Until I read Christine Jones' article, I basically didn't know anything about Charles Perreault, whose 1697 collection Histoires ou contes du temps passé , Stories or Tales of Passed Times, was eventually translated into English with the title from this illustration, Contes de ma mère l'Oye, Tales of Mother Goose. And though I knew about Cendrillon, I didn't even realize Mother Goose was French.
But I still feel confident in saying this was probably the most interesting extended discussion of the historical impact of bootleg Amsterdam translations reshuffling the order of the stories had on transforming Perreault's work from literary-minded adult fiction into moralizing children's tales that I'll ever read.
Though I do wish she'd gone into more depth discussing the sheer 1950 suckitude of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, which is a horrible, horrible telling of a story filled with boring or insipid characters. Watch it as an adult and tell me I'm wrong. You can't do it.
Anyway, get yourself caught up on the latest developments in Perreault and mère l'Oye Studies.
Mother Goose's French Birth (1697) and British Afterlife (1729) [publicdomainreview.org via berfrois]
Great article.