Cinderella

"Cinderella" is one of the best-known and loved stories in the entire world. By some estimates, there are well over 1,000 different variants of the tale bearing its essential features: a neglected or orphaned heroine, a magical reversal of fate, and an epiphany involving (often) a telltale article of clothing.

But it endures in no small part due to its adaptability and versatility, reflecting the peculiar time and place of the cultures that adopt it. Charles Perrault left his literary stamp on the tale in 1697 when (quoting Italo Calvino) it "flourished in Versailles at the court of the Sun King" as a story of "elegant fantasy counterbalanced by formal Cartesian rationalism."

"Thanks to the Brothers Grimm it flourished again, somber and earthy, at the beginning of the nineteenth century in German Romantic literature." For the Brothers, folklore "meant bringing to light the fragments of an ancient religion that had been preserved by the common people and had lain dormant until the glorious day of Napoleon's defeat had finally awakened the German national consciousness."

Whereas 20th century Freudians "salvaged... a repertory of ambiguous dreams common to all men," including Oedipal taboos and evidence of ancient totemism (in the form of Cinderella's animal protectors).

For this meetup, we will read and discuss both the Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm versions of Cinderella.

Cinderella version #1 (Charles Perrault):

• Kindle
• Gutenberg
• Google books
• YouTube ~17m

Cinderella version #2 (Brothers Grimm):

• Kindle
• Gutenberg
• Google books
• YouTube ~14m

Supplemental:

• Jungian Ever After podcast part 1: grief
• Jungian Ever After podcast part 2: envy
• Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants

Extracts:

• "This last is a Lilliputian beauty; diminutive in statue, fair haired, and with a foot for which Cinderella's slipper would be too large..." ("Fragments from a Writing Desk No. 1")
• "...the prettiest little foot you can imagine; cased in a satin slipper, which clung to the fairy-like member by means of a diamond clasp." ("Fragments from a Writing Desk No. 2")
• "Folly and foolishness! to think that... the badge of nobility is to be found in the smallness of the foot, when even a fish has no foot at all! Dandies! amputate yourselves, if you will; but know, and be assured, oh, democrats, that, like a pyramid, a great man stands on a broad base. It is only the brittle porcelain pagoda, that tottles on a toe." (Redburn, 56)
• "...so, entering, the first thing I did was to stumble over an ash-box in the porch. Ha! thought I, ha, as the flying particles almost choked me, are these ashes from that destroyed city, Gomorrah?" (Moby-Dick, 2)
• "...my stepmother who, somehow or other, was all the time whipping me, or sending me to bed supperless,—my mother dragged me by the legs out of the chimney and packed me off to bed..." (Moby-Dick, 4)

This meetup is part of a series on Fig Leaves and Fancy Pants.