A Winter's Tale by Charles Perrault. Why real fairy tales by Charles Perrault cannot be read to children

We all begin to get acquainted with kind and instructive fairy tales from early childhood, leafing through books with colorful pictures. And on many covers of children's books the author is Charles Perrault. After all, for more than 300 years, people from different countries and nations have been reading with pleasure the books of this French writer according to an established centuries-old tradition: parents to children.

In Russian, the fairy tales of the famous Frenchman have been republished many times in various translations since 1768. The adventures of the girl in the red hood are familiar to young Russians and their parents under the name “Little Red Riding Hood.” Young princesses learn hard work, the ability to get along with people and dream from the pages of the fairy tale “Cinderella”. Kids will learn how to show resourcefulness from the instructive fairy tale “Puss in Boots”, they will be surprised at deceit and rejoice at the triumph of good over evil along with the heroes of the fairy tales “The Fairy’s Gifts” and “The Sleeping Beauty”.

The author drew these and many other stories from folk art. During the writer’s time, grandmothers and nannies invented and retold fairy tales to children for instructive purposes. The concept of children's literature did not exist in those days. Charles Perrault managed to write down folk tales and convey them in the form of works understandable to children. He put all his masterful talent as a writer and storyteller into the instructive meaning of the stories.

Charles Perrault's tales are interesting, the plot captures and does not let go of the young listener or reader until the very end of the story. They contain not only magic, but also positivity, the triumph of good over evil, and important life lessons:

• how to avoid fear and helplessness;
• how to overcome difficulties and obstacles;
• searching for a winning way out of a difficult situation.

In children's literature, the French poet and writer is considered the founder of the fairy tale genre. With his light hand, instructive stories of nannies turned into popular books that opened the doors for children to a boundless world of fantasy and adventure. The fairy tale genre was widely developed, because writers from other countries followed Perrault’s example.

The fairy tales of C. Perrault have not lost their relevance in the present day. Many stories from this magical world and the adventures of fairy-tale characters formed the basis of fairy tales and cartoons, opera performances and ballets.

Join the huge audience of fairy tale lovers with your children. Choose any story and start reading online for free. Have a nice trip!

Charles Perrault's fairy tales are cruelty and hunger, cannibalism and atrocities, sex and corpses, and not at all sweet stories with a happy ending

Charles Perrault was born on January 12, 1628 into a wealthy family. Having received a good education, he became a lawyer. Perrault was one of the most influential courtiers during the king's time LouisXIV: the king and his entourage highly valued the literary and critical works of the lawyer. However, over the centuries, Perrault became famous as the author of fairy tales - his collection “Tales of Mother Goose” instantly thundered in France and beyond. True, Perrault’s famous fairy tales, which we know in translation (more precisely, in retelling) into Russian, are not at all what the author regaled his compatriots with. The original versions are much more bloodthirsty and “adult”. The cute fairy tales that we have become accustomed to since childhood are good “remakes”, retellings, adapted for children’s perception.

"Little Red Riding Hood"

A well-known version of the tale tells how a certain girl, on her way to visit her sick grandmother, stops in the forest to ask a wolf for directions. The wolf, as expected, points her in the not entirely right direction - in order to get to the grandmother’s house faster than the girl and feast on the old woman, and then the naive granddaughter. However, very opportunely, woodcutters appear, they save the grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood, ripping open the treacherous wolf's belly and releasing them out.

In the original fairy tale there are no woodcutter saviors. Punished for her frivolity and naivety, Little Red Riding Hood dies ingloriously, like the good old lady. But the most interesting thing is that in the image of the Wolf the storyteller brought out an insidious stranger, whom young innocent people should not trust under any circumstances. That is, the Wolf is an allegory. Don't go, girls and young women, into the forest, and if you do, don't talk to strangers, no matter how flattering they may say! This is the moral of this tale.

"Donkey Skin"

The princess from this fairy tale is forced to hide from her native palace, dressed in a donkey skin. But the reason why she ran away is not mentioned in the retellings. Because she is very scandalous - the princess was harassed by her own father, the king. Further the plot resembles “ Cinderella“- a persecuted princess, forced to work as a maid, from time to time changes into decent outfits left to her by her fairy godmother and goes out into the world.”

This is how she meets the prince, and when he falls in love, the girl disappears, leaving him a tiny ring. The prince persistently searches for his beloved, trying on the ring for all the girls in the kingdom, but it is not enough for everyone. To become the prince's wife, girls do not spare themselves: someone rubs their own finger with an iron grater to make it shrink in size, someone even grinds it down with a file. Both knives and vices are used. Blood flows like a river...

"Sleeping Beauty"

At first glance, this is a completely harmless story. The king and queen had a daughter, they called everyone to her christening, but they forgot to invite the evil fairy. She appeared uninvited and prophesied a terrible future for the little one - at the age of 16 she would die from a spindle prick. True, after the evil witch leaves, one of the good fairies makes her own adjustments - the girl will not die, but will fall asleep and sleep for a hundred years. Spindles were immediately banned in the kingdom, but you cannot escape fate, and on the day of her 16th birthday, the princess nevertheless pricked her finger and fell asleep. Together with her, the entire kingdom fell into deep sleep. A hundred years passed, a young king passed through the area, saw the sleeping beauty, and woke her up with a kiss. Happy end.

The original is much harsher. The young king, not caring about romance and decency, simply raped the insensitive beauty. After the allotted time, she, without regaining consciousness, gave birth to twins. One of the babies, crawling over the mother, began to suck her finger, pricked by a thorn (not a spindle), and sucked out a poisonous thorn, causing the mother to wake up.

But that's not all. That same rapist king, seeing that his victim had come to his senses, buried his wife alive in the ground (yes, he was married!) and married the young princess. His mother, who came from a tribe of cannibals, began to demand that her own grandchildren, and then her daughter-in-law, be prepared for dinner. All these horrors took place in the absence of the king, who went to war. Realizing that the compassionate servants had deceived her by slipping game instead of human flesh, the evil queen mother decided to throw her daughter-in-law into a vat with snakes, but ended up there herself.

"Blue Beard"

Real horror. An aristocrat with obvious mental deviations kills his wives one after another and piles the corpses in a room in his own castle. Researchers claim that the prototype Bluebeard became a famous French aristocrat Gilles de Rais- He allegedly maimed and killed his wives and children. However, other researchers are convinced that the charges against Gilles were falsified, that he did not kill anyone, and that envious intriguers were to blame for everything. Be that as it may, the tale of Bluebeard evokes genuine horror even in the adapted version.

An evil aristocrat, having gotten rid of six wives, decided to marry for the seventh time - to the young daughter of a neighbor. After the wedding, he handed the new owner of the castle a bunch of keys, strictly forbidding her from opening one of the rooms. In his absence, the girl, of course, could not control her curiosity and opened the forbidden door.

Having discovered the corpses of her previous wives there, she is horrified. The returning maniac husband immediately realized that his ban had been violated. He announces his verdict - the young wife must die. But her brothers came to her sister’s rescue - it was they who put an end to the villain.

Charles Perrault was a fairly famous writer of his time, but his literary works, with the exception of fairy tales, were soon forgotten.

Charles Perrault(1628-1703) was born into the family of the judge of the Parisian Parliament, Pierre Perrault, and was the youngest of his six children. His brother Claude Perrault was a famous architect, the author of the eastern façade of the Louvre.

Philippe Lallemand "Portrait of Charles Perrault" (1665)

In 1663, Charles Perrault was appointed secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Letters, was the general controller of the surintendent of royal buildings, but then fell out of favor.

"Tales of Mother Goose"

Illustration for the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood”

In 1697, C. Perrault published the collection “Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings.” The collection consisted of 7 fairy tales - literary adaptations of folk tales and the fairy tale “Rike the Tuft”, which was composed by Perrault himself. “Tales of Mother Goose” glorified Perrault; in fact, he introduced the fairy tale genre into “high” literature.
The collection of tales was published in Paris in January 1697 under the name of Pierre Darmancourt (son of Charles Perrault). At that time, fairy tales were considered a low genre, so perhaps the famous writer Perrault wished to hide his name.
The collection includes 8 prose tales:

"Cinderella"
"Puss in Boots"
"Little Red Riding Hood"
"Tom Thumb"
"Fairy Gifts"
"Rike-Khokholok"
"Sleeping Beauty"
"Blue Beard"

All these tales are so well known to Russian readers that there is no need to retell their contents.
The collection of fairy tales by Charles Perrault was a resounding success and created a fashion for fairy tales among the French aristocracy. Others, including women, began to make adaptations of folk stories. The most popular fairy tale was “Beauty and the Beast,” created by writers Leprince de Beaumont and Barbeau de Villeneuve; in many publications it is published under the same cover as “Tales of Mother Goose.” Variants of this tale are known throughout Europe, and the oldest recorded similar story is Apuleius's tale of Cupid and Psyche. In Russia this plot is known from a fairy tale "The Scarlet Flower", recorded by a Russian writer Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov according to the housekeeper Pelageya. The fairy tale has an edifying meaning and explains that one should be afraid not of the ugliness of the Beast, but of the evil hearts of Beauty’s sisters. The heroes of the fairy tale symbolize virtues or vices.
Initially, the collection “Tales of Mother Goose” also included the short story “Griselda” and two fairy tales – “Donkey Skin” and “Amusing Desires”. But later these three works were not included in the collection “Tales of Mother Goose”.

Illustration for the fairy tale “Cinderella”
The unprecedented success of the collection “Tales of Mother Goose” among Parisians in 1696 led to the fact that first France, and then the whole of Europe, fell in love with magical stories about Cinderella, her evil sisters and the glass slipper; she was horrified by the knight Bluebeard, who killed his wives; I was rooting for the polite Little Red Riding Hood, who was swallowed by the evil wolf. Only in Russia did translators correct the ending of the fairy tale: the wolf is killed by woodcutters, and in the French original the wolf ate both the grandmother and granddaughter.
Since all the fairy tales of Charles Perrault from the collection “Tales of Mother Goose” are well known, we will look at one of the fairy tales not included in the collection.

Fairy tale by C. Perrault “Donkey Skin”

The plot of this fairy tale is reminiscent of the plot of Cinderella.
Once upon a time there lived a rich and powerful king. He had great wealth in everything, and his wife was the most beautiful and intelligent woman in the world. They lived amicably and happily, but they had no children.
One day, a close friend of the king died, leaving behind his daughter, a young princess. The king and queen took her to their palace and began to raise her.
The girl became more and more beautiful every day. Everyone was happy. But the queen fell ill and soon died. Before her death she told her husband:
- If you decide to marry a second time, then marry only the woman who will be more beautiful and better than me.
After the death of his wife, the king could not find a place for himself from grief, did not eat or drink anything, and grew so old that all his ministers were horrified by such a change. They decided to help him get married, but the king didn’t even want to hear about it. But the ministers did not lag behind him and were so tired of him with their pestering that he said to them:
“I promised the late queen that I would marry a second time if I found a woman who was more beautiful and better than her, but there is no such woman in the whole world.” That's why I'll never get married.
Then the chief minister proposed to the king to marry his pupil. And he agreed. However, the princess found it terrible. She did not at all want to become the wife of the old king. However, the king did not listen to her objections and ordered to prepare for the wedding as soon as possible.
The young princess, in despair, turned to the sorceress Lilac, her aunt. The sorceress first suggested that she demand from the king a dress like the blue sky, then a dress the color of the moon, and then a dress shining like the sun. And the king fulfilled all these wishes.
Then the sorceress advised the princess to demand the skin of his donkey from the king. The fact is that this was no ordinary donkey. Every morning, instead of manure, he covered his bedding with shiny gold coins. It is clear why the king loved the shore of this donkey so much.

Still from the cartoon “Donkey Skin”

But the king, without hesitation, fulfilled this wish of the princess. On the advice of the sorceress Lilac, the princess wrapped herself in donkey skin and left the royal court. The sorceress gave her her magic wand, which could, at the request of the princess, provide her with a whole chest of different outfits.
The princess went to many houses and asked to take her as a servant. But no one wanted to take it because of its ugly appearance. But one housewife agreed to take the poor princess as her worker: wash clothes, look after turkeys, herd sheep and clean pig troughs. That's what they called her - Donkey Skin.

One day the young prince was returning from a hunt and stopped to rest in the house where Donkey Skin lived as a working woman. Having rested, he began to wander around the house and yard. Looking into the crack of one of their rooms, he saw in her a beautiful, elegant princess - she sometimes used a magic wand and dressed up in her beautiful dresses. The prince ran to the landlady to find out who lives in this little room. They told him: a girl named Donkey Skin lives there, she wears a donkey skin instead of a dress, so dirty and greasy that no one wants to look at her or talk to her.
The prince returned to the palace, but could not forget the beauty whom he accidentally saw through the crack of the door. And he even got sick from missing her...
Well, then we read the fairy tale on one's own.
Let's just say that events developed in such a way that at the end of the fairy tale it all ended with a wedding. Kings from different countries came to the wedding.

Conclusion

Based on the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, many cartoons and musical works have been created, including classical ballets: “Cinderella” by S.S. Prokofiev, “The Sleeping Beauty” by P.I. Tchaikovsky, as well as the operas “Cinderella” by G. Rossini, “The Castle of Duke Bluebeard” by B. Bartok.

Scene from S. Prokofiev's ballet “Cinderella”

In fact, the collection of C. Perrault “Tales of Mother Goose” became the first book in the world written for children. From Perrault's masterpiece the phenomenon of children's literature was born.
And although Perrault’s fairy tales are based on well-known folklore stories, he presented them with his characteristic talent and humor. Some details were omitted, some were added; the language of fairy tales was refined - thus, they can undoubtedly be considered the author's. All the tales in the collection have a moralizing meaning, which makes them pedagogical. The tales of Charles Perrault influenced the development of the world fairy tale tradition.

Born January 12, 1628. Died May 16, 1703
French critic and poet. The modern reader is known as a storyteller, the author of “Little Red Riding Hood” and Puss in Boots.”

Listen to audio tales by Charles Perrault

On January 12, 1628, twin brothers Charles and Francois were born into the friendly family of Pierre Perrault. Six months later, Francois died of pneumonia, but his brother Charles was to glorify the family and become one of the greatest storytellers in human history. True, Charles's elder brother, Claude, was a very famous architect in France - suffice it to say that he is the author of the Eastern façade in the Louvre.

Pierre Perrault, who served as a judge in the Paris Parliament, did not have a noble title, but tried to give his four sons the best education. Mostly the mother worked with the children - it was she who taught the children to read and write. Despite being very busy, her husband helped with the boys' classes, and when eight-year-old Charles began studying at Beauvais College, his father often checked his lessons. A democratic atmosphere reigned in the family, and the children were quite able to defend a point of view close to them. However, the rules were completely different in college - cramming and dull repetition of the teacher’s words were required here. Disputes were not allowed under any circumstances. And yet the Perrault brothers were excellent students, and if you believe the historian Philippe Ariès, during the entire period of their studies they were never punished with rods. At that time it was, one might say, a unique case.
However, in 1641, Charles Perrault was kicked out of class for arguing with the teacher and defending his opinion. His friend Boren also left the lesson with him. The boys decided not to return to college, and on the same day, in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, they drew up a plan for self-education. For three years, the friends studied Latin, Greek, French history and ancient literature together - essentially going through the same program as in college. Much later, Charles Perrault claimed that he received all his knowledge that was useful to him in life during these three years, studying independently with a friend.

How Perrault Borin’s friend continued his education is unknown, but Charles began taking private legal lessons. In 1651, he received a law degree and even bought himself a lawyer's license, but he quickly became tired of this occupation, and Charles went to work for his brother Claude Perrault - he became a clerk. Like many young people at that time, Charles wrote numerous poems: poems, odes, sonnets, and was also fond of the so-called “court gallant poetry.” Even in his own words, all these works were distinguished by considerable length and excessive solemnity, but they carried too little meaning. Charles's first work, which he himself considered acceptable, was the poetic parody “The Walls of Troy, or the Origin of Burlesque,” ​​written and published in 1652.

A few years later, Jean Colbert drew attention to Charles Perrault. In the sixties of the 17th century, Colbert actually determined the policy at the court of King Louis XIV regarding the arts. When the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Letters was again formed, it was Colbert's mediation that led Perrault to the post of secretary of this Academy in 1663. In addition, Charles had the position of controller general of the surintendent of royal buildings.

In 1665, Charles helped his brother Claude win a royal competition to design the facades of the Louvre. This was a very big victory for the architect, and from then on Claude Perrault went uphill. The year 1666 also became significant for the Perrault family and for the whole of France - Colbert created the Academy of France, and Claude Perrault received membership in it. And Charles was admitted to the Academy only a few years later - but he headed the work on creating a “General Dictionary of the French Language”. During all these years, he also successfully acted as a poet and literary critic.

Actively pursuing his career, Charles Perrault got married only at the age of forty-four. Although for that time it was quite normal. His wife was nineteen-year-old Marie Guchon. Apparently, the marriage turned out to be happy - but, unfortunately, it was short-lived. Marie left her husband three sons and a daughter and died at the age of twenty-five...

In 1683, Perrault's patron, Colbert, died, and the favors showered from the royal Olympus on Charles's head almost dried up. At the very least, payments to the pension that Colbert secured for him as a writer stopped.

Charles Perrault wrote his very first fairy tale in 1685 - it was the story of the shepherdess Griselda, who, despite all the troubles and hardships, became the wife of a prince. The tale was called "Grisel". Perrault himself did not attach any importance to this work. But two years later his poem “The Age of Louis the Great” was published - and Perrault even read this work at a meeting of the Academy. For many reasons, it caused violent indignation among classic writers - La Fontaine, Racine, Boileau. They accused Perrault of disdain for antiquity, which was customary to imitate in the literature of that time. The fact is that recognized writers of the 17th century believed that all the best and most perfect works had already been created - in ancient times. Modern writers, according to the established opinion, had the right only to imitate the standards of antiquity and approach this unattainable ideal. Perrault supported those writers who believed that there should be no dogmas in art and that copying the ancients only meant stagnation.

The main opponent of Charles Perrault in “la querelle des anciens et des modernes” (the struggle between the modern and the ancient) was Nicolas Boileau, who wrote a treatise on the laws of poetry - “Poetic Art”. Perrault sharply opposed imitation, declaring that modern authors such as Cervantes, Moliere and Corneille created original and beautiful works - and at the same time did without the spirit of “ancient literature”. In support of his philosophy, Charles Perrault wrote over the course of nine years (from 1688 to 1687) a four-volume collection of dialogues, Comparison of Ancient and Modern Authors, in which he defends the ideas of progress and rationalism in art.
It is possible that Charles Perrault would have gone down in French history as a leading functionary of the “party of new art” - especially since it was he who published the book “Famous People of France of the 17th Century”, which included more than a hundred biographies of famous poets, scientists, artists, historians and doctors With this book, he clearly showed that not only in ancient times there were great people and that there is no need to regret the past “golden” times. But it was not this major work that made Charles Perrault famous.

In 1694, his works “Funny Desires” and “Donkey Skin” were published - the era of the storyteller Charles Perrault began. A year later he lost his position as secretary of the Academy and devoted himself entirely to literature. In 1696, the magazine "Gallant Mercury" published the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty". The fairy tale instantly gained popularity in all strata of society, but people expressed their outrage that there was no signature under the fairy tale. In 1697, the book “Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Instructions” went on sale simultaneously in The Hague and Paris. Despite its small volume and very simple pictures, the circulation sold out instantly, and the book itself became an incredible success.

Those nine fairy tales that were included in this book were just adaptations of folk tales - but how was it done! The author himself repeatedly hinted that he literally overheard the tales that his son’s nurse told the child at night. However, Charles Perrault became the first writer in the history of literature to introduce the folk tale into the so-called “high” literature - as an equal genre. Now this may sound strange, but at the time of the publication of “Tales of Mother Goose”, high society enthusiastically read and listened to fairy tales at their meetings, and therefore Perrault’s book instantly won high society.

Many critics accused Perrault of the fact that he himself did not invent anything, but only wrote down plots already known to many. But it should be taken into account that he made these stories modern and tied them to specific places - for example, his Sleeping Beauty fell asleep in a palace very reminiscent of Versailles, and the clothes of Cinderella’s sisters were fully consistent with the fashion trends of those years. Charles Perrault simplified the “high calm” of the language so much that his fairy tales were understandable to ordinary people. After all, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Thumb spoke exactly as they would have spoken in reality.

Despite the enormous popularity of fairy tales, Charles Perrault, at almost seventy years old, did not dare to publish them under his own name. On the books was the name of Pierre de Armancourt, the eighteen-year-old son of the storyteller. The author feared that fairy tales, with their frivolity, could cast a shadow on his authority as an advanced and serious writer.

However, you can’t hide a sew in a bag, and very quickly the truth about the authorship of such popular fairy tales became known in Paris. In high society it was even believed that Charles Perrault signed the name of his youngest son in order to introduce him to the circle of the Princess of Orleans - the young niece of the sun-like King Louis. By the way, the dedication on the book was addressed specifically to the princess.

It must be said that disputes about the authorship of these tales are still ongoing. Moreover, the situation in this matter was completely and irrevocably confused by Charles Perrault himself. He wrote his memoirs shortly before his death - and in these memoirs he described in detail all the most important affairs and dates of his life. Mention was made of the service of the almighty minister Colbert, and Perrault’s work in editing the first “Dictionary of the French Language,” and every single ode written to the king, and translations of Italian fables by Faerno, and research comparing new and ancient authors. But not once did Perrault even mention the phenomenal “Tales of Mother Goose”... But it would be an honor for the author to include this book in the register of his own achievements! Speaking in modern terms, the rating of Perrault's fairy tales in Paris was unimaginably high - only one bookstore of Claude Barbin sold up to fifty books a day. It is unlikely that even the adventures of Harry Potter could even dream of such a scale today. It was unheard of for France that the publisher had to repeat the printing of Mother Goose Tales three times in just one year.

Handwritten page from the fairy tale "Puss in Boots"

Charles Perrault

MAGICAL TALES

Blue Beard

Once upon a time there lived a man who had beautiful houses both in the city and in the countryside, gold and silver dishes, chairs decorated with embroidery, and gilded carriages. But, unfortunately, this man had a blue beard; this gave him such an ugly and terrible appearance that there was not a woman or a girl who would not run away when she saw him.

One of his neighbors, a noble lady, had two daughters, marvelously beautiful. He asked to marry one of them and allowed his mother to choose the one she would agree to give for him. Both did not want to marry him and abandoned him in favor of the other, unable to choose as a husband a man with a blue beard. They were also disgusted by the fact that this man had already been married several times, and no one knew what became of his wives.

To establish a closer acquaintance, Bluebeard invited them, along with their mother and three or four best friends, and several young men who were their neighbors, to one of his country houses, where the guests stayed for a whole week. All the time was taken up with walks, hunting and fishing trips, dancing, feasts, breakfasts and dinners; no one thought of sleeping, and every night passed with the guests making fun of each other; Finally, everything worked out so well that it began to seem to the youngest daughter that the owner of the house’s beard was no longer so blue and that he himself was a very decent person. As soon as we returned to the city, the wedding was decided.

A month later, Bluebeard told his wife that he needed to go to the country for at least six weeks on important business; he asked her to have fun during his absence; told her to call her girlfriends, so that if she wanted, she could take them out of town; so that she tries to eat tasty food everywhere. “Here,” he said, “the keys to both large storerooms, here are the keys to the gold and silver dishes, which are not served every day; here are the keys to the chests where my gold and silver are kept; here are the keys to the caskets where my precious stones lie; here is the key that unlocks all the rooms in my house. And this small key is the key to the room that is at the end of the lower large gallery: open all the doors, go everywhere, but I forbid you to enter this small room so strictly that if you happen to open the door there, you must expect everything from me anger."

She promised to strictly observe everything that was ordered to her, and he, hugging his wife, got into his carriage and set off.

Neighbors and girlfriends did not wait for messengers to be sent for them, but they themselves went to the newlywed - they were so impatient to see all the riches of her house, because while her husband was there, they did not dare to visit her - because of his blue beard which was feared. So they immediately began to examine the rooms, small rooms, dressing rooms, which surpassed each other in beauty and wealth. Then they moved to the storerooms, where they could not stop admiring the multitude and beauty of carpets, beds, sofas, cupboards, tables, desks and mirrors, in which they could see themselves from head to toe and the edges of which, some of them were glass, others were made of gilded silver, were more beautiful and magnificent than anything that had ever happened to be seen. Without ceasing to envy, they all the time extolled the happiness of their friend, who, however, was not at all interested in the sight of all these riches, for she was impatient to go open the small room downstairs.

She was so overcome by curiosity that, not considering how impolite it was to leave her guests, she went down the secret staircase, and with such haste that two or three times, as it seemed to her, she almost broke her neck. She stood at the door to the small room for several minutes, remembering the ban that her husband had imposed, and thinking that misfortune might befall her for this disobedience; but the temptation was so strong that she could not defeat it: she took the key and tremblingly opened the door.

At first she didn't see anything because the windows were closed. A few moments later, she began to notice that the floor was completely covered with dried blood and that the bodies of several dead women tied along the walls were reflected in this blood: all of these were Bluebeard’s wives, he married them, and then killed each of them. She thought that she would die of fear, and dropped the key that she had taken out of the lock.

Having recovered a little, she picked up the key, locked the door and went up to her room to recover at least a little; but she didn’t succeed, she was so excited.

Noticing that the key to the small room was stained with blood, she wiped it two or three times, but the blood did not come off; No matter how much she washed it, no matter how much she rubbed it with sand and a sand stone, the blood still remained, because the key was magic, and there was no way to completely clean it off: when the blood was cleaned off on one side, it appeared on the other.

Bluebeard returned from his journey that same evening and said that he had received a letter on the road informing him that the matter for which he was traveling had been resolved in his favor. His wife did everything possible - just to prove to him that she was delighted with his quick return.

The next day he demanded the keys from her, and she gave them to him, but with such a trembling in her hand that he easily guessed everything that had happened. “Why,” he asked her, “is the key to the small room missing along with the other keys?” “Probably,” she said, “I left it upstairs, on my table.” “Don’t forget,” said Bluebeard, “to give it to me as soon as possible.”

Finally, after various excuses, I had to bring the key. Bluebeard, looking at him, said to his wife: “Why is there blood on this key?” “I don’t know,” answered the unhappy wife, pale as death. "Do not know? - asked Bluebeard. - And I, I know. You wanted to go into the small room. Well, madam, you will enter it and take your place there next to the ladies you saw there.”

She threw herself at her husband’s feet, crying, asking him for forgiveness and, by all indications, sincerely repenting of her disobedience. She, so beautiful and sad, would have touched even a rock, but Bluebeard had a heart harsher than the rock. “You must die, madam,” he told her, “and without delay.” “If I have to die,” she answered, looking at him with eyes full of tears, “give me at least a few minutes to pray to God.” “I give you seven minutes,” answered Bluebeard, “but not a moment more.”