Contes, Tome II

Madame d'Aulnoy (Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 442K words
Chapters: 45

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Contes, Tome II by Madame d' AulnoyAuthor: Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine), 1651?-1705,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: May 10, 2006

Editor's review

Contes, Tome II is the second volume of the story collection by Madame d'Aulnoy, a French fairy-tale writer of the late seventeenth century, presented here in the original French. Madame d'Aulnoy was one of the leading figures of French salon fairy-tale writing; her stories typically embed observations on human nature and social manners within settings of fairies, magic, and court life, in an elegant and often allegorical style. This volume is released free by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain electronic text, suitable both as French reading material and for readers and scholars interested in the origins of European fairy tales. Reading it offers both the aesthetic pleasure of Baroque storytelling and a glimpse of another way of writing that predates the later fairy-tale tradition. As an electronic original text, it contains no modern annotations or introduction; readers new to it need some French proficiency, or should read alongside a dictionary and background materials, to fully understand and appreciate the stories.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with intermediate or higher French reading ability who want to read fairy tales in the original
Literature students studying French classical fairy tales and salon literature
Enthusiasts interested in the origins of European folk tales and fairy tales
Learners who need public-domain French texts as language practice material

Not a good fit for

Readers with no French at all who depend on Chinese translations
Those who want an edition with detailed annotations and an introduction
Parents seeking only short, light bedtime stories for children

Reading tips

First read through a shorter story to become familiar with the author's sentence patterns and narrative rhythm, then proceed gradually.
Prepare a French dictionary or electronic dictionary; mark archaic expressions as you go, and look them up after finishing the whole passage.
Read alongside basic background material on seventeenth-century French salon culture and the rise of fairy tales.
Take brief notes story by story, recording characters, magical elements, and allegorical points, for easy review.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in French or English?

According to the Project Gutenberg record, the language of this book is French. It is the original-language electronic edition of the second volume of Madame d'Aulnoy's story collection, with no Chinese or English parallel translation.

Can I read it without any French?

Not recommended. The original is late seventeenth-century French, whose syntax and vocabulary differ from modern French, and readers without any foundation will find it very hard to finish on their own. You may first read a Chinese translation to learn the stories, then return to the original.

Does this edition have annotations and an introduction?

This is a public-domain electronic text released by Project Gutenberg, mainly presenting the original text. It usually does not include modern scholarly annotations, an introduction, or detailed background notes, so readers need to supplement the relevant materials themselves.

Is it suitable for reading to children?

The stories themselves are fairy tales, but the original language is archaic and the stories are fairly long with much allegorical content, so it is not suitable as reading material for young children. If reading to children, modern adapted translations or age-appropriate editions are recommended.

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About the author

Madame d'Aulnoy (Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy) Author · French · 1651–1705

Madame d'Aulnoy (Marie-Catherine, 1651?–1705) was a French woman writer, born Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy. She is known for her 1697 collection of fairy tales, Contes, and is credited with coining the term "fairy tale" (conte de fées); her tales circulated widely in Europe. The library holds volumes one and two of her Contes as well as Princess Belle-Etoile. She also wrote courtly novels and travel accounts set in Spain, such as The Ingenious and Diverting Letters of the Lady —— Travels into Spain and La cour et la ville de Madrid vers la fin du XVIIe siècle, which combine vivid foreign observations with narrative flair. Public information on the details of her life is limited, and existing accounts focus mainly on her literary works and influence.