This Day in History: French author Charles Perrault died on this day in 1703. Perrault is the father of the fairy tale and has given us "Little Red Riding Hood", "Cinderella", "Puss in Boots", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Bluebeard". Many early fairy tales were far darker than the modern sanitized versions. In one version of Cinderella the step-sisters cut their toes with a knife in order to fit the glass slipper. As for Little Red Riding Hood, the Grimm's version "Little Red Cap" has the wolf devouring Little Red Riding Hood until she is saved by a hunter who cuts the belly of the wolf open with a pair of shears and retrieves the hapless victim.
Charles Perrault actually cleaned up the tale of Sleeping Beauty. In an older version the prince found the young woman lying in a bedchamber, naked and comatose, and he rapes her.
One of my favorite tales is that of BlueBeard. A wealthy and powerful nobleman leaves his wife at home alone with keys to all the rooms, except for one room for which she is forbidden to enter. Curiosity gets the better of her and she enters the room and makes a grim discovery. One of my favorite versions of Bluebeard is that of is the tale of "The Robber Bridegroom" or "Mr. Fox," which can be found in the folklore of various European countries. In this story, a young woman is about to marry a mysterious, wealthy man named Mr. Fox. When she realizes that she has never seen his mansion, she sneaks off to explore it. In the forest, she finds a gate that reads, "Be bold." She passes through and arrives at Mr. Fox's estate, the entrance to which is inscribed, "Be bold, be bold." Inside, she finds a staircase with a notice that reads, "Be bold, be bold, but not too bold." At last, she arrives at a door with an even more chilling warning: "Be bold, be bold, but not too bold, lest your heart's blood should run cold." When she opens the door, she is shocked to find a room full of rather ghastly corpses. Suddenly she hears a noise. It must be Mr. Fox returning home, so she is forced to hide inside the room. She watches in fear as Mr. Fox drags in a new woman and dismembers her. She grabs the woman's severed hand and pockets it as evidence. The next day, at a feast before the wedding, she hurls the bloodied hand at Mr. Fox. The bridal party cuts him up in retaliation.
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