The Tales of the Mother Goose

Charles PerraultThe Tales of the Mother Goose1901 eddition, illustratedStories: CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPERTHE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE WOODSLITTLE THUMBTHE MASTER CAT, OR PUSS IN BOOTSRIQUET WITH THE TUFTBLUE BEARDTHE FAIRYLITTLE RED RIDING-HOODThe eight stories contained in this volume are first found in print in French in a magazine entitled, Receuil de pièces curieuses et nouvelles tant en prose qu'en vers, which was published by Adrian Moetjens at The Hague in 1696-1697. They were immediately afterward published at Paris. These stories which may be said to be as old as the race itself-certainly their germs are to be found in the oldest literature and among the oldest folk-tales in the world-were orally current in France and the neighboring countries in nearly the form in which Perrault wrote them for very many years. Perrault says of his collection that it is certain these stories excite in the children who read them the desire to resemble those characters who become happy, and at the same time they inspire them with the fear of the consequences which happen to those who do ill deeds; and he claims that they all contain a very distinct moral which is more or less evident to all who read them.