"Une fée moderne": An Unpublished Fairy Tale by la Comtesse de Murat

Abstract

“Une fée moderne”:An Unpublished Fairy Tale by la Comtesse de Murat Ellen Welch (bio) Nous devions descendre chez Madame Rocher aujourd'hui. La pluie nous en a empêchées, mais il y a eu des ressources contre le mauvais temps. La charmante Bouliche, Madame Boulay, Madame de Champhlé, la Poulette, [et] deux messieurs de Tours sont venus icy; la conversation s'est montée sur un ton gaillard, nous avons fait des contes à dormir debout. 1 The journal of the prolific author Henriette-Julie de Castelnau, comtesse de Murat (from which this anecdote comes) well illustrates the prominent role that fairy tales played in educated French society at the turn of the eighteenth century. Despite their status as "children's literature" today, in Murat's time contes de fées represented a new literary genre, a site of literary experimentation, and a form for exploring such hefty subject matter as monarchal politics and sexual norms. Some of the period's most innovative writers made their mark in the fairy tale genre. Murat herself may be counted among the most inventive, both in her choice of themes and in her formal originality. More than any other author, Murat championed the conte de fées as novel and sophisticated, famously christening her literary peers "les fées modernes." The first literary fairy tale—Marie-Catherine le Jumel de Barneville, comtesse d'Aulnoy's "L'Isle de la félicité"—was published in 1690, as an embedded narrative in the novel L'Histoire d'Hypolite, comte de Duglas. 2 [End Page 499] In the following decades, fairy tales were tremendously popular with writers and readers alike. Between 1697 and 1698, at least six collections of so-named "contes des fées" (the first use of the term "fairy tale") appeared in print. 3 During these highly productive years, many of the most recognizable and enduring formal hallmarks of the fairy tale genre emerged, including the classic opening phrase, "Il était une fois" ("Once upon a time"). 4 By the end of the seventeenth century, the literary fairy tale was a distinct and recognizable literary form. Although many of the genre's essential features may seem "timeless," the form and style of the first fairy tales were deeply rooted in the literary culture of the period. Most notably, these early contes de fées reflected the influence of the period's major academic literary dispute, the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. In 1688, Charles Perrault launched the debate when he delivered his treatise, the Parallèle des anciens et des modernes, at the Académie française. Perhaps the strongest voice for the Moderns' point of view, Perrault argued that contemporary arts, letters, and sciences were nearly always superior to classical learning. Following Perrault's lead, the Moderns embraced not only the French vernacular but also a range of progressive trends in literary production such as new genres (especially fictional ones) and authorship by non-traditionally schooled writers, including many women. For modern partisans, the best literature emerged not from solitary work in libraries stuffed with Homer and Virgil, but rather from worldly authors fully engaged in contemporary society. The fairy tale was viewed as a modern genre, and the predominance of women among the ranks of published fairy tale authors was indicative of the larger role of female writers in modern literary life as a whole. In their choice of literary models as well as in their broader literary preferences, fairy tale authors consistently valorized fresh, [End Page 500] contemporary work. They often embraced the modern practice of praising their literary peers. Through dedications, occasional poetry, and other paratextual devices, authors lauded—and advertised—fellow fairy tale writers in their published volumes. 5 The writers' admiration of one another's work extended beyond prefaces and dedications: fairy tale authors paid homage to their peers' texts through allusions and citations within their own tales. The modern quality of early fairy tales extended beyond matters of literary culture. The content of the tales was also grounded in contemporary social and political concerns. In addition to fairy godmothers and ogres, the contes featured aristocratic characters ruling over fictional kingdoms and dwelling...