Madame d'Aulnoy

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Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy
Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy
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Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baronne d'Aulnoy (1650/1651–4 January 1705) was a French writer known for her fairy tales.

Indeed, when she termed her works contes de fée (fairy tales), she invented the term that is now generally used for the genre.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born in Barneville near Bourg-Achard (Eure) as a member of a noble family (she was the niece of Marie Bruneau des Loges), in 1666 she married a Parisian thirty years older—François de la Motte, Baron d'Aulnoy. The baron was a freethinker and a known gambler. Over the next three years, the couple had three children. In 1669, the Baron d'Aulnoy was accused of treason but the accusations proved to be false and two men implicated in the accusation were executed. Marie-Catherine's mother fled the country as she was also allegedly involved, however it is not known if the Comtesse d'Aulnoy herself had anything to do with the charges. She had three more children and discontinued involvement in the Paris social scene for twenty years. During this period, she later said that she had traveled to Spain and England, the latter voyage cannot be confirmed however. Much of this time was also spent writing stories inspired by these destinations; these stories later became her most popular works.

Madame d'Aulnoy was a permanent resident of Paris again by 1690 where her salon became one of the most popular of the time, featuring frequent visitations by leading aristocrats and princes. Over the next thirteen years she published twelve books including three pseudo-memoirs, two fairy tale collections and three "historical" novels. Gaining the reputation as a historian and recorder of tales from outside of France, and elected as a member of Paduan Accademia dei Ricovvati, she was called by the name of the muse of history, Clio. However, at this time the idea of history was a much looser term which included her fictional accounts. In 150 years, the more strictly documented form of the term lead to her accounts being declared "fraudulent". However, in France and England at the time her works were considered as mere entertainment, a sentiment reflected in the reviews of the period. Her truly accurate attempts at historical accounts telling of the Dutch wars of Louis XIV were less successful.

Her most popular works were her fairy tales and adventure stories as told in Les Contes des Fees (Tales of fairies) and Contes Nouveaux ou Les Fees a la Mode. Unlike the folk tales of Charles Perrault, she told her stories in a more conversational style, as they might be told in salons. These stories were far from suitable for children and many English adaptions are very dissimilar to the original. The majority of her tales feature active female protagonists.

[edit] Works


[edit] References

  1. ^ Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 858, ISBN 0-393-97636-X

[edit] External links and Resources

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