The Tales of Mother Goose As First Collected by Charles Perrault in 1696 — Background and Themes

The Moral Frame vs. the Tale's Cunning

O'Shea's introduction insists that these stories teach 'the reward of well-doing and the punishment of evil conduct.' He uses 'Puss in Boots' as an example: the brother who inherits only a cat learns that 'even so small and apparently helpless a creature may be of much service when he is rightly disposed.' But the tale itself shows the cat achieving success through deception and intimidation. The cat tells the king that 'rogues' stole his master's clothes—when in fact the cat hid them 'under a great stone.' He threatens peasants with violence if they do not lie about land ownership. The ogre, who is 'the richest ever known,' is tricked into transforming into a mouse and presumably eaten. The moral lesson O'Shea describes is not evident in the excerpt; instead, the tale rewards cleverness and ruthlessness.

The Translator's Voice and the 1901 Edition

Charles Welsh's translation, published by D.C. Heath & Co. in 1901, uses a formal but accessible English style. The cat addresses the king with 'My Lord the Marquis of Carabas is drowning!' and the ogre receives him 'as civilly as an Ogre could do.' The phrasing retains a slightly archaic flavor—'you have a good property there,' 'the King was extremely polite to him'—but avoids the elaborate ornamentation of earlier Victorian translations. The edition includes illustrations by D.J. Munro 'after drawings by Gustave Doré,' though only one is listed in the front matter: 'She met with Gaffer Wolf' as the frontispiece. The list of illustrations suggests eight plates, but the excerpts do not include them, so their placement and quality cannot be assessed from this text alone.

What the Catalog Subjects Omit

The catalog subjects tag this work as 'Fairy tales' and 'Children's stories, French,' with a secondary topic of 'children-juvenile.' Yet the introduction by O'Shea is addressed to adults—parents and educators—and discusses pedagogical theory. O'Shea argues that children have 'a very concrete sense of right and wrong' and that these stories provide 'concrete, living examples.' The tales themselves, however, contain elements that might unsettle modern readers: the cat's threats of violence, the ogre's implied death, and the princess falling in love 'to distraction' after 'two or three respectful and somewhat tender glances.' The catalog does not indicate that this edition includes a scholarly introduction, nor that the tales were originally published in 1696 and have a complex history of adaptation. The subject headings flatten the work into a simple children's book, while the excerpts show a layered text with adult commentary and morally ambiguous narratives.

Readers approaching this edition should note the gap between O'Shea's educational framing and the tales' actual content. The introduction presents the stories as moral exemplars, but 'Puss in Boots' rewards deception and threats. The translation by Charles Welsh is clear and direct, while the Doré-inspired illustrations promise visual interest. This is not a simple children's book but a historical document reflecting late-Victorian ideas about childhood and morality, packaged as a school text. Consider reading the introduction separately from the tales to compare the stated purpose with the narrative reality.

Perrault’s clever cats and sly heroes always reminded me of the old tales from India, where wit outshines kindness in the quietest corners. I often shelved that French collection beside Indian Fairy Tales — Reading Companion, watching two worlds share the same knowing wink. Both knew survival rarely asks for a moral, just a sharp mind and a steady hand.