KidLit Forum

The story of princess Rosette is part of the "Old French Fairy Tales" volume, written by Comptesse de Segur.
the first thing that acme to my attention was the structure of the fairy tale, which was separated into chapters. I had seen this before, in the stories from Il Pentamerone, but there each chapter was another story, not like here. I liked this, as it made it easier for me to follow the plot line and the structure due to this way of organizing the text and the titles of the chapters.
Another thing which I believed was very nice, was the way the names of the heroes matched their characteristics. Rosette got her name from the rose, which showed her beauty, her delicacy and her wisdom also. Her godmother, the fairy Puisante, which means powerful, shows her great powers and knowledge. Rosette's sisters, Orangine (name which comes from "orange") who had yellow skin and Roussette ( name which comes from the french "rousse" meaning red-headed) with her freckles make no exception. There is also prince Charmant, whose name significance is quite obvious.
I believe that this story is, above all, a story of how family can hurt you, even if they share the same blood. While reading about the two older sisters, I recalled the two step sisters in Cinderella. However, I could not help but feel a little bit confused, as it is usually the family that did not share the same blood who were cruel, unlike this story. Here, both the parents of the princess and her sisters showed nothing but envy and hatred towards her. They abandoned her in a farm and when they saw themselves obliged to get her back at the castle, they received her with a cold attitude and eventually tried to kill her. I also believe that a lot of orphan and abandoned kids could find some comfort in this fairy tale, as the princess was rejected by her own parents and the prince was himself an orphan, yet they managed to find happiness. Of course, the fairy godmother played very important role in the whole process, but in the moments when the two heroes heard her whispers and her advice, it seemed to me that this fairy godmother is a lot like our intuition, our inner voice which generally tells us what is the right choice for us if we can stop and listen to it.
With the author being one of the Saloniers, we can also sense a feminist touch in this story, as the most powerful hero in it, the fairy Puisante, is a woman and princess Rosette is a smart, educated young lady, capable of great love and affection, not just a prize waiting to be saved or conquered by a prince.
Overall, I can say I enjoyed this story very much and I will look into more French fairy tales to see if they are all this good. Also,this work has won its place among the stories I will read to my little cousins and, later, to my own children.