Five-minute digest
Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper
Summary
Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper is the sixth of the eight prose tales in Charles Perrault's Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités (Paris, 1697), where it is titled Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre. The library stores the tale alone, in Robert Samber's English translation of 1729 as revised by J. E. Mansion for the 1922 Harrap edition illustrated by Harry Clarke, so the heroine is spelled Cinderilla throughout. A gentleman marries, as his second wife, the proudest woman ever seen, who brings two daughters just like her. The stepmother cannot bear the goodness of the gentleman's own daughter and sets her to scour dishes and sleep on straw in a garret while her stepsisters sleep in inlaid rooms with full-length mirrors. Because the girl sits among the ashes of the chimney corner, the elder sister calls her Cinder-breech; the younger, less rude, calls her Cinderilla. When the King's son gives a ball, Cinderilla irons her sisters' linen and dresses their hair perfectly, though they mock the idea of her going. Left behind in tears, she is visited by her godmother, a Fairy, who tells her to fetch a pumpkin from the garden, scoops it out and turns it into a gilded coach; six mice from the trap become dapple-grey horses, a bearded rat becomes a jolly coachman, and six lizards from behind the watering pot become footmen. Her rags become cloth of gold and silver, and she receives a pair of glass slippers, with the warning to leave before midnight. At the ball the dancing stops at her beauty, the old King himself admires her, and she sits by her sisters sharing the Prince's oranges and citrons, though they do not know her. She leaves at a quarter to twelve, then teases the returning sisters by asking to borrow Miss Charlotte's yellow dress. On the second night she forgets the time, flees at the stroke of twelve and drops one slipper. The Prince proclaims that he will marry the woman whose foot it fits; the sisters cannot force their feet into it, but the gentleman sent with the slipper lets Cinderilla try, and it goes on as if made of wax. She draws the matching slipper from her pocket, the godmother restores her finery, and the sisters fall at her feet. Cinderilla forgives them with all her heart, marries the Prince, gives her sisters lodgings in the palace and marries them that same day to two great lords. Two verse morals close the tale: the first says that grace of bearing is worth more than beauty, and the second, in this English version, warns against disobeying godmothers and fathers.
Top Lessons
Patience without bitterness
Cinderilla bears scrubbing, the straw bed and the nickname Cinder-breech without complaint, and she still dresses her sisters' hair perfectly when they mock her. Perrault's narrator notes that anyone else would have dressed their heads awry; her goodness shows in work done well for people who do not deserve it.
Grace is better than beauty
The first moral says plainly that the godmother's best gift was not the gown or the coach but grace of bearing. At the ball Cinderilla's grace shows in how she treats her sisters, sharing the Prince's oranges and citrons with them and showing them a thousand civilities.
Forgiveness with all her heart
When the slipper fits, the sisters throw themselves at Cinderilla's feet, and she lifts them up, embraces them and asks them always to love her. She then gives them rooms in the palace and finds them husbands, repaying unkindness with generosity instead of revenge.
Keeping a promise about time
The godmother's one condition is to leave before midnight. Cinderilla keeps it on the first night, but on the second she forgets herself in the Prince's compliments and runs home in rags. The lost slipper comes out of that lapse, and the second moral in this translation draws a lesson about heeding the advice of godmothers and fathers.
Verified Quotes
“The poor girl bore all patiently, and dared not tell her father, who would have rattled her off; for his wife governed him intirely.”
“"Well," said her godmother, "be but a good girl, and I will contrive that thou shalt go."”
“Cinderilla took them up, and as she embraced them, cried that she forgave them with all her heart, and desired them always to love her.”
“But that rare quality call'd grace, Exceeds, by far, a handsome face;”
“The fairies' gift of greatest worth Is grace of bearing, not high birth;”
Medical Lens
The tale has almost no medical content. One small period detail is worth noting for a history-of-medicine reader: before the ball the stepsisters go almost two days without eating for joy and break more than a dozen laces trying to be laced up close for a slender shape, a comic glimpse of the tight lacing and fasting that accompanied late seventeenth-century court fashion.
- Preparations for the ball
The stepsisters fast for nearly two days and break laces in tight-lacing for the ball.