Page:Fairytales00auln.djvu/23

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
INTRODUCTION.
xix

France," and her "Contes des Fées," and "Fées à la Mode." Other lists contain, in addition to the above, "Mémoires de la Cour d'Angleterre," and "Mémoires du Comte de Warwick," said to have been the last of her compositions, printed in 1703. But of these I cannot find any trace, beyond the mention of them with commendation in the Mercure Gallant for January 1705, which contains an obituary notice of Madame d'Aulnoy. There is also a work in two volumes attributed to her, entitled, "Histoire Chronologique d'Espagne tirée de Mariana, &c." 12mo. Rotterdam, 1694; but this may be one of the publications she complains of. All her works, with the exception of the Fairy Tales, are now excessively rare, both in France and England, though a translation of "Hipolite" was published in 1741, and of the "Voyage en Espagne," under the title of "Ingenious and diverting Letters of a Lady's Travels into Spain," which had reached its eighth edition in 1717, and was reprinted in two volumes, with corrections (much needed), in 1803.

The publishers of "The Travels" also published a book entitled, "The Diverting Works of the Countess d'Anois, author of the Lady's Travels into Spain," containing "The Memoirs of her own Life," an absurd fabrication; her Spanish Novels, and the Tales of the Fairies, in three parts, which consist only of "Les Contes des Fées," and a series entitled, "Les Illustres Fées," a collection of very short and inferior tales, which I have not found any authority for attributing to her pen.

Her Fairy Tales consist of two distinct portions, the first, entitled, "Les Contes des Fees," contains—

Gracieuse et Percinet.
La Belle aux Cheveux d'Or.
L'Oiseau Bleu.
Le Prince Lutin.
La Princesse Printaniere.
La Princesse Rosette.
Le Rameau d'Or.
L'Oranger et l'Abeille.
La Bonne Petite Souris.