The water restores the father, the king makes peace and restores the father threefold, and the frog arrives to claim his second wish, that she become his bride. She throws the frog against the wall, he becomes a handsome prince, but, because of her breech of faith, must now become groom to a troll princess. Demons take him away, and she vows to follow him to the kingdom east of the sun and west of the moon in hope of rescuing him. The moon sends her to a mountain cave where a salamander might help her. He gives her a tinderbox and sends her to Father Forest on a unicorn. Father Forest gives her a small bow and arrow and a goat to take her to the home of the Great Fish of the Sea. The fish takes her to the North Wind and gives her a scale from his back as bright as the surface of a mirror. North Wind takes her to Troll Castle where she works as a cleaning maiden with soot on her face. She finds the prince frozen in a block of ice. With the tinder box she melts the ice. The troll princess attacks her with an ax, but she defends herself with the bow and arrow. The other trolls attack but she holds up the fish scale; upon seeing their reflections the trolls are turned to stone. The girl and the prince marry and rebuild the city. It is a place hard to reach, but a welcome place once found.]
Mjadveig, Daughter of Mani (Iceland). From Jon Arnason, Icelandic Legends, trans. George E. J. Powell and Eirikr Magnusson. Second Series. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1866; rpt. in Sierra, Cinderella, pp. 81-87.
[A king named Mani had a daughter named Mjadveig. When the queen her mother dies he falls into such despair that the kingdom suffers. His ministers seek a new wife for him across the sea. Trapped by fog they land on a strange island where they meet a lovely woman and her daughter who claims to be a lost queen. They bring her to Mani and they are married. The new queen invites Mjadveig to walk with her, gets Mjadveig to trade dresses with her daughter, then binds Mjadveig hand and foot and abandons her. She puts a charm on her own daughter so that she looks in face and bearing so like Mjadveig that none can tell her from the other. Poor Mjadveig dreams of her mother who gives her a cloth that gives her food. The false queen, suspecting Mjadveig might still be alive, sends her daughter to find Mjadveig, which she does. She scolds her mother for harming Mjadveig and volunteers to share the poor girl’s exile. Mjadveig is taken in by the kindness and the false daughter steals the magic cloth leaving Mjadveig abandoned once again. Again she dreams of her mother who sends her to the sea and a small house, with instructions on how to enter it. There she can dwell contentedly. Mjadveig does as she is instructed. Ships come by and in her haste to remain hidden she loses her shoe, which the prince on his way to wed the daughter of Mani finds. He vows to marry none other than the owner of the shoe. The false queen claims it is her daughter’s shoe and cuts off heel and toes of her daughter to make the shoe fit. But as the ship passes the house of the real Mjadveig, birds tell of the mutilated foot and the prince, who can understand birds, investigates to find that the birds spoke truly. He places a spell-dissolving plate on the false bride’s shoulders, and she turns into an ugly troll who confesses her mother’s evil. The prince chops her up and salts her down in twelve barrels, then rows ashore, finds Mjadveig's house, is told by the birds how to unlock the door, and meets his true bride. Not only does the shoe fit, but she has the other shoe as well. At the wedding the prince tells the false queen that he has twelve barrels of meat. She asks to feast on it in secret, which she does for eleven days, eating a barrel each day. On the twelfth the prince brings Mani who spies on the queen as she eats. It happens that when she eats she turns into her troll form and is thus exposed. King Mani burns the false queen up in her ship. A year later a son is born to Mjadveig. Later, as Mjadveig is bathing a woman comes by and changes clothes with her. The true queen is charmed away and the false appears like Mjadveig, except that none like her. A herdsman one day sees a glass chamber rise up to the top of the waves inside of which is a woman that looks exactly Mjadveig. A dwarf informs him that it is indeed the Queen, who has been captured by the trolls and may appear by the shore four times. She has appeared three times without rescue and tomorrow she will appear the fourth and last time. The herdsman waits by the sea and when she appears cuts the chain that holds the glass chamber. Upon her release a giant troll appears, but with the aid of the dwarf they blind it and escape. The young king, upon learning of this, places the spell-dissolving plate on his false wife’s shoulder, whereupon she returns to her hideous troll form. She was sister to the other troll and had sought revenge. But she is now destroyed, and the king and Mjadveig are reunited. The herdsman is rewarded for his good deeds.]
The Princess on the Glass Hill. In Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Norway. Retold by Virginia Haviland. Illustrated by Anita Riggio. New York: Beech Tree Paperback, 1996. Pp. 9-32. First published, without Riggio’s illustrations, Boston: Little Brown, 1961.
[Each year on St. John’s night, the fields of a man’s farm are mysteriously devoured. One year he sends his eldest son to watch, but he sleeps. Next year he gives his second son the task, but he too sleeps. Finally, amidst mockery, he sets his youngest son, Cinderlad to the task. He hides in a barn and after what seems to be three earthquakes, which he braves, he sees a grand horse in the meadow cropping the grass, a saddle beside him on the ground, along with a suit of brass armor. Cinderlad takes his tinder box, casts a fire over the horse which makes it tame, gets on it and rides to a secret place. He returns home next morning and says he saw nothing. Though they mock him they are amazed to see that the meadow has not been destroyed. The next year on St. John’s night the same thing happens. This time a grand horse has its saddle on its back and a shining suit of silver armor nearby. Next day they find a fine crop of grass in the field, but they don’t give Cinderlad a kind word for it. On the third St. John’s night again the events recur, though the earthquakes are more violent. This time the horse has a full suit of golden chain mail by its side. Cinderlad takes it too to his hiding place and returns home amidst clover. The king has a daughter, ready for marriage. He keeps her on top of a glass mountain with three golden apples in her lap. Her groom may be only that person who can climb the mountain and obtain the apples. The two elder brothers try but fail, their horses unable to find footing on the smooth glass. They will not even permit Cinderlad to attend, because he is so dirty. The king is about to give up when a knight on a grand horse in mail of brass approaches and ascends the hill. The princess has seen none so grand and tosses him a golden apple which he catches in his shoe. All are amazed at the mysterious knight, who disappears as swiftly as he appeared. All talk of nothing else, and the brothers explain when they get home what they had seen to Cinderlad, who wishes he had seen it too. Next day the king has a second trial. None succeed until a prince in silver mail on a horse even more splendid appears, ascends the hill and obtains a second apple. The princess likes him even better than the brass knight of the day before. Again, Cinderlad hears of the events of the day and says he wishes he could have seen it, only to be scorned for his inferiority. On the third day all happens as before, except this time a knight appears in golden armor on the most magnificent horse of all, with a golden bridle, and takes the third apple from the princess’s lap. Next day the king calls all the men of his kingdom together to find out who won the apples. None can produce them. The king wonders if there is no one else, and the two brothers acknowledge that there is one, who never leaves the ashes, who has not come but could not have obtained the apples either. The king insists on seeing him, and Cinderlad produces all three apples which he kept in his pocket. The king gives him half his kingdom, and the princess and Cinderlad marry. They are probably still making merry even to this day. See also Male Cinderellas.]
Queen of the May. See Steven Kroll under Miscellaneous Cinderellas.
Thompson, Stith, ed. The Princess in the Earth Cave. In One Hundred Favorite Folktales. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968. Pp. 347-350. Translated from Waldemar Liungman, Sveriges Samtliga Folksagor.
[Neighbor kings each have a child, one a daughter, the other a son. The children become fond of each other and a wiseman foretells their marriage. But the kings become enemies and go to war. The father of the daughter vows the children shall never marry and locks her in a cave on an island, with food, drink, and light for seven years. For companionship he leaves a rooster and a cat. She manages to give her fiancé a shirt that needs finishing and a handkerchief with three drops of blood that only she can wash out. The prince searches in vain for her, her father is killed in the war, and their castle destroyed. After seven years the food and light give out but the rooster, cat, and girl take to digging and finally get out. A wolf carries her across the water to the mainland. She stays with an old man in a cottage. The prince announces that he will marry the one who can sew the shirt and clean the handkerchief. The princess does not know this however and when a visitor asks her help sewing a shirt and washing a cloth she complies. The wedding is to take place but the woman who had the sewing done is pregnant and asks the sewer to substitute for her. So the princess in-disguise marries the prince. On the way to the church she gives him riddles which he does not understand. He locks a bracelet on her arm for which only he has a key. At the table she gives one last riddle that explains her life in the cave and departs. She goes to the other woman who takes the bridal array but can’t get the bracelet off. So she sends the substitute back for the wedding night. The prince asks what the riddles mean but she does not answer. But seeing the bracelet he takes her for his bride–“you alone I want.”]
Willard, Nancy. East of the Sun & West of the Moon: A Play. Illustrated by Barry Moser. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989. Cast: Players: South Wind, East Wind, West Wind, North Wind, Woodcutter, Woodcutter’s Wife, Eldest Daughter, Middle Daughter, Karen the Youngest Daughter, Bear/Prince, Longnose the Troll Princess, Troll Queen, Raven, Troll King, Captives 1, 2, and 3, and Trolls. Voices: Chair, Table, Spoon, Knife, Comb, Rug, Dresses, Bell, Ham, Harp, Waterfold, Beasts, Birds, Stars, Echo. Puppets: Karen, Bear, all the Winds. Golden Apple and Shears that appear to move by themselves.
[Act I, Sc. 1: The winds converse about Karen and her virtue and the Troll Queen’s ugly daughter. Sc. 2: The woodcutter family lives in poverty. Karen is happy and feeds the bears. The older sisters grumble. A white bear comes to the door, offering the family food and riches in return for Karen. The sisters say yes, but Karen says no. The mother convinces her it is for the best. Sc. 3: The winds observe the Trolls squabbling. Sc. 4: Puppet scene: The winds observe Karen and the Bear on the road, laughing as they proceed. Sc. 5: Karen and Bear arrive at his castle. Sc. 6: Karen in her room converses with the furniture, etc. The Bear leaves her alone. She goes to bed and the Bear returns, takes off his skin and, transformed into Prince, climbs into bed.[Act II, Sc. 1: The winds observe a happy scene with Karen skipping rope. Sc. 2: Karen gets permission to visit her family for a week. Bear agrees providing she not talk alone with her mother. Sc. 3: aren and Bear travel to her home. Sc. 4: Woodcutter and family greet Karen. The house manifests wealth, with a TV in every room. The mother convinces Karen that her husband must be a troll: Observe him at night, but don’t drop candle wax on him. Sc. 5: The Bear carries Karen home. Sc. 6: Karen mimes the story East Wind tells as she observes the Prince sleeping and drops wax on him as she attempts to kiss him. The Prince reveals the spell and is taken by the Troll Queen. Sc. 7: Puppet scene of Karen in the woods, searching. Sc. 8: Karen works in the kitchen of South Wind. A golden apple follows her around. South Wind helps her mop and consults the Water Folk for information about the Troll Princess with the three foot long nose. A lobster suggests she visit the East Wind. South Wind gives her a golden apple and sends her to East Wind. Sc. 9: South Wind carries Karen to East Wind. The winds squabble over their dresses. East Wind consults Beasts (otter, moose, flea, etc.) Flea suggests consulting West Wind. East Wind combs Karen’s hair and gives her the comb.
[Act III, Sc. 1: West Wind’s tent in a rocky desert. They consult the birds and stars and send her to North Wind along with a gift of golden shears and a cloak with pockets which they make. Sc. 2: Northwind, howling, is convinced by the other winds of Karen’s virtue, and he agrees to take her to the Trolls. Sc. 3: The winds comfort her and North Wind carries her over water to the Trolls. Sc. 4: Troll Queen tries to get Longnose to clean her room. Karen entices Longnose with the golden apple, which the Troll accepts thinking to add Karen to her collection of captives that night after letting her see the sleeping Prince. Sc. 5: The Prince sleeps but Karen can’t awaken him. The Trolls drive her out .Sc. 6: Karen plays with the golden comb. Longnose wants it and agrees to let Karen spend another night in the Prince’s room. Sc. 7: Karen tries to waken the Prince. Three captives observe her cries. Longnose drives Karen out. The Prince wakens, talks with Longnose about the wedding next day, and learns from the captives that his dreams of a visitor were true. He recalls how he drinks each night from the ruby goblet by his bed. Sc. 8: Troll Queen and Longnose prepare her wedding dress. They see Karen’s golden shears and agree to let Karen have one more night with the Prince in return for the shears. Sc. 9: Longnose offers the Prince a drink. He feigns drinking it and plays like he’s asleep. She leaves, and Karen approaches, calling for the Prince to wake up. He greets her and tells her of a plan to thwart Longnose. He will ask to have his shirt with the wax spots on it cleaned, knowing that Karen is the only person who can perform the task. Sc. 10: The Prince asks to have his shirt cleaned. The Trolls try but fail. Karen comes in and cleans it. A gong sounds, and the Trolls freeze. Sc. 11: The Trolls disappear, a beautiful ship arrives, the captives are released, and the winds sing a song of Karen and her prince as they sail to joy and happiness at last.]
Abrahams, “Orphan with the Cloak of Skin,” under African Cinderellas; “The Princess on the Glass Hill,” under Scandinavian Cinderellas; and Culhwch, Sir Degaré, Sir Gowther, King Horn, and Sir Gareth, under Medieval Analogues. See also: Cinder-Elfred, Cinderfella, The Cinderella Man, Coming to America, Hero, and Jack and the Dentist’s Daughter, under Movies.
Billy Beg and His Bull: An Irish Tale retold by Ellin Greene. Illustrated by Kimberly Bulcken Root. New York: Holiday House, 1994.
[Based on the telling of the tale by Seumas MacManus, In Chimney Corners, New York: Doubleday and McClure, 1899. An Irish king and queen have one son, a wee lad named Billy Beg. They give him a bull calf who is as fond of him as he of it. When the queen dies the king remarries. The new queen feigns illness and claims she can be cured only by the blood of Billy’s bull. But on the day the bull is to be slaughtered Billy jumps on its back and it jumps nine miles high, then gallops away right over the queen, killing her dead. In the woods the bull cares for Billy. When the boy takes a napkin from its left ear and spreads it out it is filled with food and drink. From the bull’s right ear Billy takes a stick which when swung over his head three times turns into a sword and gives him the strength of a thousand men. The bull meets another bull in the wood. They fight long and hard. Billy’s bull wins and drinks the dead bull’s blood. At twelve the next day they meet a second bull even stronger than the first. The bulls fight hard but Billy’s bull again wins. The third day they meet the Black Bull of the Forest, who defeats Billy’s bull and drinks his blood. For two days Billy mourns the loss of his bull but then, remembering his bull’s instructions, takes the napkin and stick from its ears and cuts a belt from the bull’s back and belly, then sets off to seek his fortune. He takes a job as a cowherd. When he takes the cows to pasture he meets a giant with three heads, whom he slays by wrestling and then with his sword. The master wonders if Billy saw anything strange in the orchard but Billy replies, “Nothing worse than myself. What about my wages.” The master says wait until tomorrow. Next day Billy meets a six-headed giant, the other’s brother, whom he defeats in the same manner. On the third day he defeats a twelve-headed giant, and the master says he will pay Billy his wages in the future. Next day the master goes to town to see a fight between a knight and a dragon over a princess. Billy waits until all are gone then puts on his best clothes and goes to the fight. The champion fears the dragon and hides, but Billy defeats the dragon easily. As he departs the princess snitches his shoe. The knight who hid claims it was he who slew the dragon and would marry the princess, but the shoe does not fit him. She declares she will marry none but the owner of the shoe. All try it on, but it fits none. Then Billy appears, disguised as a beggar. All laugh at him, but the princess says he should try. The shoe fits, and she claims him as husband. Billy looks fine when dressed up. The wedding lasts nine days, nine hours, nine minutes, nine half minutes, and nine quarter minutes, and they live happily together.]
Billy Beg and the Bull. In Sierra’s Cinderella. Illustrated by Joanne Caroselli. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1992. Pp. 44-52.
[Translated from the Irish by Seumas MacManus, In Chimney Corners, New York: Doubleday, 1899. See Billy Beg, above, for summary of the tale, as Billy moves from a mistreated ash-lad to dragon slayer and the winning of a royal mate. Sierra comments on the tale and its unusual components, such as the blending of a giant slayer story with the slipper test and the appearance of “runs”–long, tongue-twisting passages repeated word-for-word at certain points in the story, noting that such embellishments impress the listener and serve as resting places for the storyteller as he recites at greater speed than elsewhere in the narrative proper (pp. 152-153).]
Bly, Robert. “The Story of Iron John.” In Iron John: A Book About Men by Robert Bly. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1990; New York: Vintage Books, 1992. Pp. 250-259.
[See Criticismfor a synopsis of Bly’s argument and Grimm’s story in Basic European Texts for a synopsis of the story.]
Boots and the Glass Mountain. Retold by Claire Martin. Pictures by Gennady Spirin. New York: Dial Books, 1992. Based on a Norwegian tale in Popular Tales From the Norse, ed. Peter Christian Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe, Edinburgh, 1888.
[After his mother’s death Boots, the youngest of three sons, has to do the dirtiest chores and sleep in the kitchen, tending the fire. On midsummer night he has to guard the sheep and grain from marauding trolls. To reassure himself he toys with a tinderbox his mother had given him after he had met the princess in the forest. As he watches there is suddenly a great noise and a huge white stallion enters. Boots remembers from his training that trolls have no power over steel. So he takes the steel from his tinder box and throws it at the horse. It instantly becomes tame. On the second night he gains a silver stallion; on the third, a black stallion with golden hooves. The king announces that his daughter will marry the one who can save her from the top of the trolls’ Glass Mountain. She has three golden apples which will be proof that the task has been accomplished. If none succeed she must marry the troll. In attempting to climb the mountain all horses slip and fall. It seems the troll has won his prize. But just at dusk a knight on a white charger dashes up the mountain, nearly to the top. The knight lifts his visor, she recognizes him, smiles, and tosses him an apple. On the second day Boots alone gets up the mountain high enough to receive the second apple, using the silver horse. On the third day he rides the black horse, gets all the way to the top, and rescues the princess. The troll is turned into a mountain. Next morning the king calls for the apples as proof of the victor. At the end of the day Boots appears at court, apples in hand, and claims the bride. Instantly his ragged clothes are transformed into armour. The couple is praised and the shamefaced brothers wish them happiness. See also “The Princess on the Glass Hill” under Scandinavian Cinderellas.]
Broughton, Philip. Pandy. Illustrated by Maginel Wright Barney. Joliet, Ill.: P. F. Volland, 1930.
[With a bag of six fresh cookies that his mother has just baked on a rainy afternoon, Pandy sets out to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow so that father won’t have to worry about Mr. Mortgage anymore. As he crosses a swamp he finds a frog caught in some twigs. He releases the frog and comes upon a bear caught in a trap crying Wa-waw. Pandy pries the trap open and Wa-waw goes free, helping himself to some cookies. Pandy then comes upon a pair of eagles quarreling over their lost baby. Pandy finds it at the bottom of a cliff and returns it to its parents. Then Mr. Eagle carries Pandy to the end of the rainbow where he bravely reaches down and grabs a pot of gold. On the way home night falls and Pandy trips at the swamp, spilling the gold into the water. But a host of green frogs return the pot and all of the gold. But Pandy is so tired he can scarcely go further when Wa-waw suddenly appears and carries him home. The children of the town are amazed to see the huge bear with Pandy on top. Wa-waw doesn’t understand gates and bursts through so startlingly that Mr. Mortgage, who was there to foreclose, runs away in fear. Pandy’s gold sets all right. Mother gives Wa-waw some bread and milk and a jar of honey for desert. So the child saved the family. See “East of the Sun” and other bear Cinderella stories along with Jack and the Beanstalk narratives for parallels.]
Bryant, Sara Cone. “Billy Beg and His Bull.” In Best Stories to Tell to Children. Cambridge, MA.: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1905.
[See “Billy Beg and His Bull” above for synopsis.]
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Little Lord Fauntleroy. Illustrated by Graham Rust. New York: C. Scribner’s Son, 1886. London: Breslich & Foss, 1993; Boston: David R. Godine, 1993.
[Captain Cedric Erroll, the youngest of three sons of the Earl of Dorincourt, does not follow the wastrel ways of his older brothers but comes to America to make his way on his own. Upon marrying an American woman he is disinherited by his cranky father. Unfortunately, he dies leaving in poverty his wife Dearest to care for their beautiful son. After the death of the two elder brothers the Earl calls for his grandson whom he would raise in England in the right way. But guileless young Cedric cares for his American friends, loves his mother, and gradually transforms his monstrous grandfather into someone compassionate. After their happiness is nearly ruined by a scoundrel woman who claims to have been wife to one of the other brothers and borne him a son, Dearest is accepted by her father-in-law, thus completing the several Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast motifs.]
Carter, Angela. “The Kitchen Child.” In Saints and Strangers. New York: Viking Penguin, 1986. Pp. 97-107.
[“Kitchen Child” transforms several functions of the male Cinderella story into an amusing class narrative in the vein of Apuleius. Illegitimate child of the cook, the kitchen child grows up to discover who his father is and become a French cook himself, after bringing his parents together.]
Chase, Richard. The Jack Tales. Illustrated by Berkeley Williams, Jr. Appendix by Herbert Halpert. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943.
[Based on tales told by R. M. Ward and his kindred in the Beech Mountain section of Western North Carolina and other descendents of Council Harmon (1803-1896) elsewhere in the Southern Mountains, with three tales from Wise County, Virginia. The tales combine numerous types of materials many of which are common to Cinderella narratives, except that in these tales Jack is the Cinderella figure; e.g., see “Jack and the Bull”]
Cinder Jack. In Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe. Selected and retold by Neil Philip. Illustrated by Larry Wilks. New York: Clarion Books, 1991. Pp. 80-83.
[Jack is the youngest of three peasant sons. The first two are set to guard the vineyard. A frog appears and asks for some of their cake, but they each refuse. The day after each of their watches the vineyard is destroyed. Jack, who usually sits in the corner amongst the ashes, undertakes the task. He feeds the frog his cake and is given three rods, of copper, silver, and gold, and is forewarned of three horses of those very colors who will come to ruin the vineyard. He must strike them with the respective rods, and they will become tame and serve him well. So it happens, but Jack keeps all a secret and retires to his ashy corner. The king erects a high pole, puts a golden sprig of rosemary on top, and promises to give his daughter in wedlock to the one who obtains it. All try but fail. A knight in copper mail riding a copper colored horse leaps high and snatches the prize, then disappears. Jack claims to have seen the event from the top of the hoarding, so his brothers tear it down. The king puts a golden apple atop a taller pole. It is obtained by a knight in silver on a silver horse. Jack says he saw this from the top of the pigsty, which his brothers then tear down. On a third Sunday the king attaches a silk kerchief atop a still higher fir-pole, and a knight in gold obtains it. Jack claims to have seen it from the top of the house, which the brothers tear down. The king concludes that the three knights are one and offers his daughter. The knight in gold appears, gives the princess the three prizes, and weds her. He turns out to be Cinder Jack, to the amazement of all. The brothers are left homeless.]
Cinderlad and the Trolls. In Corinne Denam, Troll Tales. Mahwah, New Jersey: Troll Associates, 1980. Pp. 21-35.
Climo, Shirley. The Irish Cinderlad. Illustrated by Loretta Krupinski. New York and San Francisco: Harper-Collins, 1996.
[Becan (Little One) is fed well by his loving mother. His feet grow rapidly until they stick out of the covers. When he’s thirteen his mother dies and his peddler father remarries a woman with three daughters, who mock him and call him Little Bigfoot. They give him little to eat and send him to tend the cows. He meets a great bull with a speckled face. They become friends. From the bull’s left ear Becan pulls a tablecloth which spreads itself with bread, cheese, and sausage. The stepdaughters spy on him, wondering how he is growing so fast when they give him only a crust to eat. They tell the stepmother what they find, and she vows to make soup of the bull. Becan warns the bull, and they flee. Many days from home the bull tells Becan that he must fight a gray bull who will kill him but that Becan must twist off his tail and wear it as a belt. And so it happens. The gray bull kills the speckle-faced bull, and Becan twists off the tail and has one last meal from the bull’s left ear. He then meets a gentleman who hires him to watch his cows, sheep, and donkey. Becan finds a grand field where they might graze, knocks a hole in the stone fence and feasts himself on an apple while they munch. A giant comes up behind him and says he will eat Becan. But Becan defends himself with the bull’s tail, which wraps about the giant’s neck and chokes him. Becan claims the giant’s boots and returns to his herdsman tasks. Later the gentleman warns Becan not to go near the town for it’s the Day of the Dragon, when a maiden must be tied to a post and fed to the sea monster. This year’s sacrifice is to be Princess Finola. Becan rides his donkey to Kinsale, releases the princess and fights the dragon. He nearly loses until he calls upon the bull’s tail, which wraps itself around the monster’s jaws, binding them shut. The Dragon sinks beneath the waves taking the tail with him. Just then his three stepsisters appear, and Becan flees. But the Princess, attempting to prevent his flight, grabs his boot, which comes off. She searches the world over for the one who will fit the boot. At last she comes to the gentleman, finds Becan, the boot fits, and the Princess weds him. They are the same height and see eye to eye on everything.]
Cole, Babette. Prince Cinders. New York: Sandcastle Books, 1987.
[Prince Cinders has three gigantic brothers who oppress him. He does the floor scrubbing and dishes. One Saturday a dirty fairy falls down the chimney and makes Cinders big and hairy. He goes to the disco bash but is too big to get through the door. He meets Princess Lovelypenny at the bus stop just at midnight. She screams but at the stroke of twelve he changes back into his old self. She thinks he has saved her from a big hairy monkey. He flees, losing his trousers in his haste. She makes all the princes try on the trousers, but they fit only Cinders. Lovelypenny proposes immediately, and they are married. She then has a word with the fairy about his big hairy brothers, whom she changes into house fairies who flit around the palace doing housework forever. An animated cartoon version has been released on videotape, dir. Derek Hayes, a First Run Features production. 1994. 26 minutes. See entry under Movies.]
Translated into Vietnamese by My Tang, Hoàng tü Cinders, Hayes, Middlesex, UK: Magi Publications, 1993; parallel Vietnamese and English texts. Also translated into Chinese by Chinatech, Hayes, Middlesex, UK: Magi Publications, 1993; parallel Chinese and English texts.
Dahl, Roald. James and the Giant Peach. Illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1961.
[Dahl uses several Cinderella tropes in constructing his adventure–-the orphan, a cruel stepfamily, the planting of a magic tree, an escape not to the ball but in one (a great peach rather than a pumpkin carriage), assisted by the hero’s wit, pantomime-like puns and riddles, friendly animals, and an ultimate arrival in a new land where he can begin a new life. Synopsis: James finds himself orphaned when his parents are eaten by an angry rhinoceros escaped from the London Zoo. Put in the care of Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, both “horrible people,” his life is miserable. He plants a peach pit in his backyard which grows into a lovely tree with a fruit so great that it attracts crowds. Spiker and Sponge try to appropriate it to make money, but the peach breaks free, rolls down a hill crushing Sponge and Spiker, and then out to sea. James lives inside, and it becomes his conveyance across the ocean to America, what with the help of a number of kindly animals and birds. Carried the last leg of the journey by seagulls (rather than Cinderella’s doves), the peach is dropped atop the Empire State Building and, after the fruit is consumed by New Yorkers, James lives in the brownstone that remains.]Graham, Amanda. Alex and the Glass Slipper. South Australia: Keystone Books, 1992.
[Included with Cinderella in a reversible book; turn the book over and the back becomes front and the other story begins. Synopsis: Alex is kitchen hand at Flinders’ Cellar Restaurant; he does all the dirty work and cooks as well. The palace announces a royal cake-baking contest. The two cooks from Flinders’ Cellar, Manuel and Russell, make Alex prepare cakes for them which they enter. Meanwhile Polly Goodfellow praises Alex’s cheesecake so he makes one. Polly has a book of magic and provides him with a neat chef’s uniform and a pair of shiny black shoes. At the back door she provides a shiny red motorcycle, so he sets out to the palace. The king can scarcely choose between Manuel’s sponge and Russell’s iced jubilee, but then the princess has them taste Alex’s cheesecake, which she adores. She vows to marry the man who cooked it. At midnight Alex flees; his fancy motor bike turns into his rusty old pushbike with a flat tire. The princess sets out to find the chef who made the cheesecake. She comes to Flinders’ Cellar. They succeed in identifying Alex and the princess proposes marriage. But Alex refuses, because of his loyalty to Polly. They set up a restaurant called The Glass Slipper and live happily ever after.]Hodges, Margaret. The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. New York: Holiday House, 1990.
[Based on Malory’s Tale of Sir Gareth. Linette scorns the kitchen boy who smells of grease even though he defeats Sir Kay and is knighted by Lancelot. She avoids eating at his table after he defeats the Black Knight. But he defeats the Blue Knight, then the Knight of the Red Plain, and finally Ironsides to free Linesse. But Linesse sends the victorious Gareth away before admitting him to her castle, saying she must learn more of him. She then steals his dwarf, causing him to return. She meets him disguised as a strange princess, falls in love with him, and then reveals herself. She vows that she will have none but Gareth for her husband. Gareth then takes Linette and Linesse by the hands and is more glad than ever before.]Holub, Joan. Cinderdog and the Wicked Stepcat. Illustrated by Joan Holub. Morton Grove, IL: Albert Whitman & Co., 2001.
[Cinderdog lived with his best buddy,Cowboy Carl on the Gitalong Ranch. One day Cactus Kate and her cat Wicked come along. Kate and Carl fall in love and get married, which leaves Cinderdog out in the cold. He's stuck with all the work with no help from Wicked, who mostly hisses and eat's Cinderdog's food. As far as he's concerned, it's now the "Don't Gitalong Ranch." The others set off for the "Fancy Schmancy Cat Show," a "No Dogs Allowed" event. Cinderdog sets out on his own, gets caught in a windstorm, and arrives late. Some city-slicker judges size him up and give him the award for "Most Unusual Cat" - very "humiliatin." A sneaky desperado stuffs Wicked and Cinderdog into his saddle bag, planning to use them as tasty snacks for his pet snake Fang. When he lets them out of the bag at Stinky's Snake Farm he discovers that Cinderdog "'twernt a cat at all." Cinderdog gives a fierce growl and the desperado heads for the hills. Wicked doesn't thank Cinderdog, but she does tell him how unhappy she is living at the ranch in somebody else's house. They begin to see eye to eye and head back. He helps Wicked get tht hang of things, and they start getting along. Cactus Kate holds Wicked and Cowboy Carl holds Cinderdog and they end up a happy bunch, just the four of them. Then, faster than a twister, Cowbaby comes along, and they have to start figuring things out all over again.]How the Cowherd Found a Bride. In Sierra, Cinderella. Illustrated by Joanne Caroselli. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1984. Pp. 114-118.
[From 19th-century Bengal, India. Two brothers, hard on their luck, glean at harvest time, where they discover a cow stuck in the mud. They help the cow out and take her home with them, where she and her descendants supply everyone with milk and the elder brother becomes rich enough to marry. The younger brother tends the cattle, who give him wealth and sweets. His jealous sister-in-law beheads him, but the cow pushes his head back to his body and he returns to life. He goes deep into the jungle to a bodhi tree where he rests. He pours milk over the roots of the tree and from the ground a snake appears. He learns from a snake of his fortune. His hair becomes golden, and he sends one hair wrapped in a leaf down stream where a princess, bathing in the river, finds it. She would marry none but the one from whom the hair came. Her pet parrot and pet crow say they will help her find the golden man if she release them from their cages. She releases them, and they go up stream, find the cowherd and steal his flute, whereby he pursues the birds to the princess’ chamber. She convinces him to marry her, and he does so, recalling the snake’s prophecy. He decides to remain on his father-in-law’s estate, but when he goes back to get his cattle he finds them dead. Remembering a charm from the snake, he brings the cattle back to life. Later, in prosperity, he would honor the snake as his father and mother. But he can no longer find it under the bodhi tree.]Hyde, Douglas. “The Bracket Bull.” In Four Irish Stories. Dublin, 1898.
Iron Hans, by the Brothers Grimm. Illustrated by Marilee Heyer. New York: Viking, 1993.
[Handsomely illustrated with borders and several two page spreads. The story is condensed from Grimm to about half its length, but follows the main outlines of Grimm’s plot, from the draining of the pond and capturing of the wild man, to his release by the boy, the boy’s education under the wild man’s tutelage as he watches the spring, to his loss of direct contact with Iron Hans after which he becomes a cow herd, then champion of the king, winning three golden apples, finally to be revealed in his full stature to marry the princess, thus breaking the enchantment on Iron Hans that made him a wild man. See the synopsis of the story in Basic European Texts and Robert Bly’s discussion in Criticism.]Iron John, adapted from the Brothers Grimm, by Eric A. Kimmel. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
[Kimmel cuts the first part of the story which tells of the magical lake and the capturing of Iron John and gives names to the characters. The princess becomes Elsa the garden girl (her name is borrowed from another Grimm tale about “Patient Elsa”) and the youth is named Walter (after Gautier-Sans-Avoir, or “Walter without Wealth,” a knight who fought in the First Crusade). In his Author’s Note Kimmel writes, “I always resented the idea that a princess who despised the hero when he was poor would love him when he became rich. Fie on princesses! Elsa loves Walter truly, and so she will have him” – May 30, 1992.]Jack and the Bull. In Richard Chase, The Jack Tales Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943. Pp. 21-30.
[Combines Type 511, One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes, Type 530, The Princess on the Glass Mountain, and Type 314, bull as helper, and Type 510, Cap o’ Rushes. Jack’s bound to a man with a mean wife who tries to starve him. A bull feeds him bread from one horn and milk from the other. The mean woman sends successively her one, two, and three-eyed daughters to spy on him. He plays the eyes closed of the first two with his fiddle but only two eyes of the third, who exposes him. The woman would have the bull killed. Jack and the bull plan a way to kill the woman instead and get away. The bull meets other bull challengers in the wood and kills the first two (the blue and red ones) but is slain by the third, who is white. Acting upon his bull’s instructions he takes a strop of hide from the dead bull’s nose to his tail and his two horns and makes his way. Various mean women try to enslave him, but Jack is always rescued by the strop which ties them and the horns which beat them until they give him reward. Finally he ties up a giantess and gets plenty of money to go home and settle down. Compare with “Billy Beg and the Bull”.]Jack the Cunning Thief. In More Celtic Fairy Tales, ed. Joseph Jacob. Illustrated by John D. Batten. London: David Nutt, 1895. Pp. 11-25.
[A poor farmer has three sons, two industrious while the youngest, Jack, is clever but not of much use. The three part at a cross-roads, and Jack goes to a lonesome house off the road where he asks for supper. An old woman tries to send him away, saying that the six “honest” men who live here will skin him alive. He says that would be no worse than dying of exposure in a ditch, so he stays. When the men return Jack says he is Master Thief, come to give them some lessons. He sees a farmer taking a goat to market and tells the men to steal it without violence before the farmer gets out of the wood. They say it can’t be done, so Jack shows them. He slips ahead of the farmer and puts a shoe in the road. The farmer looks at it, then goes on, thinking one shoe is not worth anything. Jack picks it up and places it again in the road ahead of the farmer. When he sees it a second time he thinks he now has a pair and leaves his goat to go back for the other shoe. Jack takes the goat, to the admiration of the six thieves. Next he sees the poor man driving a fat sheep the same way. “Who can steal it without roughness?” Jack asks. None are willing to try so Jack does it himself. Taking a piece of rope he “hangs” himself on a tree. The farmer goes on to find a second and then a third man hanging. Fearing that a murderer is abroad, he ties his sheep to a tree and goes back to see if the others are still hanging there. Jack takes the sheep and returns to the thieves. The farmer now comes by with a fat bullock and again Jack proposes theft to the thieves, who decline the test. This time Jack hides in the wood and bleats like a goat. The farmer ties the bullock to a sapling and goes to search for his lost beast only to return to find the bullock gone. So the thieves let Jack join them and show him to their cave where they keep their treasure. Next day, when they are gone, Jack takes the old housekeeper to the cave and while she is admiring the treasure he fills his pockets and a bag with jewels and locks her inside. He then puts on a rich suit of clothes and returns the goat, sheep, and bullock to the farmer, then returns home. His father is astonished at the new clothes and wealth. Jack tells him to go to the landlord and tell him that Jack is a master thief and wishes to marry his daughter. The squire is amused and says that Jack must first steal the goose off the spit on Sunday. So Jack dresses up as a beggar and goes to the kitchen. He lets go a hare and wonders who could catch it. None will try. So he lets a second go and all shout that the hare is still there. On the third time the household attempts to catch it. When they return the goose and beggar are gone. Next the landlord says Jack must steal one of his six black horses which are guarded by stable lads. Jack appears as an old woman and asks if she might rest in the stable. She gives the lads moonshine to drink until they fall asleep. Jack puts stockings over the horses hooves and steals all six. Next day the landlord is really frustrated and says that if Jack can steal the bed sheet from under him and his wife he can have the daughter. That night the squire sits in bed with his wife and his shotgun. “Jack” appears at the window and the squire shoots. Hearing a thud they think Jack has been shot and are filled with remorse. The squire hurries down stairs. Jack plays like he is the squire and appears asking for the sheet to wrap the poor corpse in. The wife gives it to him. The squire returns saying he has found only a straw man. The wife wonders what he did with the sheet. They then realize that there is no deterring Jack, so the wedding takes place and the squire and his lady never tire of praising their son-in-law, “Jack the Cunning Thief.” See Jack and the Dentist’s Daughter under Movies.]The Maid on the Glass Mountain. In Ingri and Edgar d’Aulaire, East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Twenty-one Norwegian Folktales. New York: Viking, 1969. Pp. 45-57.
[A farmer high in the hills has three sons, the youngest named Cinderlad. Each Midsummer Night his haycrop is mysteriously devoured, so he sends his eldest son to keep watch. The boy falls asleep in a hayloft and next day the hayfield is devoured as it was in earlier years. Next year the second son tries to keep watch, but also fails. So in the third year Cinderlad keeps watch. He hears a great rumbling like thunder, then a crunching and discovers a great horse eating the hay crop. He lays a fire-steel over the horse, thus capturing him, and leads him into hiding in the mountains. The brothers taunt him next day, but are amazed to discover that the haycrop has survived. Next year Cinderlad watches again. This time he catches a horse with a saddle and full suit of armor. On this third year he captures and hides the finest horse of all. The king declares that he will give his daughter to the one who can ride up the Mountain of glass and obtain three golden apples from the girl. All who try to climb the mountain slip and fall except for Espen Cinderlad who on three separate ventures with his three horses wins the apples from the princess. All marvel at the horse and horsemanship of the unknown knight. The king offers his daughter to the one who can present the golden apples. Cinderlad appears amidst mockery, throws off his rags and appears in his golden coat of mail and presents the apples. He gets the bride, and they are probably still feasting.]Myers, Bernice. Sidney Rella and the Glass Sneaker. New York: Macmillan, 1985.
[Sidney, the youngest of three boys, is too little to make the football team, until his fairy godfather, with a whip of the wand, gets his chores done for him and after a few tries gets him the right uniform and very fast glass sneakers. Sidney wins the big game, then disappears. (He had to be home by 6:00). All the coach has to help find him is the glass sneaker, but that, to the amazement of all, fits Sidney, who gets the gold trophy at the awards banquet, becomes a famous college player, goes to law school, becomes a judge, and finally president of a shoelace company.]Pyle, Howard. Bearskin. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Afterword by Peter Glassman. New York: Books of Wonder: Morrow Junior Books, 1997.
[Pyle’s tale draws upon Snow White, the stories of Moses, and of Romulus and Remus, Donkeyskin, and Goosegirl. A king, far from home, spends the night with a miller whose wife has just had a baby. In gratitude for the hospitality and out of curiosity, the king asks his wise man to predict the child’s future. After consulting the stars the wizard says that the child will marry the king’s not yet born daughter. The king, shocked, buys the baby from the miller and tells his forester to kill the child and to bring him the heart. The forester’s wife takes pity on the child. They send the king the heart of a freshly killed rabbit and set the baby adrift in a basket on the river. A she-bear, whose cubs were killed by the huntsman, takes the baby and raises it as her own. The boy, nourished by rich bear’s milk, grows to be ten times stronger than the strongest man in the land. When the grown lad at last sees human beings, he chooses to join them even though the she-bear informs him that people are the most wicked and cruel of all the beasts. She gives him a crooked horn to blow if he should ever need her help and lets him go. Bearskin becomes servant to the king’s swineherd. A three-headed dragon is terrorizing the land and has demanded the princess as his reward. The king announces that he will give her in marriage to anyone who can rescue her. All are too fearful to help. Bearskin tells the swineherd that he will rescue her. He goes back into the wood, and sounds his horn; the bear appears and gives him armor, a shield, and a white horse. He goes to the mountain, meets the girl, kills the dragon by cutting off the three heads and removing the three tongues. In gratitude she gives him a ring, a scarf, and a gold necklace. He leaves, returns the armor and horse to the bear, and goes back to the swineherd. The king’s steward comes upon the princess, gathers up the three heads and sets out to claim the reward, telling her that he will kill her if she reveals the truth. The marriage is to take place. Bearskin sends the ring to her, asking for wedding food, then the scarf, and finally the necklace. She is relieved to know that Bearskin is alive and coming to help. The wedding is interrupted by Bearskin who asks the court what the punnishment should be for an imposter. The steward says the villain should be put in a barrel studded on the inside with sharp nails, and then dragged in the barrel until he is dead (cp. Goose Girl). Bearskin then claims the bride, calling the steward a fraud. The steward produces the heads as proof that he was the dragonslayer. but Bearskin presents the three tongues. So the steward is exposed and gets his just desert while Bearskin marries the queen. At the wedding feast the bear comes and is thanked by the king.]Ruskin, John. The King of the Golden River; or, The Black Brothers: A Legend of Stiria. Illustrated by Richard Doyle. London: Smith, Elder & Co., MDCCCLI.
[This is the first edition, actually published 21 Dec. 1850. A second edition followed in 1851, with slight changes of the title page. Numerous subsequent editions, usually reprints of the 9th edition. A facsimile edition edited by Diane Johnson was published by Garland, 1976. Doyle, who supplied 22 illustrations for the first edition, was the designer of the original cover for Punch, and the illustrator of Thackeray’s novels. Ruskin wrote the story in 1841 at age 22 for Euphemia Gray, whom he married in 1848. The marriage was annulled in 1854; she later married Sir John Everett Millais. Synopsis: Ch. I: How the Agricultural System of the Black Brothers was interfered with by South-West Wind. Treasure Valley is blessed beyond all neighboring lands on the Golden River with fine weather, great crops, and wealth. The ruling house in the valley is run by two wicked brothers, Schwartz and Hans, who through cruelty and greed become both very wealthy and much hated by the neighbors, who refer to them as the Black Brothers. A third brother, Gluck (who is only twelve), is kind but he is enslaved by the cruel brothers who make him scrub floors, clean their shoes, cook the food, and serve them in all ways. The only education they give Gluck is blows. After a particularly harsh summer, starving people from neighboring valleys come in search of food, but are scorned and left to die on the doorstep. Then, one winter night while Gluck is tending the spit, a little old gentleman begs shelter and food. Gluck would help him but fears what his brothers might do. At the moment he gives the old man his own portion of mutton the brothers return and attempt to beat the old man, but each time anything touches him it is knocked into a corner. The old man leaves saying that he will return just once more, then never again. The cruel brothers call curses after him and go to bed, after eating all the mutton and giving Gluck nothing. During the night a terrible storm destroys all the house except Gluck’s room and devastates the valley. Only a white calling card remains on the kitchen table engraved with the words South West Wind Esquire. Ch. II: Of The Proceedings of the Three Brothers after the Visit of South-West Wind, Esquire; and how little Gluck had an Interview with the King of the Golden River. The South-West Wind does not return, and the valley becomes a desert. The brothers take their gold accouterments and move to a large city where they set up as goldsmiths, making Gluck run the forge while they spend the gold. Soon all the gold is gone except for an old mug with strange eyes on it. Gluck is instructed to melt it down while Schwartz and Hans go out drinking. Gluck hears a voice from the melting pot asking to be poured out. When Gluck complies, instead of a flow of gold out pours a little yellow man about a foot and a half tall. He says he is King of the Golden River who had been trapped in the mug by the curse of a powerful king. He thanks Gluck for breaking the spell and tells him a great secret whereby he can turn the Golden River into gold for himself if he climbs the mountain to the river’s source and casts three drops of holy water into the stream. He can have only one chance, and if he fails or if the water is unholy he will be turned into a black stone. The King then walks back into the furnace and evaporates. Ch. III: How Mr. Hans set off on an Expedition to the Golden River, and how he prospered therin. The brothers return and beat Gluck for the loss of their last piece of gold. Then they fight each other to see who can go on the quest, and Schwartz is arrested for disturbing the peace, but Hans hides, steals a cup of holy water, and sets out, after mocking his brother in jail. He comes to a precarious glacier but gets past. Having developed a great thirst he drinks all but a few drops of the holy water whereupon he encounters a dog dying of thirst with black ants swarming over its mouth. The dog beckons for drink, but Hans scorns it and passes on. With his goal in sight he encounters an old man dying of thirst. Again he passes by and hurls the flask into the water at its source. Lightning strikes and Hans is turned shrieking into a black stone in the water. Ch. IV: How Mr Schwartz set off on an Expedition to the Golden River, and how he prospered therin. Gluck takes a job with another goldsmith and earns enough money to pay Schwartz’s fine. Schwartz figures that Hans failed because he stole the holy water. So he steals Gluck’s money, buys holy water from a wicked priest, and sets out up the mountain. He meets a child moaning for water but passes it by, then meets the old man, whom he denies as well. Then he meets his brother Hans, exhausted and crying for water but scorns him too. He throws the flask into the water and is likewise turned into a black stone. Ch. V: How Little Gluck set off on an Expedition to the Golden River, and how he prospered therin, with other Matters of Interest. Hans works for a year, then decides to attempt the quest himself. He asks a good priest for holy water, and it is gladly given to him. Being young and inexperienced, Gluck has great trouble crossing the glacier, loses his bread, but gets to the other side where he meets the thirsty old man. He gives the man drink; the old man consumes two-thirds of the water in the flask, then frolics away happy. Next Gluck meets the child, who drinks nearly all that is left, but likewise is rejuvenated. Next he comes upon the dog who gets the last drops of Gluck’s water. Suddenly the little yellow dwarf appears, bringing with him sunshine and flowers. He gives Gluck a lily to which three drops of water cling. Gluck casts the drops into the stream at its source. But instead of turning to gold the stream nearly disappears, sinking into a whirlpool. Gluck follows the stream on its new route and rediscovers Treasure Valley which now, rather than being a parched desert, flourishes again from the river’s water. Gluck finds his barns once more filled with corn and his house filled with treasures. To this day people trace the river underground to the place where Gluck dropped the three drops of holy water and marvel at the two great black stones through which the cataract streams.]San Souci, Robert D. The Little Seven-Colored Horse: A Spanish American Folktale. Illustrated by Jan Thompson Dicks. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1995.Ruskin’s tale has been published with new illustrations several times in the twentieth century:
The King of the Golden River, or The Black Brothers, by John Ruskin. With pictures by Mary Lott Seaman. New York: Macmillan Co., 1926. [Thirty line-drawing illustrations.]
The King of the Golden River, or The Black Brothers, by John Ruskin. Introduction by Eugene A. Noble. Illustrations by Ferdinand Huszti Horvath. London: The Studio; New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1930. [Noble’s Introduction mentions Ruskin’s writing the story for Effie Gray and comments on his concerns “about the finer and fuller life of girls and women. In his wide study and understanding of human affairs the problem of women’s education, not merely going to school, but education in its larger and better sense, appealed to him; this resulted in a rare kind of intellectual chivalry, making him a champion of the distinctive rights and privileges belonging to women. On this subject he wrote frequently and forcefully. Ruskin’s students have noted hundreds of references to it, and for women he claims an exalted place in the meaning of life. Any and every project to assist girls in attaining higher things found in him an eloquent champion whose sympathy and support were assured for any scheme to benefit them. Women owe John Ruskin a great debt” (n.p.).]
The King of the Golden River, by John Ruskin. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: George Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1932. [Four color plates and numerous ink drawings and sketches.]
The King of the Golden River and Robinson Crusoe. Springfield, Mass.: McLoughlin Bros. Inc., 1939. [No mention of Ruskin or Defoe. Seven full page and four partial page ink drawings for King of the Golden River.]
The King of the Golden River, by John Ruskin. Illustrated by Ben Wolf. New York: Hyperion Press, 1945. [Full page and double spread color illustrations, with pen drawings at chapter conclusions and beginnings.]
The King of the Golden River, by John Ruskin. Illustrated by Fritz Kredel. Introduction by May Lamberton Becker. Rainbow Classics edition. Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Co., 1946. [Kredel was born in Michelstadt, Odenwald, Germany. He came to America in 1938. His illustrations reflect the scenery of his childhood as well as Ruskin’s love of nature and the working man. Three illustrations in color; fourteen in pen and ink.]
[A farmer discovers that some beast has been eating his corn field. He sets his eldest son to watch. But he sleeps. So he calls for his second son to keep watch. He too sleeps. Then the youngest brother is assigned the task. His older brothers jeer at him but he undertakes the task. He piles fat mazorcas under a tree and places a rope around them. He plays his guitar to keep awake. At midnight he catches a horse of seven colors. The horse begs to be released and promises to help Juanito whenever he calls. The family is amazed at the story but believe it when no more corn is stolen. The two elder brothers set off to the city to earn their fortune. Juanito would go too but they toss him into a swift river. As he is about to drown he calls for the horse who comes out of the sky, rescues him, and takes him to the city. Juanito gets a job as janitor at an inn. He learns that Maria, daughter of the city’s alcalde, will marry the one who wins the tournament of rings. With the horse’s help Juanito wins the day, snaring all the rings. When the brothers discover that Juanito has won Maria they say that he had vowed that morning to fetch a miraculous bird whose plumes adorned his hat. Before he can deny the lie Maria asks for the bird and Juanito must agree to find it. The horse carries him across the desert to a marvelous southern land with spectacularly colored birds. But just as he presents them to Maria the brothers say he had promised to recover a golden ring lost at the bottom of the sea. So the horse carries him to the bottom of the sea where he finds the ring. This time he outwits the brothers and as he presents the ring to his bride says that they have vowed to go the king of Spain to tell of the wedding. They set out grumbling, while Juanito and Maria are married and live happily together, taking rides on the fabulous horse.]The Sea Maiden. In Celtic Fairy Tales, ed. Joseph Jacobs. Illustrated by John D. Batten. London: Alfred Nutt, 1892. Pp. 144-155.
[A poor fisherman has no luck. A sea-maiden will give him good luck if he promises to give her his son when the boy is twenty years old. The fisherman agrees and has great luck. He marries and has a boy. Twenty years later he is upset about his bargain. The boy asks what’s wrong and learns of the agreement. His father sends to a smithy for a powerful sword. The sword shatters when the boy swings it, so another sword is sought. This one is sound. The boy sets out on a black horse. He comes to a carcass of a sheep over which he finds a great black dog, a falcon, and an otter, quarreling. He divides the carcass for them. In return the dog offers his swiftness of foot and sharpness of tooth. The otter offers his swimming ability, and the falcon his swiftness of flight. The youth takes a job as a herdsman of the king’s cattle who have no pasture and give no milk. He takes the cattle to a green field and is attacked by a giant. With the clean-sweeping sword he beheads the monster. He takes nothing from the giant’s house but returns to the king. The cattle give lots of milk and the king is pleased. But after a time the new grass fails and he takes the herd further into giant land. This time he is attacked by another giant who would drink his blood. He is almost defeated but calls on the dog who with one spring catches the giant by the neck while the herdsman swaps off the giant’s head. He returns with the herd but is met by an old crone who attempts to kill him. With the aid of the dog he defeats her. He then learns that the king’s daughter is to be sacrificed to a three-headed monster in the loch. She is supposed to be saved by the General of Arms who will get to marry the princess. But, when the general sees the three-headed beast he flees. So the youth saves the girl, coming full armed with his black horse and black dog. The youth cuts off one of the monster’s heads and gives it to the princess, weaving it into a knot. She gives him a gold ring. He then goes back to cow herding, unrecognized while the general takes credit for the beheading. Next day the beast would attack again, and again the general slinks away. So the youth stands in and cuts off the second head and weaves it into the knot. The girl gives him an earring. But the general claims credit for the victory. On the third day, again the general hides, and the hero comes on his black horse, cuts off the third head and weaves it also into the knot. The girl gives him the other earring. Again the general claims the credit and would marry the princess. But she will marry only the one who can untie the knot without cutting it. The general fails. Only the herd can do it. He produces the ring and earrings, but the king denies his worth until he appears dressed as fine as any in the castle. He puts on the giant’s golden dress and is married that same day. They go to the shore and he is abducted by the sea-maiden. His wife learns from a soothsayer what has happened and plays her harp, which charms the sea-maiden who lets the hero’s head appear, then, after more music, his waist, and, finally, she lets him rise all the way out of the loch, at which point he calls on the falcon who carries him to shore. But the sea-maiden next seizes his wife. The old soothsayer helps, however, telling him of a white-footed hind. If the hind is caught, a hoodie (a hooded Royleston crow) will spring out of it, who, if caught, will be a source for a trout with an egg in its mouth, which is the soul of the sea-maiden. If the egg is broken the sea-maiden will die. The dog catches the hind, the falcon catches the hoodie, and the otter catches the trout who drops the egg. The sea-maiden says she will give the hero anything if he break not the egg. He asks for his wife. Once she is delivered he crushes the egg.]Tom Thumb. Retold and illustrated by Richard Jesse Watson. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.
[A poor farmer and his wife have no children. Merlin happens by and hears the wife’s wish for a child “even if the babe were no bigger than my husband’s thumb.” Amused by the idea, Merlin visits the queen of the faeries and the wish is granted. The tiny boy makes his parents very happy but falls into the porridge and is almost cooked; when he cries out in the oven, the porridge is thrown out the window, where Tom is then almost eaten by a peddlar. Tom’s mother tries to keep him at her side at all times but he is next almost eaten by a cow. Then he is stolen away by a raven who drops him on the battlement of a castle where the giant Grumbong lives. Tom calls to the giant who is so amazed at his tininess that he drops his precious shell, a charm given him by the fairies to keep him at peace. In a rage he swallows Tom, then, because of the boy’s kicking, spits the boy into the sea, where he is devoured by a big fish. Tom now decides to defend himself and makes himself a sword from a fishbone. The fish is caught by one of King Arthur’s fishermen, who finds the boy inside and gives him to the king. Tom falls at odds with the cook, who has him imprisoned. But, upon learning that Arthur is at war with the giant Grumbong, who has suddenly become outrageous, Tom escapes with the help of mice, rabbits, and squirrels, finds a sea shell, converts it into a horn, sounds the horn with a deafening sound, stops the battle, gives the giant the shell with its reassuring ocean sound, thus preventing the battle before it started. The grateful King Arthur gives Tom golden treasures to take to his parents and makes him the smallest Knight of the Round Table.]Tom Thumb, ed. Margaret Read MacDonald. Illustrated by Joanne Caroselli. The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1993.
[Includes Thumbling (Brothers Grimm), Thumbling’s Travels (Brothers Grimm), Lipuniushka (Russia), Poucot (France), Hasan the Heroic Mouse-Child (Turkey), Loud Mouth Thummas (Slovenia), The Hazel-nut Child (Bukovina), Thumbikin (Norway), Pinoncito (Chile), Tom Thumb (England), Petit Poucet (France), Fereyel and Debbo Engal the Witch (Africa), Digit the Midget (Ethiopia), Boy-Man (Native American), The Snail (Japan), The Diminutive Flute Player (Burma), Three Inch (Pakistan), Little Shell (Philippines), Issun Boshi (Japan), Little Thumb Conquers the Sun (Burma), Thumbling the Giant (Brothers Grimm), Tough Little Niraidak (Siberia), Thumbelina (Hans Christian Andersen), Doll in the Grass (Norway). With notes, essays, activities, resources, and bibliography.]White, T. H. Sword in the Stone. London: Collins, 1938.
[A male Cinderella story, tracing the Wart’s rise in medieval society from the limbo status of a son of unknown parentage to central, high position as Arthur, King of England. Cinderella elements include a favored rival stepbrother in Kay, son of Sir Ector, Arthur’s foster-father. When his childhood companion is knighted, Arthur resigns himself to being Kay’s squire. In the castle’s kitchen he reflects, “Well, I am a Cinderella now”: he must pay for the pleasures of his education “by being a second-rate squire and holding Kay’s extra spears for him, while he hoves by some well or other and jousts with all comers.” The fairy godfather, who absent-mindedly asserts, “Don’t think that magic will solve all your problems,” is Merlyn, the boys’ tutor, who transforms Arthur into a fish, a hawk, an ant, a bird, and a badger, so that he can live among and talk with the lesser creatures, thus acquiring practical wisdom. The climactic event is not a ball but the great tournament in London at which Arthur pulls a sword out of an anvil embedded in stone (only he can do it) and is recognized as “King Born of All England.” The Sword in the Stone became the first part of White’s four part novel The Once and Future King, where, following Malory, White explores the tragic phase of the legend, focusing on Arthur’s project to extend the rule of law, Lancelot’s exploits and his love affair with Guenever, and the doom brought about by Mordred’s unrelenting malice–Dave Nicolson.]The White Dove (Danish). In Andrew Lang, ed., The Pink Fairy Book (1897). Illustrated by H. J. Ford. New York: Dover Publications, 1967. Pp. 238-246.
[A king has two sons who foolishly get caught at sea in a little boat. An old woman in a dough-trough rescues them on condition that they give her the youngest son who is not yet born. The boy is born but the older brothers don’t keep their promise. But when the child is full grown the old witch comes to claim him. When he hears the story he goes with the witch since his brothers had promised him to her in return for their lives. The witch gives him tasks to accomplish, first to sort out a heap of feathers, then to split a huge stack of wood. A white dove appears through a window and completes the tasks for him. The dove turns into a lovely maiden who has been cursed by the witch. She advises the prince on how they might both escape the witch and marry. He ties a red string around her little finger, then makes his wishes to marry the dove known to the witch. She tries to trick him by turning the girl into a shaggy grey ass, which the boy, seeing the red thread immediately agrees to marry. In anger the witch then changes the princess into a toothless hag. Again the prince would marry her and the witch now has no choice but to agree. She then plots other tricks to thwart the wedding. But the dove-princess always outwits her until the witch is turned to flint and the couple return to the prince’s kingdom where they are married. The older brothers kneel before him and confess their rash vow. They are forgiven and the young prince and his bride inherit the kingdom.]Yeats, W. B. “Jack and Bill” (1902). In Irish Folktales, ed. Henry Glassie. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. Pp. 270-276.
[Jack and Bill are born identical twins from different mothers who ate of the same magical fish. Jack’s mother is the cook; Bill’s, the queen. Jack, the cook’s son, is cast out and has to make his way through trials. Employed by another palace to watch the cows he slays three giants and rescues the princess several times from a serpent, though she can’t see him. She manages to clip a swatch of his hair and steal his magic slipper, however, and will marry none but the one the slipper fits. The king holds two groom-search balls, one for the aristocracy, the second for everyone else, but the slipper fits none of the men who compete. Then they remember the cowherd, who has not tried on the slipper, and the truth comes out. This account of Jack’s Cinderella marriage is but one component of a complex plot in which Jack subsequently is saved by Bill, then is murdered by Bill, then is restored by Bill before they all live happily ever after and have children by the basketful.]Yep, Laurence. The Kahn’s Daughter: A Mongolian Folktale. Illustrated by Jean and Mou-Sien Tseng. New York: Scholastic Press, 1997.
[A poor man tells his son that he will become rich and marry the Kahn’s daughter. The father dies and the son sets out to fulfill his destiny. When he explains his purpose to the Khan, the Kahn laughs and the queen is outraged. But the daughter says, “If a Khan may marry a commoner’s daughter, a commoner may marry a Kahn’s daughter.” So, for amusement, they set three tests for the youth. First he must bring back from the mountains the treasure of seven demons. Mongke, the poor boy, says, “Point the way.” The daughter Borte bakes him seven loaves with sesame seeds and seven without. The mother poisons the sesame loaves and tells the boy to eat those along the way. He climbs the mountain, eating the plain loaves first. Then the demons catch him, take the sesame loaves and eat them, one a piece. When he finds the demons dead he takes the treasure and returns. So the queen mother sets a second task: “Drive the enemy from our land.” “Just point the way,” Mongke replies. When Mongke approaches the enemy the soldiers with him panic and flee. As Mongke flees too he bumps into a tree, becomes entangled, and uproots the tree. The enemy think he must be one of the demons and flee, leaving their pack train behind. He returns with the pack animals laden with spoils. The Khan is amazed for the other soldiers had reported Mongke dead. When Mongke boasts, Borte says, “He has met your conditions, but not mine.” She puts the last test: he must conquer Bagatur the Clever and Mighty. “Just point the way,” he replies. He meets Bagatur who threatens him. In fear Mongke gives him his horse and flees. Ashamed of himself he returns to apologize to Borte for his cowardice. He meets her along the way and deceitfully says that he felt sorry for Bagatur and gave him the horse. But when she puts a scarf over her face and speaks in Bagatur’s voice he realizes he has been outwitted by the princess. “You won, I lost,” he says, and agrees to do whatever she desires - “Just point the way.” So they return to the city keeping their secret and are married. Protected by their reputation for courage and wisdom they live contentedly the rest of their lives.]Yorinks, Arthur. Ugh. Illustrated by Richard Egielski New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1990.
[A time-travel Cinderella. Ugh, a cave boy, has to do all the chores around the cave while his brothers and sisters get to go watch dinosaurs eat trees. An old man invents a wheel but people mock him. Ugh sees possibilities in the invention, however, and makes a bicycle. The world discovers his bicycle, searches for its maker, checking out everyone to see if anyone can ride it. Ugh’s sisters and brothers, who have always mocked him, make a mess of their attempt to ride. But Ugh can ride it and upon discovering it’s Ugh’s invention, the world makes him king. He never has to scrub floors again. Him big bigshot the rest of his life.]
Virtually every rewriting of Cinderella could fall into this category. But here the concern is primarily with adaptations of the story for children and their parents, particularly in view of the politics of gender in the latter three decades of the twentieth century, especially Feminist, Marxist, and Third Reich revisions. See also Male Cinderellas; numerous revisions for adults under Modern Fiction; and Aley, Dégh (1979), Gerstl, and Kamenetsky (1972, 1977, 1989) under Criticism.
Aschenputtel: Alte deutsche Volksmärchen, Heft 9. Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes, c. 1942. Text nach Grimm für das WHW. gekürzt von Karl Hobrecker. Bilder von Koser-Michaëls.
[This sixteen page story-booklet (2” x 2.75”) is one in a set of 10 tales designed to be given to patriots who support the war effort. A small hole in the back cover made it possible to attach the booklet to one’s jumper, like a merit badge. The recto of the cover and each of the pages after page 1 includes a full-page illustration, a format followed in each of the 10 volumes. The cover of the Achenputtel booklet shows a blonde Cinderella with long braid holding a white dove on her extended right hand; a second dove stands on the ground behind her. There are seeds on the ground. The illustration on p. 3 shows her planting the hazel twig on her mother’s grave; p. 5 depicts eight doves sorting the lentels from the ashes and putting them back into the bowl that Aschenputtel holds in her lap; p. 7 shows the Prince picking up the red shoe; p. 9 shows a stepsister preparing to cut off her toe to make the shoe fit; p. 11 depicts the father acknowledging to the Prince that there is one other girl in the household; and on p. 15 the doves peck out the eyes of the two stepsisters while Aschenputtel and the Prince are being served at the table. The ten booklets in the series include the following stories: 1. Dornröschen (Briar Rose [Sleeping Beauty]), illustrated by Karl Rübner; 2. Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood), illustrated by Hildegard Mössel; 3. Der Froschköning (The Frog Prince), illustrated by Koser-Michaëls; 4. Das Tapfere Schneiderlein (The Valiant Little Tailor), illustrated by Kurt Rübner; 5. Schneewittchen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), illustrated by Kurt Rübner; 6. Der gestiefelte Kater (Puss in Boots); 7. Hänsel und Gretel, illustrated by Hildegard Mössel; 8. Rumpelstilzchen, illustrated by Koser Michaëls; 9. Aschenputtel (Cinderella), illustrated by Koser Michaëls; and 10. Der Däumling (Tom Thumb), illustrated by Else Wenz- Vietor. Each booklet bears the symbol of the Third Reich at the center of the back cover.]Carter, Angela. “Ashputtle: or, the Mother’s Ghost.” In Disorderly Conduct: The “VLS” [Voice Literary Supplement] Fiction Reader, ed. M. Mark, New York and London: Serpent’s Tail, 1991. Pp. 54-62.
[Retellings with strong insights into the mother’s competition with the stepmother and their dominance as the girl comes of age. See Angela Carter, under Criticism, for summary annotation of the components of Carter’s strong revisionings.]-----. “Kate Crackernuts.” In The Old Wives’ Fairy Tale Book, ed. Angela Carter, with illustrations by Corinna Sargood. New York: Pantheon, 1990. Pp. 16-18.
[The king has a daughter named Kate and the queen a more lovely daughter named Anne. The girls love each other as sisters but the jealous queen tries to destroy the more lovely Anne. So she sends her to the henwife with instructions to fast on the way. But Anne eats a crust as she passes through the kitchen so when the henwife shows her the boiling pot nothing happens. The exercise is attempted a second time but Anne eats some berries along the way, thus spoiling the queen’s attempt to despoil the king’s daughter. So the third time the queen goes along, making certain nothing gets eaten along the way; when Anne looks into the pot a sheep’s head leaps out and displaces her own. But her friend Kate covers Anne’s head and they go to seek their fortune. They lodge at a king’s castle where there are two princes, one healthy and one so sick as to be perpetually bedridden. Kate agrees to sit by the sick prince. At midnight the prince mysteriously rises and, with Kate in pursuit, rushes by horse to fairy land where he dances frenetically. Next night the event recurs. This time Kate gathers nuts along the way. She encounters a fairy baby playing with a wand, saying that three strokes of the wand would make Kate’s sick sister as bonnie as ever. So Kate rolls nuts to the baby who lets the wand fall. She takes the wand, touches Anne three times, and the sheep’s head drops off, leaving her lovely as before. Next night the fairy baby is playing with a bird, saying that three bites of the bird would make the sick prince well. Again Kate rolls some nuts to the babe, gets the bird and cooks it for the prince. After the first bite he rises up on his elbow. After the second he can sit up by himself. After the third he is healed. He dresses himself and they sit by the fire and crack nuts. His brother has seen Anne and fallen in love. So the sick son marries the well sister and the sick sister marries the well son, and they live happy lives.]-----, ed. The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Corinna Sargood. Introduction by Marina Warner. London: Virago Press, 1992.
[Forty-five tales, including “Tatterhood,” “Vasilissa the Fair,” “Fair, Brown and Trembling,” and “The Frog Maiden.” Excellent notes on “Vasilissa” (pp. 216-217), “Fair, Brown and Trembling” (pp. 218-219), and “The Frog Maiden” (pp. 220-221).]Cole, Babette. Princess Smartypants. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987.
[Princess Smartypants wants to be a Ms. rather than Mrs. Because she is beautiful many suitors pursue her, trying to do things for her. She sets difficult tasks for them to keep them at bay. Finally, Prince Swashbuckler arrives, accomplishes all the tasks, and demands her hand in marriage. So she kisses him and turns him into a frog. That discourages the other princes so she lives happily ever after.]Dahl, Roald. Revolting Rhymes. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982.See also the Vietnamese translation by My Tang, Công chúa Smartypants, London: Magi Publications, 1992, with parallel Vietnamese and English texts. Also a Chinese translation, Taipei: Grimm Press Ltd, 1994, without parallel English text.
[Includes Cinderella (pp. 5-10), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Three Little Pigs. Witty, dark, and liberated humor; in couplets. Cinderella is mad when she doesn’t get to go to the Ball: “There is a Disco at the Palace! / The rest have gone and I am jalous!” The Magic Fairy gets her there but at midnight Cinderella “shouted “Heck!” / I’ve got to run to save my neck!” The Prince pursues but gets only the shoe – “it smelled a wee bit icky. / (The owner’s feet were hot and sticky.)” When the ugly sisters attempt to try it on the Prince lops off their heads. Cinderella hears the thuds and objects. Seeing her in rags the Prince calls out, “Who’s this dirty slut? / Off with her nut! Off with her nut!” But the Magic Fairy intervenes and gives Cindy one last wish. She decides she doesn’t want to marry a prince and settles for a lovely feller, “A simple jam-maker by trade, / Who sold good homemade marmalade,” and they live with smiles and laughter ever after.]Gardner, John. “Gudgekin the Thistle Girl.” In Gudgekin the Thistle Girl and Other Tales (1976); rpt. in The Outspoken Princess and The Gentle Knight: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales, ed. Jack Zipes. Illustrated by Stéphane Poulin. New York: Bantam, 1994. Pp. 89-104.
[Gudgekin the thistle girl lives with her stepmother who makes her work relentlessly. A fairy comes to the girl’s assistance: with each demand for more thistles the fairy supplies double the request and more. But the great quantity only makes the stepmother more greedy. Royal ball time comes around, and the fairy dresses Gudgekin in gossamer. She wins the attention of the prince, who asks her name. When she tells him he finds the name to be ridiculous and mocks her. She leaves in anger. The Prince realizes his mistake and seeks her out. The stepmother sends Gudgekin to a Children’s home and transforms herself into Gudgekin’s likeness and agrees to the marriage. The prince becomes suspicious, however (she’s too agreeable), and tests her by asking that she collect phenomenal amounts of thistles, as Gudgekin has told him she had done. After the stepmother is exposed, Gudgekin continues to scorn the prince, who becomes quite ill. The fairy tells Gudgekin to go to him, but she refuses. But at last she goes to the prince, has pity on him and grants him forgiveness. The happy prince then jumps out of bed. She feels tricked but has given her word not to take her love back. So she agrees to live with him: “It’s no worse than the thistles.”]Gardner, Richard. “Cinderelma.” In Dr. Gardner's Fairy Tales for Today’s Children. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974.
[Cinderelma stays at the castle learning to paint, sew, read, and play music, but she does not marry the Prince. Instead she opens a dress shop and, after a pleasant courtship reading together, going to plays, and horseback riding, she marries the printer next door.]Garner, James Finn. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life & Times. New York: Macmillan, 1994. Illustrated by Lisa Amoroso.
[Thirteen revisionist fairy tales, including Cinderella (pp. 31-37). Cinderella is a kind of misfit who gets her sisters-of-step off to the ball as soon as possible to be rid of them, heavily augmented with cosmetics. While she is alone listening to her Holly Near records, a man appears to Cinderella, her “individual deity proxy,” who helps her prepare for the ball with tight-fitting clothes that cut off her circulation, high heeled shoes that ruin people’s bone structure, and chemical makeup tested on nonhuman animals. But that is what she insists she wants, and she arrives at the ball turning all male heads–a perfect enough Barbie doll to make other women despise their own bodies. The sex crazed males vie for her, but at midnight she escapes. She boasts to her sisters after the ball about her sexual prowess, but rather than exact vengeance the women strip off their own confining clothes, dance and jump for sheer joy in their comfortable shifts. The men kill themselves vying for the “wommon” they saw, but the womyn feel no remorse. They set up a clothing co-op with practical clothes for womyn which they call CinderWear and through self-determination and clever marketing all the womyn, mother- and sisters-of-step included, live happily ever after.]
Hayes, Joe. Estrellita de oro: Little Gold Star. Cinco Puntos Press, 2002.
[Hayes gives the tale a New Mexico setting in this bilingual edition, and Hispanic folklore is at the heart of the retelling that is meant for children between ages five to seven. After Arcia's mother dies, she encourages her father to remarry the neighbor who offers the girl kindness and sweets. Her father is reluctant, sensing the woman is false, and after the wedding, the woman immediately favors her biological daughters instead. Arcia sleeps in the kitchen. The father gives all three girls a sheep, and the money from the care of it belongs to each girl. Arcia tends hers the best and asks for the wool to be shorn. As she washes the wool, a bird steals it and tells her to follow its path with her eyes, placing a golden star on her forehead. When her stepsisters attempt to repeat the trick, they receive a donkey ear and a cow horn on their forehead for their troubles. When the prince holds a party to find a bride, Arcia prepares her sisters but decides to go just to see a bity of the party. The prince notices her star and wants her brought to him, but the girl runs away. The household cat reveals Arcia, and the prince falls in love and proposes. The wedding celebration lasts for nine days, and everyone, including the stepmother and her daughters, are invited.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]
Jackson, Ellen. Cinder Edna. Illustrated by Kevin O’Malley. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1994.
[Cinderella and Cinder Edna live next door to each other. Both have wicked stepmothers and stepsisters. Ella sits in the ashes to keep warm. Edna mows the lawn, makes tuna casserole sixteen different ways, loves jokes, and teaches herself to play the accordion. A ball is announced and the girls help their stepsiblings to prepare, then are left home alone. Cinderella yearns for a godmother who appears, fits her small feet with glass slippers, and makes a coach of a pumpkin to take her to the ball. Edna doesn’t believe in godmothers, uses her cleaning money to put a dress on layaway, and wears her loafers–perfect for dancing. She takes the bus to the ball. Prince Randolph instantly falls for Cinderella. Edna finds him to be boring but hits it off with his younger nerdish brother Rupert who is into recycling and a home for orphaned kittens. Cinder Edna and Rupert dance all the dances. He, she discovers, loves tuna casserole, plays the concertina, and knows good jokes. At midnight both girls flee, Cinderella to escape before her carriage turns to a pumpkin, and Edna to catch the last bus. The men pursue but end up with a glass slipper and a loafer. Rupert thinks they should be recycled, but Randolph would use them as key to his search. He finds Cinderella, and they get married. Rupert finds Edna even though he has broken his glasses. She looks like a large plate of mashed potatoes to him, but when he learns that she knows fifteen not sixteen kinds of tuna casserole (she’d fudged), and a great joke about a kangaroo from Kalamazoo, he declares his love and they join the wedding for a double ceremony. The Prince and Cinderella spend their lives reviewing troops and studying parade formations, etc., while Cinder Edna and Rupert live in a small cottage with solar heating, tell jokes, and play duets together. Guess who lived happily ever after?]Janosch. Not Quite as Grimm. Told and Illustrated by Janosch for today. Translated by Patricia Crampton. London: Abelard-Schuman, 1974.
[Thirty-six tales retold according to the times. Although he avoids Grimm’s Ashenputtel he includes several with Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast typology, namely Hans in Luck, The Frog Prince, Mother Holle, Tom Thumb, Princess Mousekin (a variant on Donkey-skin and The Value of Salt), and Hans My Urchin.]Lee, Tanith. “When the Clock Strikes.” In Red as Blood or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer. DAW Books, Inc., 1983.
[See Modern Fiction for synopsis.]-----. “Princess Dahli.” In Princess Hynchatti and Some Other Surprises. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1972. Rpt. in The Outspoken Princess and The Gentle Knight: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales. Edited by Jack Zipes. Illustrated by Stéphane Poulin. New York: Bantam Books, 1994. Pp. 59-73.
[Princess Dahli’s parents are so poor that they send her to her uncle King Archibald to be raised. Archibald is arrogant, and his two daughters, Carnatia and Chrysanthia, are cruel. They make her do all the work and force her to sleep in an attic occupied only by mice. Dahli is courteous to the mice, though they resent her. The ball comes and the two sisters send Dahli to do the shopping. She deliberately confuses the orders (a yellow plum instead of a yellow plume, etc.); in their outrage they punish her more, and she retaliates by singing until the mice flee her room and take up residence with the two daughters. They scream, which, to the mice, is worse than the singing; so they pack up their suitcases and leave the house entirely. Dahli goes to the ball as a servant girl, scouts out the scene, sees the prince who is fat and stuck up, and decides to leave. Outside she meets a handsome young man on the porch, who is really Prince Peregrine, the fat prince’s cousin. They get on well when they discover how much alike they are. Archibald buys Dahli off if she will just leave and stop embarrassing them. So she goes to Prince Peregrine’s house where her parents are welcome too. Dahli and Peregrine marry and all are happy, except the mice who had taken up residence in one of the attics. Whenever there is a party downstairs they bang on the floor, but none notice.]Lurie, Alison, ed. Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Maitland, Sara. “The Wicked Stepmother’s Tale.”
[See Modern Fiction.]Minters, Frances. Cinder-Elly. Illustrated by G. Brian Karas. New York: Viking (the Penguin Group), 1994.
[While working on the book Karas spent “a lot of time noticing all the different surfaces in New York City, the urban collages of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and MTV, especially rap videos, all of which influence his illustrations. Minters creates a “Cinderella who isn’t a wimp.” Elly is a good girl who lives in New York with her Mom and Dad and her older sisters Sue and Nelly, who tend to be mean and make Elly work hard serving them and cleaning up. The sisters get free tickets to a basketball game. The sisters take the tickets and leave Elly at home doing mopping while the sisters do shopping. The godmother comes by, a sort of bag lady; at first Elly is reluctant to talk to strangers, but does. The godmother transforms her dress into a basketball uniform–oops–then into a satiny shirt and red miniskirt with white sneakers, and sends her to the game aboard a garbage can transformed into a trail bike. Prince Charming is star of the BB team. He and Elly meet and go for pizza. At 9:58 Elly realizes she’s about to be home late and dashes out, leaving behind her sneaker. He mopes about seeking the owner. Elly tries calling him to give him a clue but his number isn’t listed. He puts up posters about the lost sneaker. Many try but it fits none. Then Elly comes along, it fits, and poof she’s dressed as she was at the game. The sisters are amazed but promise hereafter to hide their meanness. Prince and Elly spread the news after Elly changes shoes. Elly and Prince walk down the street holding hands. “I’m glad everything turned out all right, aren’t you?”]Morrah, Dave. Cinderella Hassenpfeffer and Other Tales Mein Grossfader Told. With drawings by the author. New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., 1946.
[Cinderella occurs on pp. 11-12. This amusing “collection,” written in Pigeon-German, tells how “Gretchen und Bertha und Cinderella Hassenpfeffer ben geliven mit der steppen-mudder” (p. 11). The “grosser Dancer” comes along, but Cinderella “vas out-leften.” A good witcher comes by “mit ein pumpkiner und micers” which she converts into a coach and horses. Cinderella is given a fancy dress and glass slippers that make her “upjumpen mit clappen der handsers und squeelen mit delighters” (p. 12). She goes to the ball and steals the show. “Gretchen und Bertha ben wallen-posies mit fussen und nailen-biten.” When the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella flees, losing her glass slipper. The Prince searches for the one the slipper fits, but “Ach! Des slipper iss fitten Bertha!” The Prince proposes, and Bertha becomes “Princesser. Cinderella ben gesitten der stover besiden mit raggen-tatters und smutten-facen.” This amusing revision is one of the earliest post-war rearrangings of the narrative. The Third Reich had made much of Aschenbrödel being the true Arian, destined for the true German Prince. Perhaps the point here is that Cinderella doesn’t win the prize afterall, and in this regard anticipates the German rewriting of the Grimm tales in the 1960s and 70s, for a comparable subversive effect. Much of the story’s amusement lies its language which a postwar America, saturated with German phrases, might enjoy.]Munsch, Robert N. The Paper Bag Princess. Illustrated by Michael Martchenko. Toronto: Annick Press, 1980.
[Elizabeth rescues Prince Ronald from a dragon, only to be scolded for her smelling like ashes and having a sooty face and paper-bag clothes. She calls him a bum, and they don’t get married after all.]Scieszka, John. “Cinderumpelstiltskin, or, The Girl Who Really Blew It.” In The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales. Illustrated with 25 lavish paintings by Lane Smith. New York: Viking, 1992. Pp. 28-29.
[Cinderella gets mixed up in the wrong story, misses the ball, and ends up cleaning house forever. All she gets in the end is a name-change.]
Solnit, Rebecca. Cinderella Liberator. Illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Haymarket, 2019.
[Solnit attempts to update the Cinderella story with this family-friendly and progressive version. After the story, she includes an afterward explaining her choices.
In this retelling, Cinderella’s mother sails and is presumed lost at sea. Her father remarries and then leaves. The stepmother is wicked because she is driven by greed and capitalism, yet her daughters are as trapped as Cinderella while they believe their mother’s flawed philosophy that resources must be hoarded. The retelling clings closely to the Perrault variant until the ball. Then Cinderella wishes for help, which causes the fairy godmother to appear, and all of the animals volunteer their services. After the ball, they are given the choice to remain human or return to their various forms, and all possible choices are demonstrated. The prince is not seeking Cinderella to marry her but because he hurt her feelings when asking her to talk about her life. The shoe remains a token, but the entire kingdom does not try it on and simply says the girl is not within their household. Once the prince and Cinderella are reunited, they discuss their dreams. The prince seeks to farm and reveals his desires to his parents, and Cinderella runs her own bakery. Each stepsister finds her own job, and they make peace with Ella; the stepmother turns into angry wind.
The version offers a unique idea that more characters than Cinderella are trapped by the traditional story, but the plot defies logic. Solnit claims the prince and Cinderella are too young to marry, but Cinderella is old enough to own and run a bakery. The discussion of resources and helping others fits nicely in the story but becomes repetitive in the final section, especially when Cinderella’s mother returns but her father does not. The short work offers a feminist retelling, but even younger readers will likely notice its narrative gaps.] [Annotation by Martha Johnson-Olin]
Stubbs, Una. “Cinder-Ella.” In Una Stubbs’ Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Gram Corbett. London: Ward Lock Ltd., 1987. Pp. 12-29.
[Benjamin and Antoinette live happily at the top of a hill with their daughter Ella. Even the people at the bottom of the hill take pleasure in their goodness and happiness. But Antoinette dies and Benjamin marries Magenta, who is loud and has two selfish daughters, Plum and Purple. After Benjamin dies of a broken heart, the stepsisters burst into Ella’s room, knocking the candle onto her bed, which catches fire. Ella smothers the fire with her clothing but is mocked for the soot on her face and clothes and is called Cinder-Ella. She decides during the night to go down the hill to tell someone of the cruelty of the wicked Steps. The mice encourage her to go, telling her that “nobody should be ill-treated, not even mice.” As she runs along through the wet grass she is washed clean as if she were in heaven and smiles. Suddenly, out of the gloom an eerie shape appears on horseback, calling to her. She would hide but he reassures her, telling her that he’s the king’s messenger delivering invitations for the ball to the four women at the top of the hill. Cinder-Ella delivers them for him, but the Steps throw hers into the fire and mock her for having nothing to wear, her clothes having been destroyed by the fire. After the Steps set out for the ball Cinder-Ella curls up by the stove with her friends the mice and sobs at the unfairness of life. A fairy godmother appears, turns the saucepan into a coach, the mice into white ponies, and gives Cinder-Ella a dress like her own. Cinder-Ella goes to the ball with the admonition to be home by midnight. When the Prince dances with none but Cinder-Ella, the Steps imagine that Cinder-Ella, at home doing their ironing, must be more happy than they. At midnight Cinder-Ella flees, taking off both glass slippers to run faster. When Prince Patrick comes to the house seeking the one whose feet fit the slippers, the Steps shout, “YOO-HOO PRINCEY, HERE WE ARE. COME IN AND HAVE A CUP OF TEA, BUT LEAVE YOUR COMMON MESSENGER OUTSIDE.” The slipper does not fit any of the three, but the messenger insists that there is a fourth woman there, and the Prince insists that Cinder-Ella be fetched. Instantly he recognizes her, inquires if she did not leave the shoes, and, slipping them on, she thanks him. After they are married they invite the fairy godmother to tea, and Cinder-Ella makes one last wish, namely that the lot of the Steps be improved. The fairy godmother reluctantly complies by changing their selfish disposition, and two months later when Cinder-Ella visits them, she finds the flowers well-tended, the furniture polished, and the towels clean. Her father would have been proud, as was everybody else.]That Awful Cinderella. See Granowsky under Miscellaneous Cinderellas.
Walker, Barbara G. “Cinder-Helle.” In Feminist Fairy Tales. San Francisco: Harper, 1996. Pp. 189-196.
[Once the Underground Goddess was honored everywhere. Then male priests with swords abolished her temples and set up their tyranny. One of the Goddess’s priestesses married a wealthy man, and they had a lovely daughter named Helle, named after the Under-ground Goddess, who received the dead and recycled them to be born again. But the priestess died and her husband remarried an arrogant and greedy woman named Christiana, who had two daughters Nobilita and Ecclesia. They enslave Helle, make her work at the hearth and scornfully call her Cinder-Helle. On All Hallows Eve the prince declares a bride-choosing ball. The stepfamily goes with pomp, forcing Cinder-Helle to beautify them but refusing to let her attend. She goes to the grave of her mother and hollows out a pumpkin as a harvest charm her mother had taught her to make, putting a candle inside. Then the voice of her mother instructs her to put two cobwebs into the pumpkin, some dew drops from the eaves, a lump of coal from the grate, an earthworm from the garden, a mouse from the trap, and six beetles from under the hearthstone. Then she must sprinkle them all with her own moonblood. A coach and attendants, a lovely dress with tiara and splendid bracelet appear, and she goes to the ball, knowing that the magic won’t last beyond midnight. At the ball Prince Populo adores none but her and places his wand in her slipper in a mock wedding just as the clock strikes midnight. She flees, leaving her shoe, and all turns back to rags and litter. The stepfamily comes home angry but amused that the prince has committed himself to a bride that will never be found. But the prince seeks the princess whom the shoe will fit, finds the scullery maid, and is happily married to her, dirt and all. Nobilita eventually abandons her affectations to become something like a real person, Ecclesia learns to feel useful, but Christiana dies unsatisfied. See Walker, under Criticism, for an explication of the story.]Yolen, Jane. “The Moon Ribbon.” In The Moon Ribbon and Other Tales. New York: Crowell, 1976.
[With a thread of her mother’s hair as talisman Sylva transcends adolescence into adulthood.]-----. Sleeping Ugly. Pictures by Diane Stanley. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1981.
[Princess Miserella is counted beautiful, but she is mean on the inside. In the same kingdom Plain Jane lives in a shack in the woods but is kind and works hard to keep the hovel neat. Miserella loses her way in the woods and comes upon an old lady asleep under a tree. She orders the lady to help her and is taken to Plain Jane’s house. The old woman, who is a fairy, of course, offers both girls wishes. Miserella is so mean that her foot is turned into a stone. Jane uses her first wish to restore M’s foot. Then Miserella is so ill-spoken that toads come from her mouth. Jane wishes M’s mouth to be restored. Then Miserella throws such a tantrum that the old lady puts them all to sleep. Prince Jojo comes by. He has heard about kissing princesses but has thus far kissed only his mother. He sees the beautiful princess, but tries out the kiss technique first on the old lady, then Jane. Looking more closely at Miserella he sees the hardness inside that reminds him of his three cousins–pretty on the outside, but ugly within. So he leaves her asleep and marries Jane, who smells of wild flowers. Moral: Let sleeping princesses lie or lying princesses sleep, whichever seems wisest.]Zakhoder, Boris. The Good Stepmother. Retold by Marguerita Rudolph and illustrated by Darcy May. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
[A king cares lovingly for his daughter Elena after his young wife dies. As she grows up Elena wishes she had a mother as other children do. At first she does not explain her sadness to her father, but after he questions her, she wishes he would take a new wife. What if he were to choose a bad stepmother? he asks. Elena says she will make the choice. So the king invites all eligible women to the palace ballroom. The chamberlain arranges them in three rows–the noblewomen in the first, the daughters of landowners and merchants in the second, the peasant girls in the third. Elena puts a small bandage on her little finger and asks each woman two questions: Did you sew your dress yourself? Is the embroidery of your own design? Only the women in the third row could answer yes to both questions. As Elena comes to the end of the last row a young peasant girl Mashenka inquires, as Elena asks of the fine work in her dress, about Elena’s injured finger. “Would you be my mother?” Elena asks. “Nothing would make me happier,” Mashenka replies. So Elena presents Mashenka to the king.]
Altman, Linda Jacobs. Amelia’s Road. Illustrated by Enrique O. Sanchez. New York: Lee & Low Books, Inc., 1993.
[A story about displacement, step relationships, and the need for a psychological home. Amelia Luisa Martinez’s parents are migrant farm workers. She hates roads. She did not want to move around any more or live in labor camps. She wishes that they might even live in the same cabin from year to year. Other children remember days and dates; Amelia remembers crops. Her birthday is peaches. At school she wishes for a home, not just a place to stay. She works in the field with her parents from 5:00 a.m. until 8:00, then goes to school with the other migrant workers children. One day after school she finds an “accidental road” that leads to a beautiful tree. It seems to Amelia that she belongs to this place and it to her. When it comes time for the family to move on she takes the pictures she drew of home at school, along with a map of the accidental road, and puts them in a metal box which she buries at the foot of the tree. “I’ll be back,” she whispers, then goes to her parents’ old car and helps pack. For the first time in her life, she didn’t cry when her father took out his road map.]Andersen, Hans Christian. “Thumbelina.” (1846). First English translation.
[For recent illustrated children’s versions see e.g. Thumbelina, trans. R. P. Keigwin, illustrated by Adrienne Adams, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961, and Thumbelina & The Nightingale, illustrated by John Patience, Bridlington, England: Peter Haddock, [1993], both of which are quite handsome presentations.Plot:A childless woman goes to a witch for assistance and receives a seed which she plants. In the bloom of the flower she finds Thumbelina, whom she raises in miniature. Toads abduct her in her walnut shell bed and place her on a lilypad. She escapes but is abducted a second time by a cockchafer (a stag beetle in Patience’s version) but then abandoned when the insects find her to be ugly by their standards. She wanders until winter where she finds a field mouse who cares for her in return for her domestic services. Thumbelina finds a hurt swallow like the one whose song she used to love, brings it into the mouse hole, nurses it to health through the winter, and releases it to the sunlight world next spring. Mrs. Mouse would have Thumbelina prepare her trousseau to marry Mr. Mole, a dark creature from the sunless realm. He likes her because she can spin and clean. The marriage is to take place in autumn. Thumbelina goes up to the wood to say goodbye to the sun, meets the swallow, who carries her south where she meets the Prince of Flower Spirits, who weds her and gives her a new name–Maia, Queen of the Flowers.]The Arrow and the Lamp: The Story of Psyche. Retold by Margaret Hodges. Illustrated by Donna Diamond. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1989.
[Psyche’s two elder sisters are jealous of her; so too is Aphrodite who calls Eros, her son, to wound Psyche with one of his arrows and make her love him. He wounds her while she sleeps, unable to see him, but accidentally wounds himself as well. Then no loves come to ask her hand in marriage, and she yearns, helpless, for what she cannot see. Her father concludes that she has been cursed by the gods. The oracle tells him to dress her for her funeral and to place her on the mountaintop. No monster harms her, however, and she is carried by the west wind to Eros’ palace. Eros secretly loves her and visits her by night. At last her sisters visit her as well and convince her that she must slay her husband who must be a beast. She would see him first, however, and a drop of oil from the lamp falls on his breast and awakens him. Now he must lose her and disappears. She seeks him far and wide, eventually going to Aphrodite, who sets three tasks: First she must sort grains of corn, barley, poppy seed, lentils, and beans from a great pile; ants help her, and she succeeds. Then she must gather golden wool from man-eating sheep; this time the reeds of the river advise her how to succeed. Then she must bring a jar of water from the source of the river Styx. An eagle carries her to the top of the mountain where she obtains the water. Then Aphrodite adds one last task: fill a box with beauty which she must obtain in Hades. Echo tells her not to abandon hope and advises her on making the trip. She returns with the box, given her by Persephone. But she takes some of the ointment to place on herself and falls into a deep sleep. Eros searches until he finds her, awakens her with a kiss, and vows never to leave her again. Aphrodite accepts her at last and gives her butterfly wings. Mortals remember her today when they see butterflies in summer fields.]Auch, Mary Jane. The Princess and the Pizza. Illustrated by Mary Jane and Herm Auch. New York: Holiday House, 2002.
[Princess Paulina lives with her father in a humble shack. He gave up his throne to become a wood carver, but she yearns to get back into princessing. Queen Zelda of Blom seeks a true princess to become bride of her son Prince Drupert. This might be her chance, but when she gets to the palace there are eleven others in the competition. The queen imposes tests. First, they each have to sleep on a bed with sixteen matresses and a pea at the bottom. Paulina finds the test to be too "once upon a time," but she gets no sleep because of it, even so. Next day the seven who slept well and are bright-eyed are sent home. The other five who'd had trouble sleeping are given a second test--to try on a glass slipper. Paulina prefers sneakers, but she is told to try anyway. Two fat princesses can't get the slipper on even though Paulina suggests scissors, so they get sent home, leaving only three for the third test. One of the three has seven dwarves to help, and they ran off with all of the supplies except some flour, yeast, overripe tomatoes, and stale cheese. Paulina complains to Zelda that there is nothing left for her to use, but Zelda says she must do what she can or have her head cut off. So she puts the stuff together and seasons it with a garlic she'd put around her neck for luck and some herbs she bore on her person to hide the smell of the garlic. She'd been given no bowls so she made it flat. Everyone preferred her pizza, it smells so good and is so tasty, so the Queen offers her Drupert for a husband. But she declines and sets up a pizza parlor with her father's carved table and chairs as furnishing. The parlor is a great success. Zelda and Drupert come often. But Paulina is really glad that Zelda's not her mother-in-law, yet she does worry that she might become her stepmother!]-----. Chickerella. Illustrated by Mary Jane and Herm Auch. New York: Holiday House, 2005.
[A fox carries off Chickerella's mother from the coop. Her father does his best to raise her, but when he marries a hen from a neighbor farm with two daughters, Ovumelda and Cholestera, life for Chickerella becomes difficult. The rooster goes on a wild goose chase and the stepmother redecorates the place, makes Chickerella her servant, and keeps her locked in the springhouse. Chickerella eats bugs from the springhouse walls and discovers that her eggs are developing transparent shells. Soon she lays eggs of pure glass. The Prince announces the Fowl Ball. Chickerella would like to go but has to make gowns for the stepsisters. The Fairy Goosemother appears, gives her a grand gown, and warns her that her gown will disappear at midnight. She hastens away in a taxi, eager to see all the gowns. The prince is charmed by her, though the music by Penny Pullet and the Rock Island Reds is so loud they can't talk. Midnight comes and as she flees she can't hold back laying a glass egg. There's no stopping such things. The prince searches for the one who laid it, and finds her at last. The stepmother can't believe that the prince would marry a servant. But the prince allows that the wedding was his mother's idea, that he'd gone to the ball to see all the fancy gown. Chickerella says that that's why she was there too. They're both really into fashion, at which the Fairy Goosemother appears, zapps up some fabulous fabrics and the two set up a fashion line called Chickerlla. She sews the gown, and the prince designs matching shoes. Their first show in New York is an eggstravaganza.]Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Illustrated by W. W. Denslow. New York: 1900.
[A popular musical play was made in 1902, the MGM movie in 1939, and the black musical The Wiz in 1978 (see Movies). The book was followed by 13 sequels portraying “a fairy-tale utopia with strong socialist and matriarchal notions to express [Baum’s] disenchantment with America”–Zipes (1988). The numerous Cinderella components include a motherless Dorothy, alienation and trials, magical slippers, assistance by animals against a Baba-Yaga-like witch, a powerful yearning and need for home. The rituals of adolescence, empathy, discovery, and identification provide key components of the plot. Dorothy is an American do-it-yourself Cinderella.]Brierley, Louise, illustrator. The Fisherwoman. Words by Anne Carter. London: Walker Books Ltd., 1990; New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1991.
[A fisherwoman, Maud, lives in a shabby village by the sea, scarcely making a living by shell collecting by day and fishing by night. She dreams of beautiful clothes and life in the great mansion above the village. One night her net hauls in an old pink vase. She puts it in her window and one rainy autumn uses it to catch water dripping through her leaky roof. In the morning a great snake-like plant grows from the vase. Its bloom turns into a splendid pink hat. Maud puts it on. Next night the plant produces a pair of pink slippers that fit Maud perfectly. The third night the plant produces a lovely pink dress. Maud puts on the magical clothing and walks along the promenade. The Contessa comes by and invites her to her garden party. Maud accepts and is taken to the splendid mansion. At first she is dazzled, but as food is served she sees that the people are selfish and greedy and mock the poor beyond the iron gates. Maud leaves the table suddenly, kicks off the pink shoes and runs wildly into the quiet streets. Her glorious hat is lost, the dress dirty and torn. But she does not think of such things. She is haunted by a nightmare of the greedy gobbling faces and shrieks of cruel mirth. In the morning she takes the dress and the pink vase, prepares her sails for work and goes to sea. She drops the vase overboard and lets it sink.]Buehner, Caralyn. Fanny’s Dream. Illustrated by Mark Buehner. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1996.
[Fanny Agnes, a sturdy girl, worked on her father’s Wyoming farm. When she heard that the Mayor was giving a ball she told everyone that she was going and that she was going to marry a prince or someone like that. The other girls mocked her awkwardness and called her an ox. But she said she knew what to do ? she’d read it in a book. That evening she went into her garden to see the fairy godmother, but only Heber Jensen, a neighbor farmer, came by. She tells him her plan, but he asks if she can dance. She acknowledges that she knows how to do farm work. Can she use twenty forks and spoons and eat snails? No, but she can cure a ham, butcher chickens, milk ten cows, and make bread. Can she flutter her fan and cinch her waist? No, but she can spread manure. So Heber asks her to marry him and she agrees. They both work hard, have twins and then a third child. Their house burns down but they build another. Heber treats her at least once a day as a princess. One night she goes again into the garden. The fairy godmother appears and asks if she wants to go to the mayor’s ball or not? She replies “Not,” and goes back into the house where Hebie is reading to the children. “Who were you talking to?” “My fairy godmother,” she replies. “Sure,” Heber laughs, “and I’m the Prince of Sahiba.” “Close enough, close enough” she replies.]Carruth, Jane. “Mother Holle.” In Fairy Tale Time. Illustrated by Pinardi. London: Octopus Books, 1979. Rpt. London: Treasure Press, 1984. Original edition Milan: Fabbri Editori, 1976. Pp. 143-65.
[A rich widow had two daughters, Erica and Greta. The older, Erica, was cruel but favored by her equally cruel mother. Greta was forced to work as servant, scrubbing the floors, doing the washing, and the cooking. One day she is sent to spin by the mill pond. The warm sun and bright flowers make her happy, but accidentally the spindle slips from her hand and falls into the water. She returns home but is told she must jump into the pond to fetch the spindle. When she complies she descends into another world where she encounters an oven full of bread that calls, “Take me out before I’m burnt.” She takes the bread out and lays it carefully on the grass. Then a laden apple tree cries out, “Shake me, my apples are ripe,” which Greta likewise does, gathering the apples into tidy heaps. Then she comes to a cottage where an old woman, Mother Holle, invites her inside and asks her to make the bed and shake the pillows. Greta does all this, tidies up the house, and makes soup in the kitchen as well. After a week she asks to go home. As she departs through the doorway a shower of golden rain falls upon her changing her rags to a golden dress. Gold sticks to her hair and arms as well turning her into a golden girl. When she returns the widow says Erica should enjoy the same good fortune as Gretta. Erica throws a spindle into the pond then dives in. But she refuses to take the bread out of the oven or gather the apples or make the bed or fluff the pillows. When Mother Holle asks her to wash the linen she rubs it to shreds on the scrub board. Then she asks to go home. But instead of a shower of golden rain, she gets a tub of tar poured on her as she departs. As she returns home the cockerel crows, “Cock-a-doodle-doo! / Your dirty girl’s come back to you!” The tar won’t come off and Erica and her mother move to a lonely part of the country, leaving their house to Greta, the golden girl. See Grimm, under Basic European Texts.]Cinderella. Hamburg: Gustav W. Seitz, c. 1859. Rpt in facsimile by Applewood Books, Chester, CT: The Globe Pequot Press, n.d. [c. 1990].
[A shape book printed for the British market, illustrated with chromolithographs in color by German craftsmen. The book is 2.5” x 7” and in the shape of Cinderella holding a dish with two doves attending her; the front cover offers a front view, the back cover a back view. The story approximates a sanitized Grimm version, told in quatrains rhymed abcb, in more or less octosyllabic lines. Twenty pages long, the story is inside her as the shapebook stands on the shelf.]Cinderella. Full-Color Picture Book, by J. Sainsbury’s Pure Tea. Dover Little Activity Books. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993.
[Reproduction of six antique Victorian advertising cards published by J. Sainsbury’s Pure Tea Company, n.p., n.d. (c. 1875?). A captivating tale of the kind and uncomplaining beauty whose drudgery-filled days are transformed by a fairy godmother and a handsome prince has been added to complement the rare cards.]Cinderella. Triumph Edition. Philadelphia: B. Wilmsen, n.d.. [c. 1900].
[A crepe fan centerfold pop-out edition, with tale in verse on left and right margins, with double-spread illustrations and canopies, tables, columns, trees, and valences fanning out from the spine as pages are turned. Printed in Germany.]Cinderella and the Papermakers. Pickpockets, No. 8. Hastings, East Sussex: Pickpockets, 1991.
[A survey of watermarks in papermaking through Cinderella symbolism used by the papermakers. The booklet takes the reader through dozens of watermarks from the thirteenth century on. “Beauty, Truth and Rarity, / Grace in all Simplicity, / Here enclosed in Cinders lie.” The text acknowledges Harold Bayley’s The Lost Language of Symbolism "for drawings and some ideas,” as Cinderella is seen to be a figure of the soul “who knows that she is incomplete and belongs elsewhere,” Self-sacrifice, Wisdom, Kindness, Goodness, Beauty, “clothed in stars and moonlight” or “in naked innocence carrying moonlight in her hair.” The piece is masterful in presenting worldwide iconography in brief space, illustrated by dozens of watermarks. The booklet is distributed by the British Library.]Cinderella Dressed in Yellow. Adapted by Rozanne Lanczak Williams. Illustrated by Tuko Fujisaki. A Learn to Read, Read to Learn Book: Fun & Fantasy. Cypress, CA: Creative Teaching Press, 1994.
[Based on the jumprope game of Cinderella Dressed in Yellow (see Cinderella Games). The book includes such variations as “Cinderella dressed in Yellow, Went downstairs to meet her fellow, how many kisses did she get?” “Cinderella dressed in blue / went downstairs to find her shoe, How many shoes did she find?” and “Cinderella dressed in green/ went downstairs to eat ice cream. How many scoops did she get?” After each jingle the child counts jumps to provide the answer to the question. The book encourages students to memorize the chant and then to come up with additional questions, like “How many home runs did she hit?”]Cinderella Magic Lantern Slides. C. 1890. Twelve slides 3¼ inches square, in glass. To be shown along with the telling of an abridgment of Perrault’s tale.
[1. Introduction, showing a coach drawn by six white horses emerging from a pumpkin shell. 2. Cinderella at Work, on the floor scrubbing pots and pans, looking up in fear as the stepmother and two stepsisters tower hostilely over her. 3. Cinderella Longing to Go to the Ball, sitting by the fire as the Fairy Godmother appears behind her in the doorway. 4. The Fairy Godmother at Work, ready to transform the pumpkin, rat, six mice, and two lizards. Cinderella stands by the door in amazement. The tiny Fairy Godmother scarcely comes up to her waist in stature. 5. Cinderella Dressed for the Ball. Outside now, the coach and attendants ready, the Fairy Godmother taps Cinderella with her wand, adorning her in a splendid pink gown. Her hair is in long blond ringlets. 6. Cinderella Driving to the Ball. Cinderella waves from the coach to the Fairy Godmother as the coachman and footmen look on. 7. The Prince Dances with Cinderella. The Prince takes Cinderella’s hand as the court looks on. She is now dressed in yellow with her hair on top of her head. She carries a pink flower fan. 8. Cinderella Flying to Catch the Coach. Cinderella dashes down the stairs losing her slipper, her dress now the pink and purple garb with white sleeves in which she works. The Prince is close behind. 9. The Owner Required for a Glass Slipper. The Prince and Heralds followed by the King and Queen in procession announce the search. 10. The Glass Slipper fits Cinderella. Cinderella, in her pink and purple dress watches as the valet places the slipper on her foot. The stepmother and one stepsister are shocked, but the Prince removes his hat in admiration. 11. Off to the Wedding. The royal couple move in procession past the royal guard as flower girls besprinkle the way. 12. The Wedding. The king and queen are enthroned in the choir of Westminster Abbey, with courtiers, knights, and ladies in the stalls, as Cinderella, the Prince, and attendant ladies and flowergirls approach the monks and priests atop the stairs. A pink cushion marks where the happy couple will kneel.]Cinderella: Meet the Characters. The Walt Disney Corporation, 1995.
[A tab book, with a foldout picture at the outset of Cinderella at the ball, while mice, the Fairy Godmother, the Stepmother and her daughters, the cat and dog, the King and chamberlain watch as she and the Prince dance at the ball. The tab pages include Cinderella in her various outfits; the imperious stepmother ordering Cinderella around; the fairy godmother performing her transformations; all the animals obtaining the key, making Cinderella’s dress with the sash and beads; the stepsisters singing off key, fighting, ripping the beads off Cinderella’s neck, and attempting to put on the slipper; Bruno and Lucifer fighting; the King and Chamberlain; and, in the final panel, the Prince on his horse, disobeying his father, struggling with the stepsisters, and dancing with Cinderella. The book has a snap on it to keep pages in order.]Cinderella’s Coach. A Mouse Works Rolling Wheels Book. The Walt Disney Company, 1995.
[A heavy cardboard shape book, a pumpkin coach with two sets of wheels. 7 double sided pages which take Cinderella from yearning to go to the ball, through the fairy godmother and the making of the pumpkin coach, horses, footmen, and dress to her arrival at the ball, then her fleeing and losing her slipper, to be found and married to the prince. The characters, from people to mice are based on the Disney movies of Cinderella.]Cinderlily: A Floral Fairy Tale in Three Acts. Directed, designed, and choreographed by David Ellwand and Christine Tagg. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2003.
[The story is presented as a ballet. Act 1: The Sultan’s Autumn Ball. Invitation comes from the Sultan that he will choose as his bride the loveliest bloom of all. Bedraggled Cinderlily, swept up in and sweeping dirt, has to help others get ready – pansies, especially. As she rubs, scrubs, and sweeps, she has daydreams of a day when she might dance about the room. Act II: A Fairy Visit. A fairy godmother lily appears in a burst of light and pollinating breeze and transforms her into her Madonna beauty. A golden pumpkin carriage drawn by moths and butterflies appears to take her to the ball where all the beautiful flowers are dancing. The Sultan, a tall purple dutch flag, chooses her as his partner, but she flees as her petals begin to fade, leaving behind one beautiful white petal. Act III: The Handsome Couple. Purple crocuses carry throughout gardens far and wide the petal, in search of the one who will become the royal bride. Many flowers hope for a fit, but the petal matches only Cinderlily, who joins the Sultan next spring ln a lovely floral dance, more beautiful even than before. The illustrations in this book are a gardener’s delight – beautifully choreographed.]Crane, Walter. Cinderella’s Picture Book, Containing: Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and Valentine & Orson. With the Original Coloured Pictures, & New Additions by Walter Crane. Engraved and Printed by Edmund Evans. London: John Lane the Bodley Head Limited, 1897.
[Crane’s Preface reads: “What has Cinderella got to do with Puss in Boots and Valentine and Orson? Well, don’t you think it’s quite likely she may have met them all at that Fancy Ball? – but if that’s not near enough – we all know she had a Valentine, who was also a prince. It is a matter of history that she lost her shoe, and therefore we may safely assume that she would have been glad of the assistance of Puss in Boots, who proved such a treasure to the miller’s son, and quite set him on his feet. At all events the Fairy-godmother is equal to anything, and although it is not specially mentioned in the story, she provided Cinderella with a picture book “to keep the dull times off,” after her work was done and she sat in the chimney corner, when there wasn’t any ball going on, but only cricket on the hearth. In the hope that her picture-book may not be unwelcome at other firesides this season, those bounding brothers Valentine and Orson will again oblige, and Puss pull on his Boots and push his miller marquis once more, while Cinderella casts her slipper after them for good luck.” – Walter Crane, Old Kensington, Sept: 1897. All three stories are handsomely illustrated by Crane in full-page color woodblocks into which the texts are set.]Creanga, Ion. “The Two Step-Sisters.” In Tales and Stories, by Ion Creanga. Translated by Ana Cartianu and R. C. Johnston. Retold by Lornie Leete-Hodge. Illustrated by Livia Rusz. London: Abbey Library, n.d. First printed by The Ion Creanga Publishing House in Romania.
[Mary, daughter of an old woman, was plain, mean, hard-hearted, and lazy. Rose, the step-daughter, was beautiful, hard-working, obedient, and kind-hearted. The step-mother makes Rose work till her arms ache. Lazy Mary would present Rose’s labor as her own to win rewards while Rose went empty handed. One day the stepmother kicked Rose out of the house. So Rose set out along the dusty road where she met a small, starving dog. The dog pleaded for food, and Rose bathed it and gave it food and drink. Then she came upon a pear tree laden with dead wood and caterpillars. Rose picked off the caterpillars, trimmed off the dead twigs, and went on. She came to a clogged well and cleaned it. Then she came to a decrepit oven crying for help. She fixed it up and went her way. That night she came upon an old woman named Mother Sunday, who gave her shelter providing she bathe the youngsters, feed them, and cook her a meal. The children are dragons, but Rose washes them, feeds them, and puts them to bed. Mother Sunday returns and gives Rose her choice of caskets as her reward. Rose, not wishing to be greedy, chooses the oldest and ugliest and returns to her father’s house. On the way the oven supplies her with well-baked pastries, the well with fresh water and goblets, the tree with juicy pears, the dog with a necklace of ducats. When she gets home she opens the casket and out pour horses, cattle, and sheep. Her father rejoices at so much wealth. In a jealous rage Mary and her mother set out to reap wealth for themselves. They ignore the dog, well, oven, and tree, scorn Mother Sunday, and take the fanciest casket. On the way home the oven, full of pastries, burns them, the goblets vanish before them, they cannot reach the fruit, and the dog bites them, When they open the magnificent casket, dragons and beasts leap out and drive the old woman and her daughter away. Rose lives happily with her father until a handsome stranger comes for her hand in marriage. Mother Sunday and her dog are happy with the news.]Cul-fin, Cul-din, Cul-Corrach. An Irish Cinderella, in Leland L. Duncan, “Further Notes from County Leitrim,” Folk-Lore 5.3 (Sept., 1894). Pp. 203-9.
[A poor woman had three daughters: two of whom were beautiful and a third, Cul-corrach, who was so ugly that she was not permitted outside the house. Their fire goes out and Cul-fin goes to an aged woman seated in a little cabin to get a light. The woman leaves the girl in a room with heaps of gold, silver, and copper. Cul-fin steals money then goes home with the fire. But the fire goes out in the night and Cul-din has to make the trip. She also steals and then brings home the fire. But it too goes out. Cul-corrach makes the trip. But she does not steal the money. The old woman then asks her why she does not go to Mass on Sunday, and she explains that she’s not permitted to do so. So the woman dresses her in a beautiful dress and makes her face beautiful as well. Everyone is dazzled by her including the young lord. The next Sunday she goes again, this time in a dress even more beautiful than the first. And so on the third Sunday she also returns to Mass with the most beautiful of all. After church the lord tries to detain her, but she flees on a grand steed. When she loses her glass slipper, the lord seeks the owner and finally finds Cul-corrach after the sisters fail the slipper test and try to obstruct her. But when she appears she is so ugly that none help her with the fitting. But once the slipper fits the lord asks for hand in marriage. She departs and returns in the first dress. All recognize her now. But she retires a second time and then a third, each time returning with a dress more grand. After the marriage the sisters vow to slay her. She has a baby and Cul-fin throws it out the window, substituting a cat in its place. A herdsman finds the baby and raises it. She has a second child, which Cul-fin also throws out into the dung heap, substituting a dog in its place. As before the lord stoically accepts the loses. A third child is also born, then thrown out and replaced, this time, with a pig. Cul-fin then tries to drown Cul-Corrach by setting her bed at sea and claiming her husband for herself. But the mattress is filled with phoenix feathers and floats her to the herdsman who returns her three children and notifies the lord. Cul-fin is killed, and the old woman brings the family to her cabin, gives the three boys plenty of gold and makes a present of the chariot and grey steed to Cul-corrach. She then disappears, leaving them to their happiness.]Cupid and Psyche. Told by M. Charlotte Craft. Illustrated by K. Y. Craft. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1996.
[See The Arrow and the Lamp for plot summary. Here Cupid wounds himself when she awakens and looks directly at him. The oracle tells her she will wed a creature feared by the gods themselves. Assuming he must be a monster she goes to the top of the mountain to await the arrival of her husband. Zephyrus carries her to a distant valley where she finds herself in an elegant palace. Invisible servants wait on her and sooth her with music. At night her husband visits her. His voice is gentle, and she loses her fear. The sisters visit and convince her that she must kill the monster. She approaches him while he sleeps and falls in love with his beauty. As she leans forward to kiss him a drop of oil falls from the lamp and awakens him. He sends her back to her sisters. “Love cannot live without trust,” and vanishes. She sets out to find him, but the sisters go to the mountain, hoping to claim her groom for themselves. But Zephyrus does not carry them off the mountain, and they fall to their deaths on the rocks below. Psyche goes to Venus, who sets her the three tasks. Ants help her sort the grain; a young sparrow helps her get the golden fleece. For a third task Venus sends her to Hades to get from Proserpine a box full of beauty. The spirit of Cupid, admiring her determination, moves by her side, guiding her past Cerberus and across the river Styx with the ferryman Charon. Proserpine gives her the box, and she again slips past Cerberus, giving him the remaining honey cake that Cupid had given her. But once out she opens the box only to find it empty. It contained the sleep of the dead, and she falls to the ground. But Cupid finds her, makes himself visible again and awakens her with a kiss. She is his soul, and he takes her to Olympus. Jupiter gives her a cup of ambrosia so that she too will be immortal. Cupid and Psyche then wed and have a daughter called Joy.]Daly, Jude. Fair, Brown, & Trembling: An Irish Cinderella Story. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. First published in Capetown, South Africa.
[The older sisters, Fair and Brown, are jealous of Trembling because she is beautiful. They make her work at the hearth, cook, clean, and look after their clothing, while they go to church. The henwife comes to Trembling, gives her a lily-white gown, pretty shamrock-green shoes, and a beautiful white horse, but warns her not to go inside the church door until the service finishes. Then she should ride home as fast as the mare will go. At church all wonder who the beautiful woman in the doorway is, but she flees as soon as mass is ended. Fair and Brown talk of the beautiful woman when they get home and try to find clothes as fine. Next Sunday the henwife sends her again, this time in a black satin dress, but again she flees. The third Sunday Trembling asks the henwife for a dress with snow-white bodice, rose-red skirt, and a cape of mossy green. On her feet she wears blue slippers. The mare is decorated with blue and gold diamonds. Princes come from far and wide to see her, but she escapes, only this time she loses a blue slipper. The Prince of Emania announces that he will marry only the one the slipper fits. Finally the prince finds Trembling, despite the fact that the sisters have locked her in a cupboard. Other princes vie for her -- a Spanish prince, a Zulu prince, and one from Lochlin. But on the fourth day she marries the Prince of Emania. They have fourteen children and live in happiness. Fair and Brown were put to sea in a barrel with provisions for seven years and were never seen again.]Dematons, Charlotte. Looking for Cinderella. Translated and adapted by Leigh Sauerwein. Arden, North Carolina: Front Street / Lemniscaat, 1996. First published in Holland, 1994.
[Hilda sees the blades on the old windmill move. She goes out to watch and is greeted by Little Red Riding Hood, who calls her Cinderella. Hilda insists she’s Hilda, but Red Riding Hood takes her into the mill where a host of fairy tale characters greet her as Cinderella and try the slipper on her. It is too big but they say it fits. The Prince carries her away, but birds say the shoe is too large. She explains that she’s Hilda and sets off to find Cinderella. She meets the witch who has captured Hansel and Gretel. She helps them escape, meets a cat, then a Giant and Tom Thumb. She escapes with the help of a coachman, enters a fine house and goes to the attic which is very clean. There she finds Cinderella, gives her the slipper, and leads the way toward the Prince. But as she nears home she gets out of the coach and walks the rest of the way. Her mother tells her that a stranger came by. On the windowsill she sees a big black cat. Her mother asks if she knows who the cat belongs to. Hilda says not to worry. She will take him home tomorrow.]Dwyer, Mindy. The Salmon Princess: An Alaska Cinderella Story. Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Books, 2004.
[A girl in southeast Alaska lived with her father, a salmon fisherman, and her mother, who taught her to smoke salmon. The mother dies and years later the fisherman remarries. The new wife has two strong sons who also catch fish, but the girl has to clean them all and smoke them. The girl is called Cinder because of her smoky gray eyes. News of the Silver Salmon Festival reaches her island; there will be music, dancing, and a great raffle. The mother and brothers go, but Cinder is left behind: too many fish to clean. At night fall while she is alone, she sees a great eagle drop something from the sky. She thinks it may be a shimmering salmon, but instead it is a shiny silver dress. “Anything is possible,” the eagle says, “but you must return the dress before dawn, for the silver will disappear in the light of day.” Cinder puts on the dress and her fisherman boots, takes her father’s skiff and sets off for the mainland, leaving a phosphorescent wake glowing like the train of a great wedding gown. She sells the smoked salmon in the skiff, buys raffle tickets and dances with the son of the King Salmon Cannery until dawn. But as the light approaches she flees, hopping onto the skiff, but losing one of her boots and her raffle tickets. The boy searches for her but without success (too many islands) until an eagle shows him the way. The two brothers lock her in the smoke house, but she fires up the old smoker and begins to sing. The boy follows the sweet scent and the song and finds her. He returns the boot and lets her know that she won the raffle prize of silver bars. She buys a homestead up north, raises prize winning cabbages, and teaches her daughters her mother’s song to believe that anything is possible. In time her husband takes over the salmon factory, and they return home, just as the salmon do each year.]Edwards, Pamela Duncan. Dinorella: A Prehistoric Fairy Tale. Illustrated by Henry Cole. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 1997.
[Dora, Doris, and Dinorella live in the dunes. Dinorella has to do all the dirty work, cleaning up after the sisters. Duke Dudley gives a ball. Dinorella doesn’t get to go. But Fairydactyl appears and fixes her up with dinosaur jewels. But just as she is arriving at the ball a dastardly deed takes place as a deinonychus drags off the duke for dinner. Dinorella hurls dirt balls at the dreaded carnivore. The deinonychus attacks Dinorella but becomes confused by her jewels, which seem to be demon eyes. She throws a diamond at him. In terror he dumps Duke Dudley and departs double-quick. Dudley has discovered his darling. All the other dinosaurs claim the diamond is theirs, but only Dinorella’s match. Duke Dudley and Dinorella declare each other dreamy and adorable and depart. “Drat!” says Dora and Doris.]Fair, Brown, and Trembling. In Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales, ed. Joseph Jacobs. Illustrated by John D. Batten. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892, pp. 169-181.
[Of the three daughters, Fair and Brown go to church in their finery while Trembling stays home to do the chores. Henwife appears and grants her a dress and fine horse so that she too can go. The son of the king of Emania would marry her but first must endure tasks. He searches for her by means of a lost slipper. Meanwhile Fair pushes Trembling into the sea, but a whale saves her three times. But unless her husband comes she will be swallowed for good by the whale. With the help of a cowboy all’s set right. Trembling and the king of Emania marry, have fourteen children, and live to an old age.]Fischetto, Laura. Harlequin and the Green Dress. Illustrated by Letizia Galli. New York: Delacorte Press, 1994.
[A Harlequinade, akin to those so often appearing at the end of 19th-century British Cinderella pantomimes. Harlequin, the wily servant (a Buttons figure), would win the heart of Columbine, the maid. Florindo, a knight without money or means, would woo Rosaura, Columbine’s mistress. He sends a lovely green dress, “from a secret admirer.” Harlequin, hoping to win Columbine’s favor, presents her with the dress, and she sneaks into her first costume ball, thinking the dress is from her secret admirer (which, in a way, it is). Yearning for Rosaura, Florindo hires Punch to kidnap the woman in the green dress, but Punch gets the wrong woman. Harlequin frees Columbine by feeding Punch much food, then pushing him into Rosaura’s room–she’s the one to be kidnapped. But Columbine wants to be taken to her secret admirer who gave her the dress and spoils Harlequin’s plan. In the commotion Pantalone, Rosaura’s stingy father, rushes in. Rosaura has fainted and even the doctor cannot revive her, but Harlequn convinces Pantalone that Florindo is not really poor (though he is), but, rather, a wealthy prince who hides his money to avoid taxes. Seeing a man after his own heart, Pantalone agrees to give Rosaura to Florindo, but Florindo has come upon Columbine in Rosaura’s dress and exposes Harlequin’s scheme. But the story works out for love: Florindo and Rosaura are wedded, and Punch and Columbine, though punished for sneaking into the ball uninvited by having to do kitchen work, are soon pardoned. Columbine, the aspiring Cinderella who ends up back in the kitchen, remains cunning as ever, despite her setback; Harlequin remains just as clever, though still yearning for Columbine. Punch is ever hungry, Pantalone cheated, the bungling doctor a menace, and Florindo married to his lady love. Appended to the story is a brief history by Geoff Hoyle of commedia dell’arte, Harlequin, Columbine, and the others from medieval times to Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and the Marx Brothers.]Fox, Laurie Anne. Sweeping Beauty; or. Notes on Cinderella. Los Angeles: Illuminati, 1986. With pictures of a woman cleaning, with cleaning implements interspersed. First appeared in a different format in Orpheus: The Magazine of Poems, 1984.
[A series of journal entries beginning Mar. 2, 1920, at 4:30 p.m., and continuing until noon in the following month. Cinderella sweeping ashes comes to realize the significance of her name. On the morning of March 3 she accepts an offer to the Carnivore Ball, but due to poverty must go in vegetable garb. By noon she is nervous and retires to her books to read about three-dimensional lives and a wealth of literature on underdogs. By midnight her eyes hurt; light is bad in the Middle Ages. Evening of Mar. 8 she dresses for the ball in romaine leaves and Chinese cabbage. No fairy godmother appears, so at 10:30 p.m. she hitches a ride to town on a dairy cart. She looks Bohemian though estranged in her vegetable get-up. The Prince is cute but boring. She would rather be reading biography. At 11:45 she sprints impulsively out of the Meat Ball. The Prince follows the enigmatic scent of her onion skin shoes. She feeds on the pumpkin, leaving a trail of rind, chews, and spits along the path of the village, which the Prince follows. Next morning Cinderella is happy drawing stick figures in the ashes. That afternoon men in tights arrive announcing the search. Next day at noon the Prince comes, but Cinderella is not ready for romance. She cannot marry a Prince she doesn’t know. She wants out of the fairy tale. Next month the half sisters scorn her for having blown a major opportunity. She goes to university where she frowns and uses her library pass a lot. She gets wind of a beautiful maiden who is drugged and dormant in a faraway tower. She thinks her ideas might wake her up and, renewing her copy of Machiavelli, she sets out to find her, flexing her tongue and pen. She is the new executive heroine.]Francis, A. D. Wishbone and the Glass Slipper. Illustrated by Kathryn Yingling. Allen, TX: Little Red Chair Books, 2000.
[Wishbone, created by Rick Duffield, is a puppy who lives with a fine gentleman who remarries. Pup’s stepmother makes him scrub floors and lead a dog’s life. He never has time to chew a slipper or fetch things. News comes that there will be a ball, but Cinderpup can’t go; only his stepbrothers get to do so. But his fairy godmother tells him to fetch a pumpkin, etc., which he does. They are transformed into a coach and team, and Cinderpup is given fine clothes and glass slippers. He is so happy that he gives his fairy godmother a lick. At the ball the princess lets him sit beside her all evening. He’s so happy he forgets the time and flees at midnight, losing one of his slippers. But the princess finds him, the slipper fits, and he is given a royal ball to play with.]Goode, Diane. Cinderella: The Dog and Her Little Glass Slipper. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 2000.
[A straight-forward retelling of Perrault’s glass-slipper Cinderella (with two trips to the ball), except that all the characters (except for the mice, lizards, and pumpkin) are dogs. The illustrations are amusing and plentiful.]The Goose Girl: A Story from the Brothers Grimm. Retold by Eric A. Kimmel. Illustrated by Robert Sauber. New York: A Holiday House Book, 1996.
[A basic retelling of the story which follows Grimm closely, but splendidly illustrated. See Grimm, The Goose Girl under Basic European Texts for summary of the Goose Girl plot.]Granowsky, Dr. Alvin. Cinderella: A Classic Tale / That Awful Cinderella. Illustrated by Barbara Kiwak and Rhonda Childress. Steck-Vaughn Point of View Stories. Austin, Texas: Steck-Vaughn Company, a Subsidiary of National Education Corporation, 1993.
[The first telling, illustrated by Kiwak, follows Perrault, with Drusilla and Anastasia as stepsisters. The other point of view (turn the book over and upside down), illustrated by Childress, is told by Drusilla, who detests the sweetly smiling, no-class scullery girl; she mocks Cinderella’s nervy leaving one of her glass slippers behind–“some accident!”–and is outraged at that “social climber who took advantage of Mother’s generosity,” who made “a plot with her fairy godmother to steal my prince for her husband,” and who then had the audacity to invite them to the palace “where she spends her days telling everyone how we abused her and took advantage of her. Do you know what I say to all of that? Ha! and another ha! Don’t make me laugh! I want nothing more to do with that awful Cinderella.”]Grimes, Nikki, and Terry Widener. Shoe Magic. New York: Orchard Books, 2000.
[A collection of poems about magic shoes on a shoe rack: taps, cleats, toe, soft soles, ski, flippers, baby, hocky, sandals, gold, running, work boots, clown shoes, slippers. See also Samuele Mazza, Cinderella’s Revenge, under Criticism.]Grimm, Wilhelm. Dear Mili. Translated by Ralph Manheim with pictures by Maurice Sendak. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Michael di Capua Books), 1988.
[Confident that her daughter has a guardian angel, a poor widow sends her into the woods to escape a horrible war. The guardian angel leads the wandering child to the hermitage of St. Joseph, for whom she gather roots, cooks, and looks after the chores, since work is good. Time passes and St. Joseph gives her a rose and sends her back to her dying mother. The mother and child die together with the rose between them.]Haviland, Virginia. “The Twelve Months.” In Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Czechoslovakia. Illustrated by Anca Hariton. New York: Beech Tree Paperback, Little, Brown and Company, 1995. Pp. 7-23.
[Marushka, pretty and good, lives with her stepmother and daughter named Holena. They make her sweep, cook, wash, sew, spin and weave, bring in the hay, and milk the cow. Holena does nothing but dress up in fine clothes and envy Marushka her happiness and beauty. So she and her mother decide to get rid of Marushka and send her in the middle of winter out into the snow to gather violets. Marushka climbs a mountain until she comes upon a fire at the top around which the twelve months of the year are gathered. They wonder what she is doing on the mountain in winter, and she explains that she must have violets or be killed. January orders March to take the chief seat and suddenly the ground becomes grassy and violets appear. Marushka gathers her bouquet and hurries home. Holena and her mother are amazed, take the flowers without thanks, and next day order Marushka to fetch strawberries from the mountain. Marushka returns to the circle of months, and January orders June to take the seat, whereupon strawberries appear. When Marushka returns the mother and daughter eat them up without giving any to Marushka and send her on the third day for red apples. Again she returns to the mountain and, in pity for Marushka’s plight, September takes the seat, autumn appears and an apple laden tree. Marushka shakes the tree, obtains two apples, and is ordered to stop. When she returns the two women eat the apples and crave more. So Holena goes herself, instructed to shake down all the fruit even if she is told to stop. When she gets to the mountaintop January inquires why she has come. Holena replies, “What business is it of yours.” Instantly the sky fills with clouds, snow falls, and the months disappear. When Holena does not return her mother goes out to seek her, but both are lost in the snow drifts and never seen again. Marushka lives on in the cottage which becomes hers. A young farmer comes, and they share their lives.]Helldorfer, Mary Clare. Cabbage Rose. Illustrated by Julie Downing. New York: Bradbury Press, 1993.
[A plain girl, called Cabbage by her brothers, can paint as perfect as roses, but she mainly works as servant in her brothers’ inn. Many stop by the inn on their way to the palace. One night an old magician stops by when only Cabbage is awake, painting. She helps him even though it is late. Next morning she discovers that every thing she paints becomes real. Her brothers take advantage of her and make her paint a giant pearl and diamonds, then chandeliers and carpets. The brothers become increasingly greedy, so Cabbage flees. She paints in the market and is happy. Then a summons comes from the palace, commissioning twelve paintings. While she paints the prince tells her stories. She blushes, and he calls her Rose. When she finishes she has fallen in love with the prince and he with her. So she paints an elegant lady who becomes real and reenters the court through that disguise. When she meets the prince he asks that she paint Cabbage Rose, whom he loves and misses. So she breaks the magic brush, becomes herself again, and returns to the village. The Prince visits and tells stories while she paints, and the villagers are glad to have their friends back.]Herman, Harriet. The Forest Princess. Illustrated by Carole Petersen Dwinell. Berkeley: Over the Rainbow Press, 1974.
Hutchinson, Veronica. “Little One Eye, Two Eyes, and Three Eyes.” In Chimney Corner Stories. Illustrated by L. Lenski. New York: Minton, Balch, 1925. Pp. 41-52.
[See entry under Basic European Texts.]Johnston, Tony. Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella. Illustrated by James Warhola. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1988.
[Includes a glossary of forest terms and is dedicated to the California grizzly, now extinct, and all those who protect the old-growth forest. Bigfoot, tall as a Douglas fir, with feet like cedar stumps is so horrendously hairy that women near and far long to marry him. In the forest there was also a Bigfoot woman with two daughters and a stepchild who was “nearly as woolly as a mammoth, golden as a banana slug, with feet like log canoes.” The sisters make her do all the work and call her RRRRRella and FFFFFreak. While RRRRella is fishing, a grizzly bear appears, very hungry. RRRRRella could have brushed him aside, but she gives him her fish. Her sisters bellow in rage when she returns empty-handed and make her fish all night. The Bigfoot prince gives a feast but the sisters make RRRRRella stay home: “You stay: Catch plenty fish. We catch prince.” RRRRRella grieves by the stream: “Me wish go fun-fest. Me wish dunk prince.” She hears a gruff voice say she will go. It is her beary godfather, who gives her enormous clogs and patted and matted her fur so that it looked tangled like the forest floor. The prince loved games, especially dancing on a rolling log in the stream contests. All the women try but he dumps them in the water. The sisters hate such games but don’t get to try, for when they approach with their wildflower-chains, the prince tosses them in the water snarling: “NO PICK FLOWERS.” RRRRRella arrives and is so skilled on the log that she dunks the prince. When everyone starts chanting Brrrrride! she flees. But she loses one of her great clogs, and he sets out to find the one who can wear it. Everyone’s feet are too small. But then RRRRRella appears: “Me trrrrry! Me trrrrry! ME! ME! ME!” It fits. The sisters throw a tantrum and yank up wildflowers and saplings; their mother kicks the prince black and blue. But RRRRRella and the prince marry. Even the mother and stepsisters can come, providing they don’t pick flowers, pull up saplings, or kick the royal family.]King-Smith, Dick. Thinderella. Illustrated by John Eastwood. A Puffin Read It Yourself Book. London: Penguin, 1998. First published in The Topsy-Turvy Storybook, Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1992.
[Thinderella is ugly, tall and skinny, with huge feet; her two sisters are so beautiful that they are known as the Lovely Sisters. When the ball comes Thinderella has to stay home, wishing she could go. To her surprise she sees a strange little man with very long hair and a huge moustache sitting on the table. He is her Hairy Godfather who tells her to go up into the attic. There she finds a ball gown and, under a bed beside the bedpan, a pair of huge glass slippers. She goes to the ball in a pumpkin coach, etc. She hobbles into the ballroom scarcely able to wiggle her toes and sits down exhausted. Prince Hildebrande comes by, trips over her feet, and says he’s sorry; she says “Happy Birthday.” He is short and very near sighted but likes her voice; she sees how unhandsome he is but likes his smile. He doesn’t ask her to dance, because he is clumsy and always steps on the girls’ feet. Thinderella assures that he would certainly step on hers because they are so huge. The clock begins to strick and she dashes home, thinking it midnight. In fact, it is only ten o’clock and in her haste she leaves him holding her shoe. The prince seeks one who will fit the shoe. Neither of the Lovely Sisters can wear it because they have beautiful petite feet. Only Thinderella’s beetle- crusher foot fits. The prince recognizes her lovely voice and proposes. Then he asks her name and, when she says “Thinderella”, he replies, “What a perfectly beautiful name… for a perfectly beautiful girl.”]Krensky, Stephen. The Youngest Fairy Godmother Ever. Illustrated by Diana Cain Bluthenthal. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2000.
[On Career Day all the children are asked to decide what they would like to be. Cindy had too many jobs already, but Mavis wished to be a fairy godmother who could make wishes come true. Her parents like the idea and give her lots of tasks, like carrying out the garbage, as preparation. As she works, Mavis wonders just what people’s wishes might mean. Mostly, her attempts just cause more trouble. The school’s Halloween party is coming up. Cindy is sad because her stepsisters always have the most beautiful costumes. Mavis decides to help. When her magic does not work, they sit down together and make a costume themselves.]Kroll, Steven. Queen of the May. Illustrated by Patience Brewster. New York: Holiday House, 1993.
[Sylvie does all the chores while her stepmother and stepsister Gudrun loaf. She hopes to pick a bouquet for the May Day competition but the stepmother adds on extra chores, making her cut hawthorn boughs to hang on the front door and primroses to strew the path to protect the farm from evil spirits. When Gudrun goes out to pick flowers she cruelly ignores a chipmunk tangled in a string, a beaver whose dam has been broken, and a crow caught in a tree. When Sylvie finally finishes her work she rushes to the fields to pick her bouquet; she frees the chipmunk, helps the beaver, and releases the crow. Suddenly she finds herself trapped by an old hag who favors Gudrun. They leave Sylvie bound in ropes to go off to the May Day. But the chipmunk comes and licks away her tears, the beaver chews through the ropes, and the crow fetches an elegant white dress, then carries Sylvie to the village. She arrives with her beautifully selected bouquet just in time to win the prize and dance around the Maypole, celebrating the return of spring. The crow swoops down and chases Gudrun and her mother down the road. Perhaps they are still running. The hag disappears into the mountains, and Sylvie has all the happiness she wants for the rest of her life.]Lattimore, Deborah Nourse. Cinderhazel: The Cinderella of Halloween. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 1997.
[An untidy witch named Cinderhazel lives in a dustbin. Her snobby stepsisters, Hermione and Hildy, cast spells and mutter curses, but Hazel cleans the floors by sweeping the dirt from one room into the next. The sisters go to the Witches’ Halloween Ball where Prince Alarming is looking for a bride. Hazel doesn’t want to go. She loves dirt and hates flying. But a plump witch dressed in dirty disrags reminds her that there are fifteen filthy fireplaces in the palace and that the prince is King of Dirt. So Cinderehazel zooms across the sky on a vacuum cleaner and drops down the biggest chimney she has ever seen. Prince Alarming, who likes dirt as much as she does, falls for Cinderhazel. But the stepfamily objects. The vacuum cleaner comes to Hazel’s rescue sucking up the whole party into its dirt bag. The Prince allows that Cinderhazel is the dirtiest thing he’s ever seen. They get together and live filthily ever after.]Lawrence, Jacob. Harriet and the Promised Land. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
[The story of Harriet Tubman, born a slave in Maryland around 1820, who made a daring escape to the North and freedom. Her real life adventure follows in outline several components of the African American Cinderella plot. Twenty paintings by Jacob Lawrence illustrate her life, told in verse. Born a slave she hears as a child stories of Moses leading slaves from Egypt to the Promised Land. As she grew up she scrubbed floors and worked in the garden. She prayed until she got a sign from heaven to lead her people forth. They followed the North Star, marching by night, sleeping by day, pursued by a bloodhound pack. They slept in barns with barnyard fowl; while Harriet kept watch like a barnyard owl. Good people gave them food and rest. She led her folks across the snow as Moses led his people ‘cross the burning sand. Then the Lord sent a chariot to carry them to the Promised Land. “Harriet, Harriet, / Born to be free, / Led her people / To liberty!”]Little Gold Star. In The Day It Snowed Tortillas: Tales from Spanish New Mexico. Retold by Joe Hayes. Illustrations by Lucy Jelinek. Santa Fe: Mariposa Publishing, 1982. Pp. 45-51.
[Arcía’s mother dies. She urges her father to remarry a neighbor woman with two daughters, who gives Arcía food. At last the father agrees, but after the wedding the stepmother turns ugly and makes Arcía sleep in the kitchen and do all the dirty work. The father returns from the mountain with gifts of lambs for the three girls. Arcía cares well for her lamb and when it is ready requests that it be slaughtered to feed the whole village. All appreciate her kindness and consume all of the sheep. When Arcía is washing the intestines out by the stream an eagle swoops down and carries off the casing. The girl asks nicely for him to return it but the bird tells her to look in the sky: a golden star descends and alights on her forehead. The other girls are jealous. They kill their sheep, get the intestines, and when the eagle swoops they curse the bird. Instead of a star the one gets a floppy donkey’s ear on her forehead and the other gets a green horn. The Prince gives a ball. He falls in love with the girl the star. She leaves the ball, however, so he pursues her. Next day, when the prince is to visit, the stepmother hides Cinderella under a washtub, but the prince finds her, and they are married. She survived the holocaust.]Lowell, Susan. Cindy Ellen: A Wild Western Cinderella. Illustrated by Jane Manning. Harper-Collins: Joanna Cotler Books, 2000.
[A rancher marries a second wife who is the orneriest women west of the Mississippi. Cindy’s pretty as a peach, but the ugly stepsisters call her Cinderbottom and Sanderella and make her do all the dirty work. The biggest cattle king for miles around throws a rodeo and square dance - a real Western fandango. The stepsisters gussy themselves up like two turkey gobblers and leave Cindy in the dust. A pistol-packin’ godmother appears and with a bing and a bang gives Cindy a great cowgirl outfit with a creamy white Stetson, the prettiest pair of cowboy boots, and spurs with diamonds as big as sugar lumps. At the fandango Cindy out-rodeo’s them all, then gets home before midnight. Next day the godmother turns a squash into a stagecoach, six cactus mice into horses, a packrat into a stage coach driver, and a tough old horned toad into a guard to ride shotgun. Cindy’s transformed into a beauty with the prettiest calico dress. She and Joe Prince lead the dance with a do-si-do and an allemande left, and a daisy chain and grand sashay as their feet go whickety-whack. Cindy has so much fun she forgets about midnight. Then, as she hightails it out lickety-split, she loses her spur. Joe seeks the owner. It fits only Cindy, who has the second one too. The godmother appears with a yee-haw, and Joe and Cindy get hitched. The front of the dustjacket shows Cindy riding her white pony; the back shows Cinderbottom: The Downtrodden Cowgirl shucking peas in the southwestern desert.]Meddaugh, Susan. Cinderella’s Rat. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
[A rat and his sister find life to be full of surprises. They get away from cats but get caught by some heavenly smelling cheese in a trap. Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother turns the boy rat into a coachman. At the ball Cinderella dances but the coachman goes into the larder and is amazed at all the good food. A boy tells him that he doesn’t have to eat grain raw, that bread is better. As they munch away the boy sees the rat’s sister and is about to kill it when the coachman calls out “Stop, it’s my sister.” The boy concludes that a magic spell has been cast on his sister so they take the rat to a wizard who first changes her into a cat, then a girl who says “meow,” and finally into a girl that says “woof.” At that moment midnight arrives and the rat boy is turned back into a boy rat, but his sister becomes a fine companion as she feeds him and other rats sumptuously and barks at all cats, scaring them away.]Montresor, Beni. Cinderella, from the opera by Gioacchino Rossini in a version written and illustrated by Beni Montresor. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.
[Montresor, creator of the lavish set designs for the Metropolitan Opera Company’s production of La Cenerentola, adapted his own designs to illustrate this retelling of Rossini’s version of the story. The Baron of Montefiascone marries a rich widow, squanders her estate and upon her death by heart break, enslaves her daughter Angelina, who is forced to sleep by the hearth and look after the barren estate and his two daughters Tisbe and Clorinda. A beggar visits and is cared for by Cinderella, but is driven away by the mean sisters. He is the Prince of Salerno’s tutor in disguise, who tells the Prince that he might find a virtuous woman at the Baron of Montefiascone’s residence. The Prince visits, disguised as Dandini his own valet, for fear that women might fall in love with him for his estate. When he meets Cinderella he falls in love with her. Dandini the real valet then appears disguised as the Prince to announce the ball, but Cinderella is driven back into the kitchen by the Baron and his daughters. The beggar reappears now dressed as a great magician, and transforms a pumpkin into a coach. Maids appear and dress Cinderella in a gown sewn of gold thread and shoes covered with diamonds and pearls. The magician tells her that the finery is hers until midnight, and she departs in the awaiting carriage. At the ball the daughters of Montrefiascone pursue the false prince while the true prince, still disguised as his valet, yearns for the beautiful princess who seems strangely familiar to him. She flees at the stroke of midnight, losing her slipper. The mysterious stranger then directs the Prince to the Baron’s estate. Clorinda and Tisbe try on the slipper, without success, then Cinderella appears. Though the Baron attempts to deny her access to the slipper, the Prince, still in disguise, ignores him. The slipper fits and Cinderella exclaims, “My handsome valet.” The Prince then reveals himself and takes her home to the Palace of Salerno. Cinderella forgives her stepsisters and the Prince’s tutor reveals himself to pronounce the moral: “Virtue always triumphs in the end.” Montresor’s book won the Caldecott medal. For a detailed account of the opera on which Montresor based his children’s adaptation, see Rossini (1817) under Cinderella Operas.]One-Handed Girl, The. In The Lilac Fairy Book. Longmans, Green, & Co., 1910. Rpt. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1968. Pp. 185-208.
[Lang indicates that this story comes from “Swahili Tales,” by E. Steere: An old couple has two children, a boy and a girl. As the father dies he offers each a choice of property or blessing; the boy chooses property; the girl, blessing. So too when the mother dies. The boy takes everything but a pot and leaves his sister to do as she can. She lends the pot for corn and becomes fat, since all the other pots seem to be cracked. She obtains a pumpkin seed and grows a marvelous tree that produces the best pumpkins, which are much in demand. The jealous brother steals the pot, but she succeeds from the pumpkins. The jealous brother’s wife yearns for the pumpkins, obtains one free, but is turned down the second time, because there are scarcely any left. The cruel brother then comes to cut down the pumpkin tree; when his sister says he must cut off her hand too as she holds the tree he does; he then ransacks the house and sells it to a friend. The wounded girl flees to the woods and climbs into a tree for food and safety. The king’s son comes by, rests under the tree and is awakened by her tears falling on his face. He rescues her, then plays sick. His parents worry over him but he can only become well if he is permitted to marry the girl. The parents agree, though they would have preferred a two-handed girl. A baby is born. The wicked brother hears of her good fortune and determines to destroy her. He gets a position at court and tells the king and queen that the woman is a witch who has had three husbands, each of whom she has destroyed; she and the baby should be killed. The king and queen cannot kill her, but they cast her out. In the wood she rescues a snake by hiding him in a pot. In return the snake tells her to bath in a pool. As she does her baby sinks to the bottom. She searches for the child unsuccessfully, but the snake tells her to use her handless arm. As she does she regains the child and her hand is restored. The snake takes her to his parents. Meanwhile the prince, who had fallen ill while at the borders of the kingdom, returns to discover that his wife and child have died. He mourns for a week then returns to help rule the kingdom. The girl feels she must obtain news of her husband and seeks to go home. She receives a ring and casket from the serpents that protect her and grant her wishes. She approaches the palace and, under a grove of palm trees, asks the ring for a house. The finest palace is granted. The king and his entourage learn of the phenomenon and investigate. She bids them enter and tells her story. The parents are reconciled to their son (for did not good come out of their being misled?), and she presents the prince with their fine son. The brother is cast out of town.]Pape, Donna L. “The Cinder Sander Machine.” In The Book of Foolish Machinery. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1989.
Perlman, Janet. Cinderella Penguin; or, The Glass Flipper. Retold and illustrated by Janet Perlman. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1992. Copyright 1954.
[Cinderella Penguin is forced to live in the stone cellar by her step family, who won’t let her go to the ball. But the fairy god-penguin changes a pumpkin into a coach, etc., and she attends adorned even with glass flippers. The step sisters don’t recognize her because they are too busy gobbling up food at the snack tables. As Cinderella flees at midnight she loses one of her flippers. When the searching prince comes to her house the step sisters force her into the stone cellar. But her flipper gets caught in the door. The glass flipper fits neither step sister but it does fit the exposed flipper of Cinderella. She is released and weds the prince.]Phelps, Ethel Johnston, ed. Tatterhood and Other Tales. Illustrated by Pamela Baldwin Ford. Old Westbury, New York: Feminist Press, 1978.
[The tales in this volume portray active and courageous girls and women in leading roles. “Tatterhood,” pp. 1-6, is based on a tale collected by Peter C. Asbjornsen and Jorge Moe and translated into English by G. W. Dasent in Norwegian Folk Tales (1859). Components of Cinderella, mothering, female ingenuity, sovereignty, and transformation from loathsome tatters and soot to pleasing and kind, according to the woman’s will.]Redmond, Christopher. The Tale of Copperella, wherein are related the adventures of a sweet young lady, and also the doings of a noted detective. A Sherlockian fable published privately for the friends of Christopher Redmond. Waterloo, Ontario, 1985.
[Based, sort of, on Sherlock Holmes’ “The Copper Beeches.” Copperella, also called Alice Blue Gown, is motherless. (The mother has moved to Philadelphia to live on the Main Line and work selflessly at a Junior League charity shop.) Father remarries one as beautiful as his daughter and about her age who can manage money. The two women don’t get along, but Copperella goes to the ball anyway in her electric-blue dress and attracts a suitor. So they lock her in her room and hire an administrative assistant who is disturbed by a man hanging around the castle. She goes to the great detective to investigate. When he and Watson arrive they find the master dead by a drawbridge, his mastiff beside him, and the stepmother on the other side weeping. Copperella is upstairs with her young man locked in a passionate embrace.]The Salmon Princess: An Alaska Cinderella Story. See Dwyer.
San Souci, Robert D. Cinderella Skeleton. Illustrated by David Catrow. San Diego and New York: Silver Whistle Harcourt, Inc., 2000.
[Told in 7 line stanzas, each beginning Cinderella Skeleton. She lives in Boneyard Acres, third mausoleum on the right. Her stepmother Skreech, and stepsisters Gristlene (small and mean) and Bony-Jane work Cinderella from dusk to morn, hanging cobwebs, arranging dead flowers in a vase, littering floors with dust and leaves, etc. Prince Charnel announces his Halloween Ball. The sisters set off in a hearse, leaving Cinderella behind. But a witch helps her get there by means of a jack-o-lantern, black cat, bats, and trapped rats which are turned into a funeral wagon with attendants. The only hitch is that she must be home by break of day. The Prince is wild about her, but as dawn comes she flees. He grabs her leg, which breaks off. She hobbles home with her stump. When the prince seeks any who could match footbone to anklebone (everyone snaps off foot in hope of passing the test), none fit. But Cinderella, who has been locked away, gets out with a pin, the bone matches, and the happy couple fly away to the moon. Skreech, Gristlene, and Bony-Jane shrivel with envy and end up as dust.]Silverman, Erica. Raisel’s Riddle. Pictures by Susan Gaber. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999.
[A poor rabbi in Poland raises his daughter Raisel alone. She studies Talmud with him, but when he dies she has to find employment. She is turned away from all houses in her village and goes beyond, offering her services as a cook. At one fine house she asks but is being sent away by the jealous cook when the rabbi intervenes suggesting that there must be some work for her. So the cook puts her to work scrubbing, carrying wood, etc. One day the son of the rabbi bumps into her in the courtyard as he is walking and reading and knocks the wood she is carrying to the ground. He apologizes and she answers him with wisdom from the bible. There is to be a feast at Purim but Raisel cannot attend because she must work and has only rags to wear. While she is alone a beggar woman comes by. Raisel feeds her and the woman grants her three wishes. She wishes for a Purim costume and finds herself dressed like Queen Esther. Then she wishes for a horse-drawn wagon. All at the feast admire her, especially the rabbi’s son, who inquires about her. She gives him a riddle: “What’s more precious than rubies, more lasting than gold? What can never be traded, stolen, or sold? What comes with great effort and takes time, but, once yours, will serve you again and again?” At that moment it is midnight, and she flees. When she gets home she uses her third wish to get the dishes done so that the cook won’t abuse her. Next day the rabbi’s son comes looking for the one who made the riddle. Many riddles are proposed, but not the right one. The cook would lock her away, but the rabbi’s son wants to hear. It is the right riddle. He asks her to marry him, but she says only if he can answer the riddle. He replies, “learning,” she says “yes,” and they are married.]Sondheim, Stephen, and James Lapine. Into the Woods, adapted and illustrated by Hudson Talbott. New York: Crown Publishers, 1988.
[A book made “after the fact” from the 1987 musical, which weaves characters from Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Red Ridinghood, Rapunzel, and the Baker and his Wife into a parable about the joys and sorrows of adulthood. See Sondheim under Musical Comedy (1987).]Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. See Grimm in Basic European Texts; and in Movies.
Stanley, Diane. The Gentleman and the Kitchen Maid. Pictures by Dennis Nolan. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1994.
[In room 12 of a great art museum hang two pictures by Dutch masters, one of “The Kitchen Maid” and, on the opposite wall, “Portrait of a Young Gentleman.” They are the favorite paintings of an art student named Rusty. She likes their kind faces and the yearning in their eyes. She sees that they have fallen in love but are scorned by other paintings in the room–by the Grand Duchess with the large nose, the old bearded man in the turban, a gentleman in black who thinks the servant girl should look down; only a large canvas of men and women eating roast meat and drinking beer seem not to care. Rusty paints the Young Gentleman, then brings into his painting the Kitchen Maid. Before she is able to finish her painting, however, the Kitchen Maid is moved to room 14, with later Dutch painters. Though the other paintings in room 12 seem relieved that the Kitchen Maid has gone, Rusty is not to be deterred. She completes her painting bringing the two together and hangs it in her favorite room at home. Now the gentleman and kitchen maid will always be just as they are: “stepping out into the sunshine together, their faces at once merry and tender. And who could ask for a happier ending than that?”]Stockton, Frank. “Cinderella,” St. Nicholas Magazine, 2 (April 1875), pp. 329-330.
[“She did not live in the days of fairies and giants, when pumpkins could be changed into chariots and rats and mice to prancing steeds and liveried footmen.” But she dreams by the fire. Her sisters, Lizette and Julie, are not very cross, nor do they force her to do all the work; one is a mother herself, and the other “very industrious.” She hears a knock at the door. Is it the Prince? No, it’s old Pierrot come to borrow a spade. The two sisters make jokes at his expense, but the Cinderella goes to the cellar and finds one for him, making him happy. When the older sisters see what the little girl has done they “felt sorry that the slipper had not fitted them.”]Storybook Playhouse: Cinderella. Retold by Jan Hooten. Designed by Juki K. Howen. Illustrated by Ronald M. LeHew. Kansas City, MO: Hallmark Cards, n.d.
[See Drama.]Thaler, Mike. Cinderella Bigfoot. Illustrated by Jared Lee. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1997.
[Cinderella has size 87 triple A feet. She looks like a seaplane, with a sock for every toe. She lives with her beautiful stepmother, her three beautiful stepsisters Weeny, Whiny, and Moe, a beautiful stepcat, and a stepladder. Cinderella is not invited to the ball because she is too awkward. She’s not much interested anyway because she can’t find her sneaker. While she’s watching TV a cow appears on her TV. It’s Elsie her Dairy Godmother, who gets her an invitation, fancy clothes, and gigantic glass sneakers. But no carriage -- she has to take the bus. The prince is no beauty himself and falls for Cinderella. She crushes his feet as they dance, then leaves at midnight without one sneaker. The prince searches for her using a toe truck to haul the sneaker around. Weeny fits her entire body into the slipper. Whiny and Moe stand together in the slipper, but then Cinderella lumbers into the room: the slipper fits, Prince Smeldred proposes with a doughnut for a ring, and they are married. Elsie, the Dairy Godmother, says “The shoe must go on,” and pours everyone a glass of milk.]Ting, Renee. The Prince's Diary. Illustrated by Elizabeth O. Dulemba. Fremont, CA: Shen's Books, 2005.
[The Prince tells his side of the story through diary entries. June 4: While riding his horse Silver along a creek Prince Stephen sees a girl fetching water. He falls in love with her as he hides and watches her work. He decides to call her Cinderella. June 10: His mother invites people over, hoping she might locate a partner for her son. His dog Rover creates a ruckus, spoiling the party. June 11: When the visitors leave their carriage turns over when it hits a hole the Prince had dug for a magnolia tree he was planting. The Prince tries to make things better by offering the visitors blackberry scones, but they are allergic to them. June 19: Stephen sees Cinderella again and watches her do laungry and work in the garden. He likes her ways. June 20: his father tells of a family named Thompson who lived at the edge of the woods and who had a lovely daughter that loved chasing butterflies. When her mother died, Mr. Thompson remarried, this time to a woman with two daughters of her own. But then he died himself. Though his father did not know what had happened after that, the Prince figures the girl he loved and called Cinderella must have been the original daughter. June 21: his father must have told his mother about the conversation because she invited Mrs. Thompson and her daughters to tea. June 22: The Thompsons come, but without Cinderella. June 27: Mother throws a ball inviting the entire kingdom. The Prince is glad. July 1: The Prince and his dog Rover look for truffles hoping to see Cinderella. No such luck. July 15: The galla ball, but there is no Cinderella. The Prince goes outside and finds her lurking in the bushes. He learns that her real name is Cynthia. They get on well. After the ball he finds a glass slipper that one of the Thompson girls deliberately left behind. July 16. The kingdom is in an uproar about the stupid glass shoe, saying that the Prince would marry the one it fit. July 19: The Prince goes to the Thompson's to return the glass shoe. They are waiting for him with cakes and eager plans, but he says he's looking for Cynthia. She appears. Cynthia and Prince Stephen ride off to the creek, leaving the laundry basket behind. The Prince has a surprise in his pocket for Cynthia: a blackberry scone, which she loves.]Valgardson, W. D. Sarah and the People of Sand River. Illustrated by Ian Wallace. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1996.
[Sarah is told she must leave her father in Iceland and go to Lake Winnipeg in Canada. Her dying mother gives her a pendant of Mary and the Christ child. The place will be called Sand River, which had once been a Cree village before all the tribe died of smallpox. She must stay with an English family rather than an Icelandic family so that she will learn English. Mrs. Simpson, the English woman, has a daughter Eugenia. She makes Sarah do endless work. Loki, their pet raven from Iceland, shows up to encourage her and an Indian woman gives her a pair of deerskin mittens. Mrs. Simpson forces Sarah to do the laundry for the whole town. A dark-haired man appears and gives her moccasins to protect her from the fierce winter cold. Mrs. Simpson chases the raven away and Eugenia steals Sarah’s locket, then loses it. The raven finds it and returns it to Sarah. As winter deepens another Indian woman appears and gives her a jacket. She asks who she is, but the woman speaks words she does not understand. She can only remember them. One day when delivering laundry a woman tells her to go to New Iceland where she might find her father. The town is called Selkirk. But when she gets home Mrs. Simpson has found where Sarah has been hiding the pendant and accuses her of theft. That night Sarah slips out into the snow. She becomes lost in a blizzard but Loki helps a boy to find her. They take her to a Cree woman who wonders how she could have gotten the clothing or learned the Cree words. There have been none of the Indians at Sand River since they died of smallpox years earlier and the village was burned. Later she is reunited with her family and she marries the boy who found her. They find evidence of the burial sites of the Cree people, but how the deceased cared for Sarah remains a mystery. So they tend the sites for generations to come.]Walt Disney’s Cinderella’s Friends. A Mickey Mouse Club Book. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950.
[This story tells how the mice help Cinderella celebrate her wedding. Up at the crack of dawn the mice and birds sing the song “Cinderella, Cinderella, / Is the sweetest one of all. / Now she’s marrying her prince and / So we’re having a great ball!” As they prepare their feast and make ballroom decorations, they glean materials around the house, where they encounter Lucifer. Gus Gus gets caught in the trap, which protects him from Lucifer. The others sneak up on Lucifer while he sleeps, spring the trap open, and manage to escape with lots of food. Gus Gus tries to carry too many grapes, which causes trouble, but they get the food together amidst a festively decorated mouse ball room and enjoy their celebration as the princess and prince are married.]Wegman, William, with Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman. Cinderella. Fay’s Fairy Tales. New York: Hyperion, 1993.
[Wegman, the dog photographer, adapts Perrault’s Cinderella, with witty touches such as appropriate music, Cinderella’s perfect old French, her wretched paisley frock, and the Prince’s dog Robare who leads him to the glass slipper at the head of the stair. Twenty-nine color photographs of Wegman’s dogs in wigs and costumes depicting the narrative.]Willard, Nancy. Cinderella's Dress. Illustrated by Jane Dyer. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 2003.
[A pair of magpies cram their cozy nest with toys they love best -- a Girl Scout pin, a crystal bell, a gold ring, shiny paper, cloth, lace, and so on. They live by a wealthy merchant's house where a new wife nags him everyday and her two daughters are worse. They throw away old clothes which the magpies save. A girl named Cinderella lives there too and has to do all the work. The stepsisters love to hate, and when the announcement for the royal ball comes Flora Ann and Fanny Alice become impossible in their demands. Cinderella might go if she could get her work done and had something to wear. The Magpies make her a lovely gown out of the scraps they have collected, but when the stepsisters see it they tear it to pieces, claiming the bits are theirs. Then they mock Cinderella in her tattered condition as they depart for the ball. Cinderella tries to pick up the pieces and make the gown lovely again. She laments that if she had not lost the ring her mother gave her she might change her fate. The mother magpie, who ahs been wearing the ring on her tail, shakes it free, and it rolls off the shelf where they have been sitting like bookends and lands at Cinderella's feet. She puts the ring on, the fairy godmother appears, and with a wave of wer wand turns the tatters back into a gown even more beautiful than before. She then turns a pumpkin into a coach, lizards into footmen, and mice into horses. Cinderella goes to the ball and wins the prince. Each spring the magpies build new nests outside her room and tell their favorite fairy tale to their fledglings. "I heard the story just last week./ I got it from the magpie's beak."]Wright, Kit. Tigerella. Pictures by Peter Bailey. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1993.
[Ella is a well-behaved child who pleases all who meet her, including the pets. But at midnight she turns into Tigerella, leaps through the window, stalks by moonlight, leaps higher, takes a bite from the moon, tosses stars about, scattering them along the Milky Way. She plays with the great bear, but is grazed on the cheek by Orion’s arrow. She catches the arrow and hurls it back at the mighty hunter, then tumbles down into Ella’s Garden Pond where she plays with the Bear until dawn, then slips back through the window. At breakfast next day her mother asks her about the scratch on her cheek. She says the naughty old tom cat did it. But little do they know.]
After the Sun Sets. The Wonder-Story Books. The Alice and Jerry Basic Reading Program. By Miriam Blanton Huber, Frank Seely Salisbury, and Mabel O’Donnell. Illustrated by Nellie H. Farnam and Mary Royt. Sacramento: California State Series Published by California State Department of Education, 1961. First published by Row, Peterson, and Company, 1938.
[Includes “Aiken-Drum, the Brownie,” “Pat and the Fairies,” “Change About,” “Cinderella,” “Snow-White and Rose-Red,” “Snip, the Tailor,” “Brier Rose,” “Prince Hal and the Giant,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Princess on the Glass Hill,” and “East of the Sun and West of the Moon.”]Aronson, David. Cinderella: Giant Story Coloring Book. St. Davids, PA: Wicklow, Ltd., 1993.
Bruno, Richard. A Study Guide for “Into the Woods.” Prepared for the Into the Woods Company, 150l Broadway, Suite 1904, New York, New York, 10036. Vocal Score published by Rilting Music, Inc. on behalf of Geffen Music, administered by WB Music Corporation, New York, 1987, 1988, 1989.
Cinderella & The Sisters. Retold by Ronald Storer. Illustrations by Lynette Hemmant. Oxford Graded Readers. Junior Level. 750 headwords. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.
[This reader includes two stories, the first an adaptation of Perrault’s Cinderella, the second, “The Sisters,” a story about a bad woman with two daughters who, after the death of the father, favors the bad daughter but hates the virtuous younger girl whom she treats as a slave. An old woman passes by and the younger girl serves her water from her waterjug. She turns out to be a fairy who rewards the girl’s kind generosity with flowers and jewels. The girl’s mother is angry. She sends the older daughter to the spring. The fairy appears again, this time as a beautiful young lady. She asks for a drink but is denied, since the bad girl is waiting for the older woman who puts jewels in one’s mouth. The fairy responds, “Toads and snakes are going to come out of your mouth, because you aren’t a kind girl.” The girl laughs and goes home, but, as the fairy said, toads and snakes come out of her mouth rather than jewels. The angry mother sends the younger daughter away. As she sits weeping in the forest a prince comes by and asks why she is crying. She tells her story. The prince admires her kindness and takes her to the palace. They are married and love each other very much.]Cinderella at the Cotsen Children's Library. Princeton University, 2001.
[A sixteen-page glossy color foldout of illustrations from books in the Perrault's Cinderella collection at the Cotsen Library, with a short introduction by Andrea Immel, Curator. Photographs by Blazejewski. Design by Laurel Masten Cantor. Includes front cover woodcut by Arthur Rackham, from Cinderella Retold by C. S. Evans (Philadelphia, 1919); Klaus Ensikat's drawing of the corsetting of the stepsisters for the ball, Der kleine Däumling und andere Märchen (Stuttgart, 1980); Quentin Blake's fairy godmother hovering over Cinderella and mice as the dirty girl demands, "Get me to the Ball! There is a Disco at the Palace! The rest have gone and I am jalous!", Revolting Rhymes (New York, 1983); Adrien Marie's Cinderella with pumpkin before a statuesque fairy godmother, Perrault's Le contes de fées (Paris 1884); Gustave Doré's dumpy fairy godmother cutting open a huge pumpkin as Cinderella holds the candle, Perrault's Le contes (Paris, 1883); Hanns Anker's illustration of Aschenbrödel under the lindentree at her mother's grave receiving elegant clothing, Aschenbrödel (Hannover, 1910); Sarah Stilwell Weber's "Here's A New Frock For You," with Cinderella admiring her reflection on the bottom of a shiny metal pan, Sarah Stilwell Weber, The Musical Tree (Philadelphia, 1925); Cinderella dancing with the Prince at the ball, Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper (London, 1832); Carl Offterdinger's Cinderella fleeing down the stairway, leaving her slipper behind, Cendrillon (Paris, 1884); Arthur Rackham silhouette of fleeing Cinderella, one shoe on, one off, C.S.Evans, Cinderella Retold (Philadelphia, 1919); Edouard de Beaumont's illustrated page of many feet pointed toward the slipper on a pillow with the herald's trumpet on it, Cinderella and the Two Gifts (Asnières, Boussod, Valadon, 1886); Roberto Innocenti's art deco drawing of a spectacled gentleman in derby hat admiring Cinderella's leg as the shoe fits while the cat watches and the two taller and leggier stepsisters put their shoes back on while sitting on a couch, Cinderella (Mankato, MN, 1983). The essay is headed by a etching of Cinderella starting to flee at the ball with musicians and dancers all about as the Prince picks up the slipper, from one of eight surviving copies of Perrault's first edition of Les contes (1697). The Cotsen Library has over one hundred editions of Perrault's fairy tales, along with dozens of other editions other unusual presentations of the story.]Cochrane, Orin. Cinderella Chant. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Whole Language Consultants.
[Educational material. An adaptation of the story into a rap chant for all ages.]Disney Audio Entertainment. Cinderella: A 24 page read-along book and tape. Includes the songs “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” and “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!”
[“Relive the magic!” The audio tape indicates page changes. The narrative provides favorite character voices, vivid sound effects, and memorable music. The text offers word-for-word narration that builds vocabulary and encourages reading independently. The book has beautiful art work to enhance the narrative. “Perfect for quiet times, auto trips and gift giving throughout the year [providing] hours of fun as they [your children] learn to read these timeless tales” (back cover).]Davenport, Tom. From the Brothers Grimm: A Teacher’s Guide. Fort Atkinson, WI: Highsmith Press, 1993.
[A teacher’s guide to ten films produced by Tom and Mimi Davenport (see individual entries under Movies and TV), including The Frog King, or Faithful Henry; Bearskin; Hansel and Gretel; Rapunzel Rapunzel; Bristlelip; The Goose Girl; Jack and the Dentist’s Daughter; Soldier Jack; Ashpet; and Mutzmag. The guide includes facts about making the films, overall suggested curriculum for the book and the Film/Video Series scaled for grades 2-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12. Has a section on folktales, types and motifs as well as introductions and interpretations of the specific films. Good follow up materials included as well.]-----. The Guide to Making Grimm Movies. Produced by Davenport Films. Delaplane, VA: Davenport Films, 1993.
[Discusses uses of the series of Grimm based films cited in the entry above, along with discussion of scriptwriting, casting, makeup, locations, set design, sound, cinematography, editing, and movie acting. Includes “Tips for Teachers,” by George Weathers, and “Movies with a Classroom Crew,” by Betsy Newman. The appendix considers treatment, screenplay, storyboards, composition, glossary, and bibliography.]Edinger, Monica. Fantasy Literature in the Elementary Classroom: Strategies for Reading, Writing, and Responding. New York, Toronto, London, Auckland, Sydney: Scholastic Professional Books, 1995.
[Ch. 1. An Introduction to Fantasy Literature in the Classroom. Ch.2. Literature Studies, with discussion of teaching literature to intermediate children (fourth graders and beyond) through discussion, journals, oral readings, writing, and other projects. Ch. 3. Talking Animals: An Author Study of E. B. White, with discussions of close reading and classroom reading; samples of student writing. Ch. 4. Thematic Study of Cinderella, with sections on historical background, uses of a Cinderella center, Cinderella themes in popular culture and elsewhere, analyses of variants, recommended readings and videos, and a student packet that uses Cinderella to define what a fairy tale is. Edinger includes student responses to Cinderella issues (including comments on Chaplin movies with male Cinderella plots, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a Cinderella story) and rewritings of Cinderella stories by fourth graders (Matthew Spiro’s “Baseballella,” Erica Bromley’s “Cinderella Goes to CAMP!,” Anna Monaco’s “Shoerella,” Steven Rosenblatt’s “Ovenella or the Little Brass Knuckles,” and Anne Kurtz’s “Cinderella Poem.” Ch. 5. Visualizing Fantasy: A Study of Alice in Wonderland & its Illustrators, with discussion of functions of illustrations in children’s literature, recommended videos and a student packet on the many faces of Alice. Ch. 6. Book into Film: A Comparative Study of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum’s Book and the MGM Movie, with a student packet and projects. Ch. 7. Reading Fantasy Literature Aloud, with comments on story time as ritual and etiquette. Ch. 8. Fantasy Literature in an Independent Reading Program. Includes bibliography for each chapter. The book is thoughtful, inventive, and a lot of fun.]Fanelli, Sara. Cinderella Picture Box. Made in China. 1996.
[Three sets of picture cards, one storybook, and twenty decorative stamps with which children ages 4-7 may tell and recreate scenes from the story of Cinderella.]Hicks, Nancy, and Bonnie Nowak. Who’s Got the Slipper? Or, A Multicultural Unit of Cinderella Stories from Around the World. Illustrated by Children in Our Classrooms. East Rochester, N.Y.: Bon Mot Publishing, 1993.
[A word about culture and the characteristics of Folk Tales, story mapping, games such as a crossword puzzle, a “Help Cinderella Get to the Ball” Board Game, and a Cinderella Song to be sung to the tune of “Frere Jacque.” Work units on “The Egyptian Cinderella,” “Yeh-Shen,” Grimms’ “Cinderella,” “Nomi and the Magic Fish,” “Talking Eggs,” “Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters,” “The Rainbow-Colored Horse,” “Rough-Face Girl,” “The Magic Orange Tree,” and Perrault’s “Cinderella.”]Hillert, Margaret. Cinderella at the Ball. Illustrated by Janet LaSalle. A Beginning to Read Book. Cleveland: Modern Curriculum Press, 1970.
[A first-grade reader, written in 44 preprimer words: e.g., the herald says: “Come to the ball / Come to the ball!”; to which the stepsisters reply: “Oh, Mother, Mother. / We can go to the ball. / We two can go. / A ball is fun.” Then to Cinderella: “Come here, you. / Run, run, run. / You can help. / We want you to help.” etc.]In Search of Cinderella: A Curriculum for the 21st Century. Auburn, CA: Shen Books, 2000. Written by Katharine F. Goodwin. Design and layout by Maywan Krach.
[Lesson plans for the teaching of ten ethnic versions of the Cinderella story from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, including The Egyptian Cinderella, Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella, Domiatila: A Cinderella Tale from the Mexican Tradition, The Rough Face Girl, The Turkey Girl: A Zuni Cinderella Story, Angkat: The Cambodian Cinderella, Jouanah: A Hmong Cinderella, Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China, Baba Yaga & Vasilisa the Brave, and The Persian Cinderella. The works are summarized and incorporated into lessons for middle and upper grades. Each story is accompanied by a booktalk, motifs and ideas for discussion, a connection subject area, and vocabulary exercises. Material for group activities and self evaluation are also included.]Lewis, Shari. Cinderella: Lamb Chop’s Play-Along Fairy Tale Retold by Shari Lewis. Illustrated by Jane Caminos. New York and Toronto: Bantam Double Dell Books for Young Readers, 1994.
[Shari Lewis tells the glass slipper story to Lamb Chop, who keeps interrupting with mixed-up responses, like stepladders for stepsisters, pet for bride which the prince will choose, carrot for pumpkin, monkeys for horses, shovels for slippers, and so on. With each of Lamb Chop’s enthusiastic mistakes Ms Lewis shows him three picture cards, one of which has the right answer on it for him to choose from as he (and presumably the child to whom the story is being read) attempts to get the story straight.]MacGregor, Carol. The Fairy Tale Cookbook. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1982.
[“Cinderella’s Wedding Cake with Orange and Lemon Frosting,” pp. 68-72.]Multi-Lingual Cinderella. A storYrom CD-ROM. WIN/MAC. storYrom: RHP: a red horse production, 1996.
[Localized interface of the Cinderella story in nine languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, which makes possible study of any of the nine in conjunction with any other of the nine. All menus and help files are in the language chosen. Includes Foreign Language Drills, which include the possibility of comparing your voice to that of a native speaker with the Record/Playback feature.]
Nowak, Bonnie. Not Just Fairy Godmothers! Another Multicultural Unit with Unusual Magical Elements. Rush, New York: Bon Mot Publishing, 1995. With student illustrations.
[For fifth graders. Includes story summaries and work/study units on an Italian Cinderella, Korean Cinderella, Moss Gown, Sootface, Wishbones, Mother Holly, The Enchanted Anklet, Tam & Cam, Poor Turkey Girl, and Abadeha. Nowak co-authored Who’s Got the Slipper? with Nancy Hicks.]Perkal, Stephanie. Midnight: A Cinderella Alphabet. Illustrated by Spencer Alston Bartsch. Arcadia, California: Shen Books, 1997.
[Grandma tells Cinderella to grandchildren Millicent and Matthew at bedtime. They want more so Grandma explains that Cinderella stories come from all over the world, which she illustrates with an ABC, where each letter summarizes a version from different places. E.g., A=Ashes, as in the Native American Sootface tale. Z=zzzz, as it’s almost midnight and long past bedtime; but the children are reminded as they fall asleep that “your fairy godmother is always here for you.”]Polette, Nancy. Eight Cinderellas. O’Fallon, MO: Book Lures, Inc., 1994.
[Teaching plans, exercises, booktalk, projects on different cultures and approaches to stories, for Egyptian Cinderella, Korean Cinderella, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, Princess Furball, The Rough Face Girl, Tattercoats, Vasilisa the Beautiful, and Yeh-Shen.]-----. Eight Cinderellas. Illustrated by Paul Dillon. United States: Pieces of Learning [1-800-729-5137], 1997.
[Study guides for Climo and Heller’s The Egyptian Cenderella and The Korean Cinderella, Steptoe’s Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, Huck’s Princess Furball, Martin’s The Rough-Face Girl, Stelle and Goode’s Tattercoats: An Old English Tale, Whitney and Hogrogian’s Vasilisa the Beautiful, and Ai-Ling Louie’s Yeh-Shen. Does not include the texts themselves.]Rusting, J. D. The Multicultural Cinderella. Oakland, Ca.: Curricular Organization for The Multicultural Cinderella, 1993.
[Includes discussion of Curricular Organization for the use of the book, strategies for teaching cultural materials, a class schedule, and various study forms; 26 sheets of study guides on sixteen Cinderella tales, plus crossword and word search puzzles, tale summaries, multipurpose study charts, reading logs, and student evaluations of creative writing assignments. Includes materials on Perrault’s Cinderella, Yeh-Shen, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, Vasilissa the Beautiful, The Rough-Face Girl, Moss Gown, The Talking Eggs, Princess Furball, Abadeha The Philippine Cinderella, Dona Labismina, The Cinderella Rebus Book, Prince Cinders, Korean Cinderella, The Egyptian Cinderella, The Brocaded Slipper, and Cinderella (Suddon)