Marie-Catherine Baronne d'Aulnoy - Contes des Fées - 1823

Contes des fées à Paris par Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, baronne d’Aulnoy - chez Duprat Duverger, undated (1823 according to the BNF) - (3) ff., 305 pages - period full sheepskin binding - small duodecimo - 9 x 14 cm.

Condition: Crowns, joints in good condition, sound hinges, blunt corners, smooth spine adorned with gilded fleurons and garnet morocco title label, water stains on 4 leaves, some foxing. Complete.

Work illustrated with 5 out of text engravings engraved by Canu.

Contents: Gracieuse et Percinet. La belle aux cheveux d'or. L'oiseau bleu. Le prince lutin. La chatte blanche.

Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy, born in Barneville-la-Bertran in 1651 and died in Paris on 14 January 1705, was a French woman of letters.

"Her private life, it seems, not without a few shortcomings, created around her name a celebrity no less significant than that of her literary works." A "spirited" and scandalous woman, she is one of the authors at the origin of the fairy tale genre, to which, unlike authors like Charles Perrault, who tried to polish the literary material they were creating, she infused a subversive spirit by using allegories and satire. Her literary work is often likened to that of Jean de La Fontaine for its hidden criticism of the French court and society of the 17th century.

Apart from the mentioned imperfections, this copy is in good condition.