Jack Zipes’s newest addition to his abundant collection of translated fairy tale anthologies is a book of tales written by famed French politician Édouard Laboulaye, best known in the United States for his contributions to the Statue of Liberty. His literary work is far less famous than his political work, but Zipes set out to translate a number of his tales into English to demonstrate how he used his fairy tales and other fiction as another vehicle for his political and philosophical thinking. The tales are delightful, and they offer a look at a little-known aspect of fairy tale history contemporary with the tale collectors and writers from the nineteenth century.
Zipes offers a thorough introduction to the collection, providing a short biography and career history of Laboulaye—needed, as his fiction writing is overshadowed by the rest of his career. The introduction helpfully situates Laboulaye’s tales into the overall history of tale writing in Europe. He notes that although they appear to be written for children, they are “actually too sophisticated” (3) to qualify as children’s literature, a category steadily developing in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In fact, several of the tales were published in the Journal des débats, a publication for highly educated readers. Thus, as Zipes puts it, “Laboulaye used his fiction to reinforce his political convictions and to avoid censorship” (8). This, along with other aspects of Zipes’s portrait of Laboulaye, resembles the introduction to Zipes’s previous work on the French tale writers of the late seventeenth century, Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantments: Classic French Fairy Tales (1989). His useful claim that fairy tales are “part of the civilizing process” is a term that appears repeatedly in his other work, indicating why Laboulaye’s tales may have been of particular interest to Zipes.
The introduction offers summaries of Laboulaye’s longer works, such as The Poodle Prince, Paris in America, and Abdallah, or the Four-Leaf Clover, providing the reader with a better understanding of Laboulaye’s interests and aims as a writer of fiction. These stories, along with the tales provided in the collection, all show a kind of moral reformation of the aristocracy, or a punishment for lack of reformation. Their lessons are learned through magic or the actions of lower-class characters, and not all of the stories have happily-ever-afters. Zipes prefaces the collection by noting that he has selected “sixteen unusually just and political tales” (20). He presents them in chronological order from the period between 1858 and 1863 during which Laboulaye wrote fairy tales. The tales appear to be inspired by similar narratives across Europe, including Italy and Iceland, and adapted by Laboulaye for his own political and creative aims.
The collection begins with the titular tale, “Smack-Bam, or the Art of Governing Men.” It is the lengthiest of the tales, featuring a snobbish prince who is so incensed when a girl hits him that he vows revenge by locking her up after marrying her. The clever girl wins out, but not before teaching the prince to be a more responsible and humbler ruler. Indeed, humility is a prominent theme in the collection, as both “Zerbino the Bumpkin” and “Briam the Fool” feature protagonists with no cleverness at all who nonetheless conquer tyrannical and greedy kings and ministers. These tales resemble “Jack tales” in which simpletons win great wealth due to great luck or the self-destruction of their opponents. Clever women abound in the tales, often securing victory or safety for their male relatives. However, Laboulaye’s criticism of the aristocracy is not bound by gender, and vain queens and over-ambitious wives also appear.
The latter half of the book features tales which are shorter and are more clearly drawn from familiar tale types. “The Lazy Spinner” is almost identical to the Grimms’ “The Three Spinners,” and “Fragolette” is identified by Heidi Anne Heiner as a variant of “Rapunzel” (ATU 310A) in her book Rapunzel and Other Maiden in the Tower Tales From Around the World (2010). Similarly, “The Fairy Crawfish” is a variant of “The Fisherman and His Wife” from the Grimms’ collection. These examples, rather than weakening the anthology, in fact enhance it and draw attention to the tales as part of a thriving tale-collecting and tale-writing culture in the nineteenth century. Further, Laboulaye’s political ideology, as outlined by Zipes, is recognizable and holds true throughout the collection.
The reader would benefit from referring to the introduction after reading each tale, as Zipes provides short commentary on its orientation within Laboulaye’s creative and political landscape. However, the tales are entertaining reads on their own, and this collection is a strong contribution drawing attention to a little-recognized writer of fairy tales during this abundant period of nineteenth-century Europe.
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[Review length: 783 words • Review posted on September 26, 2019]