Stories from Pentamerone

Giambattista Basile

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Chapters: 32

Summary

Stories from Pentamerone is an English selection from Il Pentamerone (also known as The Tale of Tales), the collection of stories in the Neapolitan dialect by the Italian writer Giambattista Basile (c. 1575–1632). The original is built on a frame-story structure: a princess, to break a curse, finds a prince, and over five days ten storytelling women each tell a tale, fifty in all, interspersed with a great deal of Neapolitan idiom, proverb, and baroque profusion of metaphor. This English selection presents the most representative of these stories, including The Myrtle, Peruonto, Vardiello, The Flea, Cenerentola, Goat-Face, The Enchanted Doe, Parsley, The Serpent, The She-Bear, The Dove, Cannetella, Corvetto, The Stone in the Cock's Head, The Dragon, The Two Cakes, The Seven Doves, The Raven, The Months, The Golden Root, Sun, Moon, and Talia, Nennillo and Nennella, and The Three Citrons, with the opening How the Tales came to be told and a conclusion. The collection is one of the earliest systematic fairy-tale collections in Europe, completed before the collecting work of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm; several of its tales are the earliest literary forms of classics such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel, while preserving a rawer, more humorous, even grotesque original aspect. It is an important text for the study of the origins of European folktales.

Editor's review

很多人以为自己熟悉的《灰姑娘》《睡美人》《长发公主》来自格林或佩罗，其实更早的文学版本就藏在这本《Stories from Pentamerone》里。巴西莱在十七世纪用那不勒斯方言写下的这部故事集，被誉为欧洲第一部成体系的童话集，比格林兄弟早了近两百年。读它最有趣的地方，是能看到「经典故事」尚未被后世打磨成温和儿童读物之前的原生模样：语言市井、比喻繁复、情节大胆，善恶报应来得又快又狠，带着巴洛克式的浓烈与怪诞。这个英文选译本保留了三十余篇代表性故事，篇幅适中，既可作为民间故事与童话研究的入门文本，也适合想追根溯源、看看熟悉母题「最初长什么样」的普通读者。英文行文带有旧译的韵致，句式偶有古意，正好与故事的古老气质相配。对于做比较文学、民俗学或儿童文学研究的人，它是一份成本很低却很有分量的一手材料。

Who it's for

A good fit for

对童话源流与民间故事母题感兴趣的读者
比较文学、民俗学、儿童文学方向的学生与研究者
想提升英语长篇阅读能力的进阶学习者
喜欢《故事的故事》等巴洛克风格作品的人

Not a good fit for

希望给孩子找温和睡前故事的家长（部分情节粗粝）
只想读轻松现代英语读物的入门读者

Reading tips

可先读《灰姑娘》《太阳、月亮与塔莉亚》等熟悉篇目，再回头读框架故事，理解整体结构。
建议对照格林、佩罗版本做母题比较，记录同一故事在不同文本中的差异。
遇到那不勒斯俗语与谚语式的比喻不必死抠，先通读情节，再回看细节。
一次读三五篇即可，故事密度高，连续阅读容易审美疲劳。

How the Tales came to be told
The Myrtle
Peruonto
Vardiello
The Flea
Cenerentola
The Merchant
Goat-Face
The Enchanted Doe
Parsley
The Three Sisters
Violet
Pippo
The Serpent
The She-Bear
The Dove
Cannetella
Corvetto
The Booby
The Stone in the Cock's Head
The Three Enchanted Princes
The Dragon
The Two Cakes
The Seven Doves
The Raven
The Months
Pintosmalto
The Golden Root
Sun, Moon, and Talia
Nennillo and Nennella
The Three Citrons
Conclusion

FAQ

这本书和《故事的故事》（The Tale of Tales）是同一本吗？

是同一部作品的不同英文译名与选本。原著为巴西莱的那不勒斯方言故事集《Il Pentamerone》，又名《The Tale of Tales》。本书是其中一个英文选译本，收录三十余篇故事而非全部五十篇。

书里的故事适合讲给小孩听吗？

需要挑选。这些是许多经典童话最早的文学版本，情节比后世改编更粗粝直白，涉及暴力与情色暗示，建议家长先自行阅读，再决定哪些篇目适合孩子。

为什么英文读起来有些古旧？

该书英文译本形成较早，保留了十九世纪末至二十世纪初英语散文的句法与用词习惯，因此会出现较长的句子和旧式表达，属于译本风格而非印刷错误。

没有意大利语基础能读懂吗？

可以。本书是英文译本，正文为英语，个别那不勒斯方言词汇与谚语在上下文中即可理解，不影响整体阅读。

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About the author

Giambattista Basile Author

Giambattista Basile is an important collector and writer of Italian folk literature. Public information about his life is limited, and his birth and death years and nationality are not clearly stated in the available materials. He is best known for Stories from Pentamerone, a book that links dozens of folk tales through a frame narrative and preserves a large number of story motifs that later became widely known, making it one of the important sources of the European fairy-tale tradition. Basile's writing style is vivid and plain, making good use of dialect and colloquial narration and blending folk wisdom, satire and fantastical imagination. His work has had a profound influence on later fairy-tale collection and literary creation, and holds a place in the categories of literature, foreign literature and folk literature.