fairy stories
fairy storieshave existed in the oral tradition of all cultures, but entered the mainstream as a distinct literary genre at the time of the publication of the stories of Perrault , written for a fashionable and sophisticated adult salon audience. Many earlier literary works (including those of Chaucer , Boccaccio , Malory , Straparola , and the Neapolitan Giambattista Basile , author of Il pentamerone, published posthumously 1634 – 6 ), had featured fairies and tales of the supernatural, but it was in the last two decades of the 17th cent. that a new vogue for the written fairy tale was established. Perrault's cousin Marie-Jeanne l'Héritier de Villandon ( 1664 – 1734 : Œuvres meslés, 1695 ) and her friend Henriette-Julie de Castelnau, comtesse de Murat ( 1670 – 1716 ), both published stories. Marie-Catherine, Baronne D'Aulnoy (d. 1705 ), produced well-known tales such as ‘La Chatte blanche’...
[The entire page is 781 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
