64
France
Jean Perrot
From Stereotypes to Real-Life PublishingThe spread of French children’s literature to English-speaking countries may seem
surprising. The shelves of bookshops in Britain or in the USA carry only a few
translations portraying Jean de Brunhoff’s little elephant King Babar or Saint Exupèry’s
The Little Prince (published in New York in 1943, before being published in Paris in 1945).
And yet, stories from the Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé, published in 1697 by
Charles Perrault are in print in innumerable adaptations, and some have been
transformed into Walt Disney’s galaxy myths: Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are the
best known; others are part of British pantomime tradition, such as Puss in Boots—
while others such as Riquet with the Tuft or Hop o’my Thumb are less well-known.
These stories are set in the ancien regime, but refer to bourgeoisie’s ideal of social
advancement as it climbed to power. Has this ideal become an integral part of the
initiation rites of children throughout the world, and become no longer specifically
French?
It should also be noted that the first time Perrault’s complete collection was
introduced in England it was used as an introduction to the language: the publication in
French in 1884 of Contes de fées, with notes and complete vocabulary by G.F.Fasnacht,
in Macmillan’s Illustrated Primary Series of French Readings actually preceded the
famous edition by Andrew Lang, Perrault’s Popular Tales (1888). One may wonder why
this literary reception was so slow: was this due to resistance from the national folklore
or insularity? However, the works of the Comtesse de Ségur and Jules Verne in the
nineteenth century were translated more quickly: Les Anglais au Pôle Nord published in
French in 1864 was published by Routledge and Sons in 1874 in London and New York,
perhaps because this was the epoch of industry, of exploration of the world by a science
at full stretch, and also of the beginnings of mass culture. But similarly, in another
register, the works of Madame de Genlis in the eighteenth century were published
almost simultaneously in both French and English: a volume such as Théâtre á l’usage
des jeunes personnes (1781) appeared in London in the same year under the title
Theatre of Education and Adèle et Theodore ou Lettres sur l’education (1782) appeared a
year later under the title Adelaide and Theodore, or Letters on Education, reflecting the
common concerns of educationalists. Has there been a change, and have our two
cultures now moved further apart? What characterises children’s publishing in France at