Publisher's Synopsis
Mother Goose was published in 1697. The stories included existed centuries before Perrault, as part of the European oral or written tradition. They come from medieval legends, French popular folklore and Italian Renaissance texts. Some versions are surprisingly truculent, especially for current readers who have just come across them and assume that they are children's stories. What Perrault did, and very well, was to rework popular narratives in order to adapt them to the aesthetic taste of his time. This involved eliminating several grotesque and scandalous elements. The truth is that, thanks to Perrault, popular stories from oral tradition passed into cultured and written literature. From there they adapted to the sensibilities of other times and audiences until they acquired various forms, among which those that today are landmarks of children's literature stand out.
