About this ebook
Before Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, Basile penned the first modern literary version of the Cinderella fairytale. It is the story of Zezolla, the daughter of an Italian Prince, who is betrayed by her governess and forced to live the life of a servant—that is until the King announces a feast. With assistance from a date-tree given to her by the Fairies of Sardinia, Zezolla is able to attend the feast and her life is forever changed.
In addition, this book contains The She-Bear—a close variant of The Cat Cinderella, also from Giambattista Basile’s The Pentamerone—for an English readership to enjoy.
[Folklore Type: ATU-510: Cinderella and Catskin – A + B (Persecuted Heroine + Unnatural Love)]
About the author
Born in c. 1575 to a middle-class family in Giugliano, Italy, Giambattista Basile was a soldier, poet, and fairytale collector, whose Lo cunto de li cunti overo lo trattenemiento de peccerille (‘The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones’)—a collection of 50 tales written in Neapolitan—was one of the earliest such collections based on folktales. It was published posthumously by his sister, Adriana, in Naples in 1634 and 1636 under the anagrammatic pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbattutis, and later became known as the Pentamerone.
It served as an important source both for the later fairytale writers, such as the Frenchman Charles Perrault in the 17th century and the German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century, and for the Italian commedia dell’arte dramatist Carlo Gozzi in the 18th century, as it includes many of the oldest know variants in existence as well as the earliest known European versions of ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Cinderella.’
Rachel Louise Lawrence is a British author who translates and adapts folk and fairy tales from original texts and puts them back into print, particularly the lesser-known British & Celtic variants.
Since writing her first story at the age of six, Rachel has never lost her love of writing and reading. A keen wildlife photographer and gardener, she is currently working on several writing projects.
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