Birdseed and Brusselsprouts

September 17, 2008

The Origins of the ‘Cinderella’ story.

Cinderella is arguably one of the most popular of all the Classic Fairy Tale narratives. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find a young woman who has not at some point in their girlhood dreamed of being the ‘Cinderella’ figure – the Belle-of-the ball that is swept off her feet by a ‘Handsome Stranger’ and ferreted off to his ‘Castle’ to live ‘happily ever after’.

Most girls today know not only the literary story but own the video-cassette, DVD, Barbie doll, Halloween outfit and a myriad other commodity products. Indeed, how many of us as adult women have not at some point invoked the services of a ‘fairy-godmother’ or held back on committing to a perfectly good relationship because we were waiting for our ‘Handsome Prince’ – our own ‘feel-good-movie’?

As rooted in our childhood memories and cultural make-up as the ‘Cinderella’ narrative is, we do not hold the copyright to the tale. Multiple variations of the tale exist; the earliest recorded version dating as

FULL ARTICLE

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