Fairy Tale Originators?

Harrington, Jane.  Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance: The Forgotten Founding Mothers of the 

         Fairy Tale and the Stories That They Spun.  New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 

        2025.  ISBN: 9780762488704 

 

So who started the fairy tale craze?  It definitely was not the Brothers Grimm since they only compiled tales that they gathered from the country folks they interviewed.  Charles Perrault is often credited as the "Father of Fairy Tales" but maybe he should be credited as "Mother since his most famous creation is Mother Goose.  What is forgotten and not credited are the women who gathered in salons in the 1690s and later to write tales together.  They called themselves conteuses and would set challenges for the types of tales to write.  They would then come back together and compare tales.  

 

In Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance, Jane Harrington provides brief histories of seven of these women and one or two of their tales.  The women are Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, Henriette-Julie Murat, Charlotte-Rose La Force, Marie-Jeanne L'Heritier, Catherine Bernard, Catherine Durand, and Louise D'Auneuil.  Also each tale has gorgeous illustrations created by Khoa Le. Harrington also provides a bibliography of sources so that interested parties can follow up on areas of interest. 

 

If the reader enjoys fairy tales, especially ones not well known, do pick up Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance!