« Le prince ne savait plus où il en était. » Les frères Grimm, Andersen ou Charles Perrault : les contes sont depuis plusieurs siècles associés à des hommes. Et pourtant, au XVIIe siècle qui les a vu naître, ils étaient surtout une affaire d’autrices que l’histoire littéraire a préféré oublier : Mme d'Aulnoy, Mlle L'Héritier, Catherine Bernard, la Comtesse de Murat, Mlle de la Force, pour ne citer qu'elles. Il est grand temps de lever cette injustice et de relire ces contes féministes avant l’heure : critique du mariage, promotion de la liberté et de l’autonomie des femmes, héroïnes subversives et maîtresses de leur destin sont les ingrédients de ces récits qui n’ont décidément rien à envier à ceux des conteurs. Découvrez dans ce recueil des versions moins édulcorées de Cendrillon (« Finette Cendron »), de Mulan (« Marmoisan ») et de Raiponce (« Persinette »), ainsi que deux histoires célébrant une inversion des genres (« Le Prince Rosier ») et l’amour véritable hors mariage (« Jeune & Belle »). Longue vie littéraire aux conteuses !
Authors
Madame d'Aulnoy (Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy) (1650/1651–4 January 1705) was a French writer known for her fairy tales. When she termed her works contes de fées (fairy tales, or literally, "Tales of the Fairies."), she originated the term that is now generally used for the genre. Her 'fairy tales' were written in a style suitable for entertaining in adult salon gatherings, and not with a child audience in mind. d'Aulnoy also wrote works of history (although not using modern attitudes to historical accuracy), pseudo-memoirs, and a few historical novels. Born a member of the noble Le Jumel de Barneville family, she was known as the baronne d'Aulnoy by marriage.
Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force, or Mademoiselle de La Force (1654–1724) was a French novelist and poet. Her best-known work was her 1698 fairy tale Persinette, which was adapted by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 as the story of Rapunzel. She was the daughter of François de Caumont de La Force (eighth son of Marshal de La Force), marquis de Castelmoron and of Marguerite de Viçose. Raised as a Huguenot Protestant, she converted to Catholicism in 1686 and received a pension of 1000 écus from Louis XIV. Like other famous women writers of the 17th century, she was named a member of the Academy of the Ricovrati of Padua. Her first novels were in the popular vein of "histoires secrètes", short novels recounting the "secret history" of a famous person and linking the action generally to an amorous intrigue, such as Histoire secrete de Bourgogne (1694), Histoire secrète de Henri IV, roi de Castille (1695), Histoire de Marguerite de Valois, reine de Navarre (1696). She is also well known for participating in the 17th century vogue of contes des fées along with Henriette-Julie de Murat, Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy, Marie-Jeanne Lhéritier, and Charles Perrault. She wrote Les Contes des Contes (1698) and Les Contes des Fées.
