"Seems like Tulip didn't show.." Chester frowns, glancing over at Aite. He and the Prime Minister stood on a balcony overlooking the large party. He leans over the railing, his dark purple suit matching nicely with Aite's more formal wear that was also purple.
"There's always next month." Aite places the tip of her closed man to where the mouth would be on her mask. "But if she doesn't come, it is what it is. Forcing her to meet us would only damage what little trust she has."
"Mrs. Orpheus and Archie are here." Chester glances at her, deciding to change the topic.
"I can only assume he's ensnaring some more poor girls." Aite grips her fan before exhaling.
The two continue to watch, seeing the people below converse and laugh. Talk and mingle.
Fake, all of them. Aite's eyes narrow, anger sparking in her veins. Coming here to suck up, try and put money in the other Ministers' pockets.
She was trying to make a change, yet it was hard. She had authority, and she had power, yet the Ministers below her had their ways, too.
She exhales.
"Hand me the mic."
Chester nods and hands her a headworn microphone. She easily slips it past her hair and slips it under her mask. After checking with Chester that its volume was reasonable, she speaks.
"Thank you, everyone, for showing up once again to a gathering like this."
All attention turns to her. She smiles fakely beneath her mask. "Once again, Renata has never been better. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of everyone present here, Renata still remains on top."
As Aite continues her speech, Chester glances out over the group of people. Names ring in his mind.
The Arisons, the Bamfords, the Fridmans, the Morgans, he runs over the names of the most influential people present before his eyes land on Daisy and Archie Orpheus. And yet, they still don't match the Orpheuses.
Well, except for..
The aide's eyes travel over to a group of people nearly on the opposite side of the room of the Orpheuses. The Burkhearts. Equal in fame, money, and control.
If Chester remembered right, there was an agreement between the two families. Once Tulip came of age and inherited the company, and the same happened for Zeke Burkheart, the heir to the Burkheart family, there would be a wedding for the two, so that the two families could both become more powerful.
Chester holds back a scowl. Arranged marriages were taboo, and Aite was trying her hardest to make them illegal outright, but with such pushback from the upper class, it was hard.
"And of course, I couldn't have achieved half of what I have without Chester's help." Aite's voice pulls him out of his thoughts, and he smiles, dipping his head. Once the applause for him stops, and Aite continues, his eyes land on Zeke Burkheart.
The heir to the Burkheart's had long golden hair tied in a low ponytail, with dark green eyes, and his dark blue suit paired well with the sapphire and silver broach on his chest.
What was amusing was Zeke glaring at Archie and Daisy. Chester had heard through the grape vine that he had apparently lost his mind when Tulip first ran away and purposely wasn't invited to the party where Tulip returned.
It was hard for Chester to tell if Zeke was after the power or had some interest in Tulip.
"..and that concludes all I have to say."
Chester glances at Aite, who begins to slip off the microphone.
"Have a pleasant rest of the party, everyone."
With that, Aite slips off the microphone and hands it to Chester, and they both turn and leave.
"Wonderful job, Aite." Chester chuckles once he's turned off the microphone.
"That leaves me exhausted every time." Aite shakes her head. "I'm so peeved those damn Ministers made me do a solo speech." She exhales. "These parties always suck."
The aide chuckles. "Shall I get you some coffee then?"
"Please."
"Of course."
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Thoughts on Herlock Sholmès arrive trop tard (1/3)
(yes, only part one; I had family visiting and I'm very behind on all of my book clubs)
I am never not going to laugh about Herlock Sholmès, the guy who is definitely not Sherlock Holmes. It's way too silly.
C’est étrange ce que vous ressemblez à Arsène Lupin, Velmont !
Well, I guess we know who Lupin is in this story. Though maybe Leblanc is writing a double fake out, and Velmont really is a look-a-like.
si vous n’étiez pas le peintre connu dont j’admire les belles marines
Lupin can do everything else, why not be a well-known artist, too?
Des bahuts et des crédences
There are credenzas and credenzas, apparently. I'd check a better dictionary, but honestly I don't know what different types of credenza might exist, and it wouldn't help me build a more accurate mental picture of the room.
devise - motto
« Fais ce que veulx. »
Do what you want. An interesting family motto. Should be Lupin's, I think.
Une indiscrétion n’est plus à craindre.
Um...you sure about that, Devanne? I was willing to cut you a break for not realizing the guy who looks like Lupin is Lupin, because you don't know you're in a Lupin story, but this is pretty dumb.
Herlock Sholmès, le grand policier anglais pour qui il n’est point de mystère, Herlock Sholmès, le plus extraordinaire déchiffreur d’énigmes que l’on ait jamais vu, le prodigieux personnage qui semble forgé de toutes pièces par l’imagination d’un romancier, Herlock Sholmès
Totally not Sherlock Holmes, legally.
se tourner les pouces - twiddle his thumbs
le 7 thermidor an II - This is a date from the French Republican calendar, making the date (it seems) July 26 or 27 of 1793. As to why this system of dating would be used here? No clue.
<< La hache tournoie dans l’air qui frémit, mais l’aile s’ouvre, et l’on va jusqu’à Dieu. >>
Ah, yes, a secret code. Is there a transcription error? Because I'm not seeing anything about the bird that's mentioned later.
À moins qu’Arsène Lupin ne le devance.
Too late.
Sans perdre une seconde ! ne faut-il pas que cette nuit, c’est-à-dire avant l’arrivée de Herlock Sholmès, je cambriole votre château.
He's literally just said he's robbing the place, and Devanne still doesn't know he's Lupin
En quarante minutes, le salon fut « désencombré » selon l’expression d’Arsène.
Lupin is a bit of a shit, isn't he? Decluttered.
Miss Nelly ! la passagère du Transatlantique
The romantic interest from the first story. Nice to see her again.
Alors, se décidant brusquement, il laissa tomber sur le fauteuil une partie des objets, vida ses poches et se défit de son sac.
Dude, really?
— À trois heures, demain, tout sera remis en place… Les meubles seront rapportés…
I really don't get it. I mean, I get that he doesn't want her to be scared of him, but what does that have to do with him returning everything he stole?
And, of course, we don't see M. Sholmès in this instalment, as he arrives too late.
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Perrault’s “Cendrillon”
So, why do I want to speak about Cinderella on this website? Because I see way too much bullshit about it going around. Especially when it’s about Disney animated version. Because yeah, Disney indeed sanitized quite a bit the version they took inspiration from to make their own, for children. But not the way you think they had done it. They did not suppress violence. They did not need to: they took Perrault’s version of Cinderella, not the Brother Grimm’s one.
So, in this post, we are going to talk about Perrault’s version of Cinderella, or “Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre*”. Because I'm pretty sure you most likely do not have a complete reading of this tale.
*I want to clarify here that, verre = glass. The idea that it was in another fabric comes from XIXs century's authors who thought it did not make sense and thus said that it was a mistake and that it was “vair” (which is a type of fur) because you know, fairy tales had to be realistic… ANYWAY.
N.B.: English is not my first language so bear with me the mistakes.
1. Charles Perrault did not write tales for children (and without adding gore for that)
Yes, because before we talk about the tale, we have to do some context. It’s very important.
Okay, so repeat after me, “Charles Perrault did not write tales for children.”
I know, you are going to think that I think it’s because they were trash or something, thus not good for children. It’s not for this reason.
Charles Perrault wrote tales for the French high-society circle. He wrote his tales at the end of XVIIs century (“Cendrillon” was published in 1697). At this time, tales were not thought for children but for everyone (I'm not going to expand on the oral tradition of tales in France in the XVIIs century, sorry, but keep in mind it was oral, and not specific to old women).
Now, don’t get me wrong, Perrault did everything to make you believe it was for children. He called it “Contes de ma mère l’oye” at first, which is a way to create the idea that these tales were just stories he heard from old women. Yes, it’s the old storyteller cliché. I mean, he even put this frontispiece to really, really, be sure you understand:
He even went as far as telling it’s his own son who wrote them and put a dedication where his son (Pierre) was saying :
“On ne trouvera pas étrange qu’un Enfant ait pris plaisir à composer les Contes de ce Recueil […].”
“Nobody will find strange that a child took pleasure in composing this tales collection […].”
(At this time, Pierre was 19 and you have to take into account that childhood was not perceived the same way as today – and teenage years just did not exist. At the time, childhood was considered a lack. When you were a child, you were lacking something – something you would gain in adulthood. So, at 19, Pierre was not considered a child.)
So why I’m saying that it’s just a stratagem.
Because what Perrault did is called a "jeu mondain". People in literary circles were playing at this, composing poetry, little stories, and other texts to entertain each other. It's especially true in Perrault's epoch: numerous writers, especially women, were writing tales for this circle. For example, the first one who used the term “Conte de fees” (“Fairy Tale”) was Madame d’Aulnoy. And we also have several versions of the same stories from different people who were playing a game: with the same beginning, do your own story (Perrault did that with his niece and another woman, don’t remember who).
Perrault's writing might look simple. It's anything but. I'm not going to talk in detail about it but basically, he imitates oral and popular style. But at the same time, he did it with enough talent to make it okay for the high society to read. It’s a very elaborate fake popular style.
It’s a way for his readers to appreciate some “low” style with a bit of distance. They laugh but they understood Perrault’s mirth behind his tales. It’s not for children or the masses, far from it.
That's also why it's for adults but you will not find gore or something: it would have been absolutely abhorrent for people of this circle. A few salacious jokes, okay. If you do it right. But more? Oh god, no. A lot of women around Perrault were part of the preciosity. Make your heroin having her eyes tear off and they would have judged you sooo much.
(On top of that, you have to notice that general, tales for children of this time are about children… most of Perrault's ones aren't. They are about young men, and especially young women… like the ones he meets in his social circle, and who are listening ?)
2. Perrault’s tales’ pretty messed up moralities (on purpose)
This leads us to this point: Perrault did not make moral tales. Or at least, not in the way we might perceive them today.
Oh, of course, like for the children thing, he went really hard to make you believe it in the paratext.
You have to understand that tale was a low genre in the French tradition (to make it short, Tragedy, Poetry, and Epic poems were the big YES because they came from Antiquities with noble subjects, when Tales, Novels, and Comedy were the big You're a joke of a writer). That's why Perrault used the same technic as La Fontaine to make it nobler: he used the didactic strategy.
I mean, if it’s here to make you learn something, it’s way better than just entertainment, right? Yes, things never changed. That’s why Perrault was selling it as a didactic thing.
However, he might sell it as much as he wants, he can’t hide the content he produces, right?
Have you ever read Perrault’s moralities at the end of the tales? They are WILD.
Sometimes there is one morality and it has nothing to do with the tale. Sometimes there are two of them and they contradict each other. Sometimes they are just mocking you and/or society. At no point was Perrault like "yes, that's the meaning of my text, FOLLOW IT TO THE LETTERS".
See this example from “La Barbe Bleue” (Blue Beard) :
« Moralité
La curiosité malgré tous ses attraits,
Coûte souvent bien des regrets ;
On en voit tous les jours mille exemples paraître.
C’est, n’en déplaise au sexe, un plaisir bien léger ;
Dès qu’on le prend il cesse d’être,
Et toujours il coûte trop cher.
Autre moralité
Pour peu qu’on ait l’esprit sensé,
Et que du Monde on sache le grimoire,
On voit bientôt que cette histoire
Est un conte du temps passé ;
Il n’est plus d’Epoux si terrible,
Ni qui demande l’impossible,
Fût-il malcontent et jaloux.
Près de sa femme on le voit filer doux ;
Et de quelque couleur que sa barbe puisse être,
On a peine à juger qui des deux est le maître. »
In the first one, Perrault is saying that women are very curious beings and that it's bad behavior. In the second one, Perrault is saying that fortunately, nobody is that bad of a husband today and that even if they were, men are submitting to their wives.
(You have to take into account that Perrault was… feminist might be anachronistic, but he fought for women's education, etc. He even wrote a treaty during a famous quarrel between two camps in French literature. The dude was here to stay.)
So which moral do you take into account? And more than that, the tale in itself does not give you the answer because it can be read as a wedding between nobility and the bourgeoisie (a big problem at the time). And that’s just an example.
In another one, he is going to say that you have to be intelligent to become something in life but then just after he will be like "well… I say that but better have a good heritage. It works better.”.
You can consider that tales have for goal to teach you something. Perrault’s ones do not. And it’s logic you know: it’s not for children. Whose aristocrats would like to entertain themselves by learning some morals when it is normally about trying to outsmart everyone?
3. “Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre” or “The strategy to find a good husband”
When you read “Cendrillon” for the first time, you can easily understand it as the following: be good and you will be rewarded. It’s a “nice things happen to nice people” situation, as a reward for being nice to everyone, Cendrillon marries the Prince.
That’s what you can understand from the first morality.
« Moralité
La beauté pour le sexe est un rare trésor,
De l’admirer jamais on ne se lasse ;
Mais ce qu’on nomme bonne grâce
Est sans prix, et vaut mieux encor.
C’est ce qu’à Cendrillon fit avoir sa Marraine,
En la dressant, en l’instruisant,
Tant et si bien qu’elle en fit une Reine :
(Car ainsi sur ce Conte on va moralisant.)
Belles, ce dont vaut mieux que d’être bien coiffées,
Pour engager un cœur, pour en venir à bout,
La bonne grâce est le vrai don des Fées ;
Sans elle on ne peut rien, avec elle, on peut tout. »
And on top of that, her short presentation emphasizes these characteristics :
« Le mari avait de son côté une jeune fille, mais d’une douceur et d’une bonté sans exemple ; elle tenait cela de sa Mère, qui était la meilleure personne du monde. »
« The husband had one young girl, whose gentleness and kindness were without equal; she was inheriting it from her Mother, who was the best person in the world.”
She is beautiful but most importantly, she is kind.
But there is another reading, of course. Another layer. There is always one in Perrault’s tale. Is Cendrillon just kind? Is it the only reason she is rewarded in the end? Kindness is not naivety.
The answer is linked to the second morality.
« Autre Moralité
C’est sans doute un grand avantage,
D’avoir de l’esprit, du courage,
De la naissance, du bon sens,
Et d’autres semblables talents,
Qu’on reçoit du Ciel en partage ;
Mais vous aurez beau les avoir,
Pour votre avancement ce seront choses vaines,
Si vous n’avez, pour les faire valoir,
Ou des parrains ou des marraines. »
So, it's saying that it's great to be good, intelligent, and beautiful but if you want something, better count on having someone to help you and be able to strategize for your social climbing, you know.
Yes, you can read Perrault’s Cendrillon as a girl who is not that honest but who is well aware of what she needs to do to live a good life.
That’s what I meant when I said that your “girl boss” Cendrillon may exist but not in the way you hoped for. Through the tale, you can interpret her behavior as a way to go to the ball to seduce the prince or at least find a good husband.
Yes, Cendrillon is good and nice. But she is also very aware of the situation she is in. For example, on one hand, this is the dialogue between Cendrillon and her sister:
« En les coiffant, elles lui disaient : "Cendrillon, serait-tu bien aise d’aller au Bal ? – Hélas, Mesdemoiselles, vous vous moquez de moi, ce n’est pas là ce qu’il me faut. – Tu as raison, on rirait bien si on voyait un Cucendron aller au Bal." »
“While doing their hair, they were saying: “Cendrillon, would you be pleased to go to the ball? – Alas, misses, you are making fun of me, it is not what I need. – You are right, we would laugh well if we were to see a Cucendron go to the ball.”
On the other hand, here is the conversation with her fairy godmother just after her half-sisters leave:
« Sa Marraine, qui la vit toute en pleurs, lui demande ce qu’elle avait. "Je voudrais bien… je voudrais bien…" Elle pleurait si fort qu’elle ne put achever. Sa Marraine, qui était Fée, lui dit : "Tu voudrais bien aller au Bal, n’est-ce pas ? – Hélas oui, dit Cendrillon en soupirant." »
“Her godmother, who saw her in tears, asked her what was happening. “I would like to… I would like to…” She was crying so hard that she could not finish. Her godmother, who was Fairy, said to her: “You would like to go to the ball, wouldn’t you? – Alas yes, said Cendrillon, sighing.””
Do you see the difference? She lies to her sisters by saying it's not what she “needs” (“ce qu’il me faut”) when it’s clearly what she wants. But she knows very well who she can tell and who she can't. This dissimulative behavior continues when she teases her sisters about the beautiful woman (her) they meet at the ball. At this point, Cendrillon asks one of them if she could lend her a dress to go with her. Of course, the sister refuses, and here is Cendrillon’s reaction:
« Cendrillon s’attendait bien à ce refus et elle en fut bien aise, car elle aurait été grandement embarrassée si sa sœur eût bien voulu lui prêter son habit. »
« Cendrillon expected well this refusal et she was pleased about it because she would have been greatly embarrassed if her sister had accepted to lend him her clothes.”
She knew pretty well and she is playing with her sisters. She is not naïve and she already has a plan for the following night, to meet again the prince. And she plays so well her game that she wins in the end: she marries the prince.
So yes, Cendrillon is good but she can also be scheming. Both are possible. You can see it, especially at the end. After being married, she forgives her mean half-sisters :
« Cendrillon, qui était aussi bonne que belle, fit loger ses deux sœurs au Palais, et les maria dès le jour même à deux grands Seigneurs de la Cour. »
« Cendrillon, who was as good as beautiful, made her two sisters stay in the Palace, and married them on the same day to two high lords of the Court.”
She knows that what is needed for women in her time is a good marriage. And that’s why she also gave it to her sisters after she has her own. Elle ne perd pas le nord.
And that’s why I like this character and tale. Well, Perrault’s version of it.
It's funny because when everyone criticizes Cendrillon as this nice but naïve and quite dumb girl in the end, I’m like no? She isn’t? And no need to have gore for that. No need to add blood and torture. You just have to take into account the context she is living in and how she manipulates it to her own advantage while staying true to her goodness.
So maybe, before criticizing fairy tales, making them simpler and dumber than they are, just put them in their context. Especially when it comes to moralities.
Authors lie all the damn time and Perrault is very good at it. He is part of the wittiest circle of his country’s epoch, after all.
And if you are interested (and you speak French, sorry), I would suggest you read the following books on the subject:
BRIERE-HAQUET Alice, Politique des contes – Il était une fois Perrault aujourd’hui…, Paris : Classiques Garnier, 2021, 168p.
ESCOLA Marc, Contes de Charles Perrault, Editions Gallimard, 2005, 235p.
SIMONSEN Michèle, Perrault – Contes, Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1992, 124p.
SORIANO Marc, Les Contes de Perrault – Culture savante et traditions populaires, Gallimard, 1968, 525p.
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