24 h 29 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A stranger at the door, a dangerous bargain, a wish: in these tales, ordinary life never stays ordinary for long.
Four and Twenty Fairy Tales gathers French fairy stories by Charles Perrault, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, and other classic writers. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Beast share a world of enchanted households, where rank, money, manners, and power matter as much as magic.
Cinderella faces a household that keeps pleasure and opportunity out of reach. In Beauty and the Beast, an enchanted home brings fear, obligation, and affection into conflict. Across the collection, a royal marriage can depend on a household task, and a wish can bring consequences that are hard to escape.
What you’ll discover
- Familiar tales, sharper edges Rediscover familiar stories through their keen interest in social behaviour, household rivalries, and power.
- Small things that matter Follow Cinderella into a story where everyday objects gain extraordinary purpose and small details demand attention.
- Beyond outward appearances Enter Beauty and the Beast, where appearances offer no reliable guide to character.
- Magic with consequences Encounter wishes and dangerous bargains that interrupt ordinary lives and test the promises people make.
- Generosity, folly, and choice Explore moral puzzles as magic rewards generosity, exposes foolishness, and gives familiar situations an unexpected turn.
Who will love it
Readers who love fairy tales, talking animals, enchanted palaces and French court storytelling will find plenty to treasure here. Familiar tales such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty sit beside romances of fairy lovers.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A forbidden key tests a bride
- A princess sleeps in a thorny wood
- Wit and kindness lift the poor
- Small and ugly heroes outwit their foes
- Fairy lovers face jealousy and fate
- Court ladies spin tales of cruel fairies
- A doll princess and a lion girl
- Beauty, the Beast and a love of virtue
Who’s who
- Blue BeardA wealthy man with a blue beard who gives his wife the keys but forbids her to open one room.
- Sleeping BeautyA princess cursed at her christening by a slighted fairy to prick her hand on a spindle.
- Master CatA clever cat in boots who brings the king gifts in his penniless master's name.
- CinderellaA kind girl burdened with household chores who longs to go to the prince's ball.
- Little ThumblingThe smallest of seven brothers, shrewd and silent, who finds the way home when his parents abandon them.
- BeautyA merchant's youngest daughter who offers herself to the Beast to save her father.
- The BeastThe lonely master of an enchanted palace who asks Beauty the same question every evening.
- LionetteA princess raised by lions and an old couple, who loves a shepherd and gives him a necklace.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Four and Twenty Fairy Tales in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Four and Twenty Fairy Tales
A bride holds one forbidden little key while her blue-bearded husband travels away.
ChallengingOver 20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What does a young wife find behind the one door she is told never to open? This collection opens with Blue Beard and gathers the classic tales of Charles Perrault, along with Beauty and the Beast and long romances by Madame de Murat and other French writers.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A forbidden key tests a bride
The book opens with Blue Beard by Charles Perrault, a tale about curiosity and trust. A rich man with an ugly blue beard wins a neighbor's younger daughter after a week of parties in the country. Before he leaves on a long journey, he hands her every key to his house.
One small key opens a closet at the end of the ground floor gallery, and he strictly forbids her to use it. She gives in to curiosity and opens the forbidden closet, breaking the rule he laid down before he left on his journey.
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What is Four and Twenty Fairy Tales about?
It is a collection of French fairy tales by Perrault, Madame de Beaumont, Madame de Murat and other court writers. The stories feature fairies, ogres, enchanted animals and princes and princesses, and they often end with a moral.
Which famous fairy tales are in this book?
It includes Blue Beard, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Riquet with the Tuft, Little Thumbling and Beauty and the Beast. Less familiar tales by Madame de Murat and others fill the rest.
Who is the Beast in Beauty and the Beast?
The Beast is the master of an enchanted palace who frightens Beauty's father but treats her with gentleness.
The author
Charles Perrault
1628–1703 · French fairy tale writer
Charles Perrault was a French author born in Paris in 1628. He lived in France and died in Paris in 1703. He wrote poetry and prose and became a member of the French Academy in 1671. His collection of fairy tales was published in 1697.
More by Charles Perrault; Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont; Other Classic Writers; J. R. Planché (translator)
All 2 booksMore like this
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