Madame d’Aulnoy: Mother of the Fairy Tale

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Madame d’Aulnoy: Mother of the Fairy Tale
When it comes to fairy tales, Charles Perrault is best remembered as the author of some of the most enduring stories for children. He penned works including Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and his collection of Mother Goose stories.  What isn’t remembered is that the “mother” of the fairy tale was the scandalous, upper class, female writer Madame d’Aulnoy. D’Aulnoy was celebrated throughout Paris for the imaginative stories she told at her salon. When her stories were published in book form, not only did she coin the term “fairy tale,” but her storylines were the first to feature “Prince Charmant” or Prince Charming. She authored stories with wonderfully whimsical titles such as Princess Mayblossom, The Bee and the Orange Tree, and The Benevolent Frog. Unfortunately, Madame d’Aulnoy’s status as “queen of the fairies” was eclipsed as Perrault, the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson became the genre’s leading men.  Portrait of Madame d’Aulnoy by Pierre-François Basan. Public domain. Once upon a time, circa 1651, the originator of the fairy tale was born as Marie-Catherine le Jumel de Barneville. She was raised in a wealthy family in Barneville-la-Bertran, near Honfleur in Normandy, where her love of folk stories was likely fostered by the nannies and housemaids that surrounded her. At the age of 13, Marie-Catherine was a hyperbolic and humorous child, wishing plague, pestilence, and broken bones on anyone that didn’t appreciate her favorite books. At this point, the girl would have benefited from the intervention of a good fairy, because by the age of 15, Marie-Catherine was married off to Baron d’Aulnoy, a man 30 years older. By the age of 19, she had four pregnancies, which resulted in two daughters. Two more d’Aulnoy daughters were born, but well after the Baron disinherited Marie-Catherine. Disinherited? Why? Well…  The May-December marriage was troubled from the start by her husband’s gambling and his heart-breaking infidelity. In 1669, Marie-Catherine, her mother, and two male accomplices, lovers, perhaps – perilously plotted to implicate Baron d’Aulnoy with treason, in particular lèse-majesté. Apparently, talking trash about the monarch was a crime punishable by death and the accused baron was jailed at the Bastille. Nevertheless, the foursome was not rid of him; the plot backfired. The baron was released and the accomplices were charged with calumny, aka slander (apparently another crime punishable by death) and executed.  The Bastille Prison in 1715. Rigaud, 18th century – Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Public domain
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Lead photo credit : Illustration of Madame d'Aulnoy's "White Cat" fairy tale by Jacomb Hood

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A freelance writer and amateur historian, Hazel knew she wanted to focus on the lives of French artists and femme fatales after an epiphany at the Musée d'Orsay. A life-long learner, she is a recent graduate of Art History from the University of Toronto. Now she is searching for a real-life art history mystery to solve.