Cinderella

Bibliography

Perrault, Charles. 1971. CINDERELLA: OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER. Ill. By Shirley Hughes. New York: Henry Z. Walck, Inc. ISBN 0809811898.

Plot Summary

This classis fairy tale follows Cinderella through her trials with an unappreciative family to a happy end as the new wife of a prince. After Cinderella’s mother dies, her father marries a woman with two daughters of her own, who all treat Cinderella poorly. She is made to do all the household chores, and not invited to go to the prince’s balls. Fortunately, a fairy godmother appears and adorns Cinderella in the finest clothes, coach and horsemen to be seen, and sends her off to the first nights ball. Cinderella is such a hit with the prince that she must return to the second night’s festivities, and looks even lovelier than the first night. She forgets her one rule, to leave before the clock strikes twelve midnight, and must run from the castle. She leaves a shoe behind, and the Prince uses it to find her, she is married to the prince, and shows much more love and kindness to her two stepsisters than they ever showed to her.

Critical Analysis

This early version of Cinderella is a great one for children. It is not the “Disney” Cinderella they all know, and offers a different view on Cinderella as a person than that well-known version. In this story Cinderella shows love and forgiveness to the two “Wicked” stepsisters, and is shown to be both beautiful and kind. The illustrations in this version of the tale are truly beautiful; they are ornate and colorful, showing great detail. These illustrations are also a nice variant from the cartoons in the Disney version of the tale. One aspect that sets this aside from other versions and fairy tales is that it does not have the traditional tag line “ and they lived happily ever after” pinned on the end. The mind simply assumes that it is so.

Review Excerpts

I could not find any Review excerpts for this edition, as it was published in 1971. The web reviews I found only allowed searches back through 1996.

Connections

This book opens the door to explore the world of Cinderella. Children can study multiple versions of this tale, from classic to modern day, and compare and contrast these stories.

A few Cinderella variants:

Sierra, Judy. 1992. CINDERELLA. ISBN 0897747275
Minters, Frances. CINDER-ELLY. ISBN 1563347237