Griselidis
“According to the new classification of Tales by Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Peau d’Asne, published in 1694, would be the first French fairy tale ever written.”
Second edition, extremely rare, of Peau d’Asne, printed in 1695, of which Tchémerzine mentions only a single copy: “Daulnoy, old calf binding, 4,100 FF.”
The precious Guy Pellion's copy.
12mo in 1 volume, (4) ff., 69 pp., 36 pp. [Donkeyskin], 12 pp. [The Ridiculous Wishes].
Donkeyskin is preceded by a separate title included in the pagination, and The Ridiculous Wishes by a simple half-title.
Blonde calf, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, spine with raised bands finely decorated, citron and green morocco title-pieces, gilt fillet on edges, inner gilt roll, gilt edges. Binding signed “Petit, successor to Simier,” circa 1860.
161 x 96 mm.
Perrault, Charles (1628-1703). Griselidis, novella. With the Tale of Donkeyskin and that of The Ridiculous Wishes. Fourth edition.
Paris, Jean Baptiste Coignard, 1695.
Second complete edition, extremely rare, of which Tchémerzine cites only one copy “Daulnoy, old calf, 4,100 FF.”
The first editions of Donkeyskin and of The RidiculousWishes appeared the previous year, in 1694, with the same printer.
This collection contains one of Perrault’s most famous tales, Donkeyskin, initially published in 1694 following the second edition of Griselidis.
It includes Perrault's interesting preface (8 pages), in which he defends tales as both entertainment and a subject for instruction (cf. Tchemerzine, vol. V, pp. 174-175): these trifles were not mere trifles, that they contained useful morals, & the playful narrative in which they were wrapped was chosen only to allow them to enter the mind more pleasantly and in a way that would both instruct and amuse.
According to Ruth B. Bottigheimer’s new classification of tales, Donkeyskin would be the first French fairy tale ever written.
Louis XIV as a child complained at the age of seven that he could no longer fall asleep while listening to his nurse tell him Donkeyskin, and in Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid (first edition of 1682), little Louison mentions it. Likewise, La Fontaine in 1678 in the
Power of Fables.
Donkeyskin settles in a small village in a neighboring kingdom and works as a scullery maid, living in a simple hut. The prince of another kingdom visits the village, and while strolling, arrives at her house and sees her, dressed in her sun-colored dress. Dazzled by her beauty, he falls in love with her, and upon returning to the palace, pines away with love. He then asks Donkeyskin to bake him a cake. While making the dough for the cake, she unintentionally drops her ring into it. The prince, nearly choking on it, immediately orders that all the women and girls of the country, from the most noble to the humblest, come to try on the ring at the castle. None can fit it. Donkeyskin is then brought to the castle. Her finger fits the ring, her donkeyskin falls off, and her most beautiful dress appears. The prince can then marry her.
Precious copy from the library of Guy Pellion with armorial ex-libris.
