Pentamerone
The Pentamerone, or The Story of the Stories by Giambattista Basile
The Story of the Stories (or sometimes The Tale of the Tales) is officially the first collection of fairy tales presenting several plots from popular fairy tales like Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Goose Girl, and others in rougher, often even vulgar versions.
They were written centuries before today's more known variations, often being presented in a printed form for the first time.
In a way, we can say The Pentamerone, as The Story of the Stories is best known today, is a grandmother of modern fairy tales.
This beautiful hand-colored illustration by legendary George Cruikshank presents one of the scenes from just one of the fifty fairy tales in the book. We'll shortly present it through a heavily censored translation by John Edward Taylor. The first English translation in 1847 presented only 30 stories. Reprints were further censored and sanitized, or, as we can poetically say 'revised and edited' which led to only 19 tales (plus the frame story, of course) in the version we are presenting today. It was edited by Helen Zimmern and published in 1893 by Cassell Publishing Company in New York.
(Minecco Aniello before the king Nibbler)
The illustration above is much closer to George Cruikshank's original. The illustrator was already dead for a decade and a half at the time of publishing. Other illustrations will be of similar or even lower quality, what is considering the time of print (chromolithography was fully developed) a sure sign of trying to maximize the publisher's profit in the already very competitive market. Yet we can still enjoy the presentation of this fascinating book.
The book starts with a preface, where we find out a bit about the author, the original dialect, and the translation and adaptation of the text.
A list of stories follows. Only 20 out of 50 are included in this book.
After that, a list of illustrations by George Cruikshank is presented. There are 10 illustrations altogether. We'll see each one of them as it was included in the book.
Introduction
We are introduced to Princess Zoza who can't laugh. Her father solved the problem but this led to the curse - she has to fill a jug with her tears in just three days. She is tricked by her slave, who stoles her identity and marries the prince. Her pregnancy is the reason for the storytelling marathon, but also the disclosure of her con.
Peruonto
Peruonto is a foolish but nice boy who is rewarded by fairies with a special gift: all his wishes will become true. This way a princess falls in love with him. Her father was mad at her and tries to punish her, but in the end, everything pans out well and Peruonto becomes the smart, handsome husband of the princess and the heir to the throne.
Vardiello
The flea
The enchanted doe
Also known as The Enchanted Dove the story presents two brothers, the twins who loved each mother so much their own mother became jealous. So one of them left the other, married a princess, but after some time became a victim of shapeshifting ogre, who tricked him into appearing as a dove.
Thanks to the magic brook and a myrtle his brother noticed his trouble soon enough to save him.
Parsley
One of the oldest versions of Rapunzel.
The three sisters
A story about a good and two bad sisters. The bad ones try to destroy their sister's luck but are punished for their wickedness in the end.
Violet
Gagliuso
Sometimes titled Cagliuso or Pippo it's a variant of today's much more known Puss in Boots.
The serpent
This story belongs to the family of so-called animal groom fairy tales and bears a lot of resemblance with East of the Sun, and West of the Moon.
The she-bear
We are dealing with one of the sub-families of Cinderella stories. The main plot is simple, although a bit dramatic for today's audience: father falls in love with his own daughter!
The dove
It's a fairy tale about a prince who is cursed and falls in love with a daughter of the ogress. He has to solve three impossible tasks and is cursed again, but everything ends happily.
The booby
The stone in the cock's head
The two cakes
An old version of Diamonds and Toads.
There are several elements of the Goose Girl in this tale as well.
The seven doves
As we can suspect from the title, it's a variant of Seven Ravens.
The golden root
It's a variant of the myth about Cupid and Psyche, which puts this tale in the category of East of The Sun and West of the Moon and The Beauty and the Beast category.
Nennillo and Nennella
We are dealing with an old version of Brother and sister.
The three citrons
It's a tale about a stolen identity with recognizable elements of several classic fairy tales.
Conclusion
Here the story about Zoza from the beginning comes to a satisfying conclusion. The treacherous slave is revealed and punished. Zoza gets her prince and the book of Pentamerone comes to the end.
This is all about today's book, The Pentamerone, The Story of the Stories, printed by R & R Clark.
