Mother Goose‘s Fairy Tales

Charles PerraultProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.1

Word count: 118K words
Chapters: 12

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.Hanhiemon satuja by Charles PerraultAuthor: Perrault, Charles, 1628-1703,Language: Finnish, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Apr 15, 2015

Editor's review

This is the Finnish translation of Charles Perrault's fairy tales, released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain classic children's text. Perrault was a key founder of the seventeenth-century French fairy-tale tradition; his story motifs circulated widely across Europe and deeply influenced later fairy-tale literature. The book's value lies in two areas, language and culture: on one hand, the Finnish text offers learners of Finnish and students of translation practice a classic parallel resource; on the other, readers can use familiar fairy-tale motifs to observe narrative differences across languages and cultures. As a public-domain electronic book, it consists mainly of the original text and usually contains no modern notes or introduction, so readers must supply background knowledge themselves. It suits use as a supplementary reader for language learning, a primary text for comparative fairy-tale study, or light reading for those interested in European folk tales. Readers are advised to first learn the basic character of Perrault's tales in their original French context so as to grasp how the translation handles them.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate learners of Finnish who want to use a classic text for extensive reading practice
Literature enthusiasts studying the origins of fairy tales and European folk motifs
Readers interested in translation practice who want to compare different language versions of the same stories
Creators who need public-domain fairy-tale material for adaptation or teaching use

Not a good fit for

Readers who want a version with detailed notes, an introduction, or scholarly interpretation
Ordinary fairy-tale readers without Finnish who only want a Chinese translation
Buyers expecting a richly illustrated, finely bound children's print book

Reading tips

Start with stories you already know and use the familiar plot to infer unfamiliar words, lowering the language barrier
Prepare a French or Chinese version of Perrault's tales for comparison and observe the translator's choices and rewrites
After each tale, briefly note differences in motif and ending to build material for comparative study
Treat the text as language material rather than an object of textual scholarship; skip difficulties and keep reading

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 Finnish or French?

According to the information, the book's language is Finnish; it is a Finnish translation of Perrault's tales, not the original French.

Why does this book have no translator or notes?

The book comes from Project Gutenberg and is a public-domain electronic text, usually consisting mainly of the original content and not necessarily including modern translation notes or an introduction; consult the actual file for specifics.

Is it suitable as a bedtime story for children?

If a parent can read it aloud in Finnish or translate it themselves, yes; otherwise the language barrier is high for children unfamiliar with Finnish, and it is better suited as language-learning or research material.

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About the author

Charles Perrault Author · French · 1628–1703

Charles Perrault (1628–1703) was a French writer and poet, a member of the Académie française, and a leading figure of the Moderns in the seventeenth-century Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. In 1697 he published Tales of Passed Times (Histoires ou contes du temps passé), which includes such well-known tales as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and Puss in Boots, and which established the fairy tale as a literary genre. Drawing on oral folk tales, he retold them in clear, concise prose that preserves both the wonder and the moral instruction of the originals while adding a touch of salon elegance. Translated into many languages, these tales spread widely across Europe and deeply influenced later fairy-tale writing.