You may like fairy tale endings, but how did fairy tales begin? The Lost Princess is the story behind French fairy tales and the women who wrote them.
While the names of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm still appear on storybook covers today, the history of European fairy tales often overlooks the women known as The Conteuses.
The Conteuses (The Storytellers) In The Lost Princess, we learn about The Conteuses, including Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy; Charlotte-Rose Caumont de La Force; Henriette-Julie de Murat; and Marie-Jeanne L’Héritier de Villandon. These 17th and 18th century French women writers are seen as contemporaries of Charles Perrault. But it may be more accurate to say Charles Perrault was a contemporary of The Conteuses. In 1695, after Perrault lost his government post at the age of 67, he visited the literary salon of Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, where men and women discussed literature, philosophy, and science. The women would recite their stories to the gathering. Countess d’Aulnoy’s Paris salon was among the city’s most popular, frequented by princes and aristocrats. One of the Conteuses, Marie-Jeanne L’Héritier de Villandon, was the niece of Charles Perrault. In 1696, at the age of 32, she published her first fairy tales, which also became hugely popular in England. In 1697, at the age of 69, Charles Perrault published his first book of fairy tales. Marie-Jeanne even dedicated one of her tales to Mademoiselle Perrault (Marie-Madeleine), the first-born and only daughter of Charles Perrault. Documents dated from 1699 reveal that Charles Perrault and his eldest son, Charles-Samuel, coerced Marie-Madeleine into renouncing her inheritance from her mother’s estate. In 1700, the legal case was settled in Marie-Madeleine’s favor who had testified: “Because of the authority of my father, his ill treatments, and the threats of my oldest brother…I did not find the opportunity to protest earlier…being always under the guard of my father who has not allowed me to see or speak to anyone.” The Countess d’Aulnoy 
Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy
Of all the Conteuses, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy is notable for many reasons. She was born in 1650 to a noble family in Normandy.
At age 15, she was forced to marry a French baron who was 30 years her senior. The baron often confined Marie-Catherine against her will to religious convents (like a princess locked in a tower). 
The princess locked in the tower (illustrated by John Gilbert, London 1856).
Countess d’Aulnoy had six children, two of whom were born after she became estranged from her husband. In 1697, she published the four volumes of her Contées Des Fées (Tales of the Fairies) which inspired the literary genre’s name and included the first story to feature (perhaps ironically) “Prince Charmant” or Prince Charming. 
Finette-Cendron (Cinderella) meets her fairy godmother (illustrated by John Gilbert, London 1856).
Unlike the Cinderella of Charles Perrault, the Countess d’Aulnoy’s Finette-Cendron takes action throughout the story.
“One branch of the Cinderella family provides us with a passive heroine who waits for a prince to elevate her and save her from oppression; the other offers a Cinderella who is self-reliant, saves princes, kills monsters and takes charge of her own destiny.” Finette-Cendron was translated into German as early as 1702. The German historian Friedrich Bierling began publishing his 9-volume Cabinet der Feen (Chamber of Fairies 1761-1765) and included tales by Countess d’Aulnoy and Charlotte-Rose Caumont de La Force (her Persinette would become Rapunzel): “[These stories] provided the German reading public with key French fairy-tale texts and sparked imitations of different kinds.” Tales by Countess d’Aulnoy (sometimes unattributed) entered the German oral tradition when the stories were published in Germany in 1780, 1785 and 1790. The aristocrat, Ludowine von Haxthausen, recounted a version of Finette-Cendron to the Brothers Grimm that they transcribed in 1818. “Written translations and oral and written variants from France, North America, Germany and Czechoslovakia all foreground the fact that d’Aulnoy’s Finette-Cendron fed into several different written and oral traditions across three centuries.” 
Belle-Etoile departs to join the king’s army (illustrated by John Gilbert, London 1856).
Finette-Cendron is just one of the 24 fairy tales written by Countess d’Aulnoy. Two of her animal bridegroom tales, Le Mouton (The Ram) and Le Serpentin Vert (The Green Serpent), became the foundation for, you guessed it, Beauty and the Beast. 
Belle-Etoile in battle (illustrated by John Gilbert, London 1856).
Modern-day films from Ever After to Penelope to Damsel seek to subvert the expectations of classic fairy tales. But whose fairy tales? More than 300 years ago, The Conteuses had written of clever heroines outwitting evil kings, queens ruling over their own realms, and female warriors with military prowess. It’s long past time to see and hear these stories. The Lost Princess is just the beginning. Want more? Read a modern translation of classic French fairy tales, including the works of The Conteuses, in Beauties, Beasts and Enchantment. 
Beauties, Beasts and Enchantment: Classic French Fairy Tales (translated by Jack Zipes).
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