7. Talking about history of fairy tales we must always mention Giambattista Basile's book Pentamerone, sometimes called mother of all fairy tales. Title of the story is Cenerentola (Cinderella is here called Zezolla) and we have all the basic elements of today's most popular versions: wicked step mother, unfriendly sisters (six in this case), Zezzola has to work in the kitchen, a fairy and a tree with magic powers, king's ball, three escapes of disguised Zezzola and, what else, a shoe which can fit only Zezzola's foot.
Beware! There is one big exception from other Cinderella's. Zezzola in Basile's story on advice of her governess kills her stepmother and then convince her father to marry governess (who became her second step mother) just to find out this step mother is much worse than first one!
8. In 17 th century Charles Perrault wrote his version of Cinderella (called Cendrillion). He erased the tree and added pumpkin transformed into coach and mouses transformed into servants. All these novelties were more than welcomed when Disney made his animated film about Cinderella. But! Perrault's wicked sisters were in fact pretty and in the end they find noble husbands too.
Probably most important specialty is material of slippers: this is first version with slippers made of glass and this is so different from older variants many people believed Perrault mistranslated older story with slippers made of fur (there were only two materials suitable for Cinderella's shoes in history: gold or precious furs). Now we can be almost sure Perrault made shoes of glass on purpose.
9. Brothers Grimm were closer to tradition. Their version doesn't have a fairy or a coach with servants, but it has a tree growing on Cinderella's dead mother's grave, being watered by Cinderella's tears and waiting to fulfill Cinderella's most important wishes. Slippers are here made of gold again.
Grimm's version introduced birds as Cinderella's helpers. And as we know, white dove is a symbol of holy spirit. Message of Jakob an Wilhelm was: be obedient, be patient, be persistent and you will be rewarded. Another characteristic is cruel punishment of wicked sisters. They lost parts of their feet when desperately tried to put them into tiny slipper and they lost their eyes when attended wedding ceremony of Cinderella!
10. The most popular and profitable Cinderella was made by Walt Disney in 1950 with a budget of unbelievable three million dollars. Disney company was in financial troubles in those times and Cinderella maybe saved them from bankruptcy.
This was not Cinderella's last success. Working Girl with Melanie Griffith, Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts, Ever After with Drew Barrymore are only some of hundreds of movies based on the same elements as Cinderella. Apparently we all enjoy in this story again and again. For the rest of our lives?
Have you ever felt like Cinderella?
Tolovaj, Thank you for prettifying your 10 fun facts with the Dore illustration.
In addition, I appreciate the link to your Feb. 27, 2011 article and to your HubPages writings.
Have you seen the Kenneth Branagh-directed Cinderella film?
Thanks, ologsinquito!
I've always loved the story of Cinderella. I'm pinning this to My Wizzley Writing Board.
The Cindarella story in its hundreds variation is probably the most popular tale in the world. It is known in all cultures. Thanks for stopping by, WriterArtist.
I have often dreamed myself of being a princess - Cinderella or Snow white and a prince charming who would be my hero. I am surprised with so many versions of stories in the ancient days, well - we have history repeating itself. The story of Cinderella keeps repeating in the modern days as well.
Thanks, ologsinquito, shoes are really powerful symbol!
I think we all have. I also like your perspective on shoes. Great article.
Well said, sheilamarie! We don't all have evil stepmothers, but we all have experienced some kind of injustice, so Cinderella should be understandable to every one of us.
Certainly I have! Although I've never had an evil step mother or mean step sisters, I think we can all relate to feeling invisible sometimes and in need of a little magic.
Yes, and this is also important for researchers of history of fairy tales. It doesn't support the theory about one story/myth from which all others evolved.