Cendrillon ou la Petite Pantoufle de verre

***Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper*** is a fairy tale written by French writer Charles Perrault first published in 1697.

## Origin

The story of Rhodopis, first recorded in his book *Geographica* by Greek geographer Strabo, has been considered by many the earliest variant of the Cinderella story. Although is true that this story presents one of the key elements that everyone associates with Cinderella, the girl who married and became royalty because she was the only one whose foot fit her lost shoe, who ended up in the hands of a member of royalty, the story of Rhodopis misses many of the other elements that most Cinderella variants have. There’s no evil stepmother and stepsisters as antagonists, Rhodopis doesn’t lose her shoe in an event she was forbidden to go, and the closest thing to a magic helper the story has is the eagle who snatches Rhodopis’ sandal to then let it drop on the pharaoh's lap. The Chinese variant *Ye Xian*, that appeared for the first time in the twenty first chapter of Duan Chengshi’s *Miscellaneous Stories from Youyang* during the Tang Dynasty, is a little bit closer to Perrault’s version. The heroine and titular character Ye Xian is an orphan mistreated by her evil stepmother and stepsister, who goes to a festival her stepmother doesn’t allow thanks to magic fishbones’ help, where she loses one of her slippers, who ends up in the hands of king who decides to marry whoever the slipper fits, who of course ends up being Ye Xian.

The fairy tale *The Cinderella Cat* by Neapolitan author Giambattista Basile, first published in 1634 in the first volume of *Il Pentamerone*, is considered the first modern European variant, and can be seen as a huge source of inspiration for Perrault, presenting many elements Perrault will later use like the heroine going to a ball with the help of a fairy. Despite that It must be said that Basile's tale has many elements that Perrault probably never thought of using on his own version because he deemed them too controversial and outrageous for his intended audiences, Versailles' nobility, like the heroine murdering her first stepmother so her father can marry her governess, who later turns out to be an even worse stepmother than her predecessor.

## Synopsis

A gentleman who has a sweet and kind daughter from his previous marriage remarries to a haughty woman with two daughters of her own. Soon after the wedding the new wife, jealous of her stepdaughters’ good qualities, forces her to do the heaviest house chores, and sleep in a star bed in a garret while the woman’s daughters sleep in the house’s finest bedrooms. The poor girl can’t complain to her own father, because she knows he’ll side with her stepmother. Because at the end of the day she sits on the chimney corner her stepsisters call her nicknames like Cinderwench and Cinderella.

One day the king’s son gives a ball and Cinderella’s stepsisters are invited. They’re so excited that they spend the days previous to the ball getting ready and selecting the best gowns and accessories to go. While Cinderella is helping them they ask her if she would want to go to the ball too. She answers saying she knows they’re asking it to mock her, because she knows there’s no way they would let her go. When the day finally comes the stepsisters go, and Cinderella follows them with her eyes before losing sight of them and breaking into tears. In that moment Cinderella’s godmother, who’s actually a fairy, comes and asks her why she’s crying. Cinderella tries to reply, but she can’t because she’s sobbing. Despite that her godmother knows she wants to go to the ball, and order Cinderella to go to the garden for a pumpkin. Although a little weirded out by her godmother’s request Cinderella goes and gets the pumpkin, that her godmother empties before striking it with her magic wand and turning it into a gilded coach. Then she orders Cinderella to lift the mousetrap’s door, and as they come out the godmother turns six mice into horses. Cinderella finds inside the rat trap three rats, thinking one of them could be turned into a coachman, and the godmother chooses the one with the biggest whiskers. Finally the godmother sends Cinderella back to the garden to bring her the six lizards that hide behind the watering pot, to turn them into footmen. Although the coach is ready, Cinderella points out that she’s still wearing rags, and with one single touch of her wand the godmother turns Cinderella’s ragged clothes in a beautiful dress and gives her a pair of glass slippers. Once Cinderella gets inside the coach and before she leaves her godmother warns her to come back before midnight, because by then everything will go back to its previous form.

When Cinderella arrives at the ball she’s mistaken for a mysterious foreign princess and the prince goes to receive her. When she enters the room led by the prince everyone stops to look at her and comment how beautiful she is, even the king. After dancing people sit at the table to eat, and while the prince doesn’t eat because he can’t take his eyes out of her, Cinderella sits beside her stepsisters, who can’t recognize her, and impresses them with her good manners. When Cinderella realizes that there’s already eleven and three quarters she apologizes and leaves. When she arrives at home she thanks her godmother for the night and tells her everything that happened until she hears her stepsister arriving back home. Pretending to just wake up Cinderella asks them how the ball was, and the stepsisters can’t stop talking about anything else but the mysterious maiden they saw. Expressing the desire to see her Cinderella asks them to lend her some clothes so she can’t go to the next ball with them and see her too, but her stepsisters rudely reply saying they must be crazy to do such a thing.

The next day Cinderella goes again to the ball with her godmother’s help, but this time wearing a more splendid dress than the previous night. At the ball the prince never leaves her side, and Cinderella enjoys his company so much that she doesn’t realize what time it is until she shears the clock strike twelve. She hurries to leave, dropping one of her glass slippers. The prince, who was running after her, finds the slipper, picks it up and asks the guards watching the palace gates if they have seen the mysterious princess, but the guards reply saying the only person they have seen was a girl dressed in rags. When her stepsisters arrive back home Cinderella asks them how the night went, and they tell her the prince spent the rest of the night looking at the glass slipper. A few days later the prince proclaims he would marry whoever their feet fit the slipper. After trying the slipper in vain in all of the princesses and duchesses, a gentleman is sent to Cinderella’s house, and the stepsisters try the slipper without succeeding. Cinderella then suggests she might well try it herself too, and her stepsisters’ reaction is to laugh and mock such an idea, but the gentleman lets her. To everyone’s surprise the slipper perfectly fits Cinderella’s foot, and even more when Cinderella pulls out of her pocket the other slipper and puts it on too, to then the godmother comes and with a touch of her wand turn Cinderella’s rags into a new, more splendid gown. Realising the truth the stepsisters ask for Cinderella’s forgiveness, and she forgives them. Cinderella is taken to the prince, who marries her a few days after, and Cinderella’s stepsisters marry two great lords of the court.

## Adaptations

### Film

* *Cinderella*, British silent film directed by George Albert Smith starring Laura Bayley, released in 1898.
* *Cinderella*, French silent film directed by George Méliès, released in 1899.
* *Cinderella or the Marvelous Slipper*, French silent film directed by Albert Capellani, released in 1907.
* *Cinderella*, North American silent film directed by James Kirkwood Sr starring Mary Pickford, released in 1914.
* *Cinderella*, Soviet film directed by Nadezhda Kosheverova and written by Evgeny Shvarts, released in 1947.
* *Cinderella*, North American animated film released in 1950.
* *Once Upon a Time...*, Spanish animated film directed by Alexandre Cirici i Pellicer, released in 1950.
* *The Glass Slipper*, North American film directed by Charles Walters starring Leslie Caron, released in 1955.
* *The Slipper and the Rose*, British musical film directed by Bryan Forbes, released in 1976.
* *Cinderella*, Soviet animated film released in 1979.
* *Ever After: A Cinderella Story*, North American film directed by David Tennant starring Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston, released in 1998.
* *Cinderella*, North American film directed by Kenneth Branagh starring Lily James and Cate Blanchett, released in 2015.