#428 of 1001 · October 2, 2021

Just as all dreams melt away with morning’s light, so must the enchantment of Sleeping Beauty Week come to an end. But here is one last morsel of magic for you, in the form of an adaptation illustrated by John Collier. The text is taken directly from the French of Charles Perrault, while the scratched lines and muted colors of Collier’s illustrations accord the tale a stark, quiet severity. A note for folklore enthusiasts: This version, unique among Sleeping Beauty picture books, preserves the second half of Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale “La Belle au Bois Dormant” (“The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”), usually excised from retellings for its startling content. After the princess awakens, journeys to the prince’s castle, and bears him two children, the queen mother (an ogress) begins to reveal a sinister, cannibalistic appetite. While the prince is away at war, she demands that the royal cook slaughter first the daughter, then the son, and finally Sleeping Beauty herself and serve them to her for dinner; only through the cook’s kindness and bravery are the three innocents hidden away and spared. After discovering the deception, the ogress queen condemns her daughter-in-law and grandchildren to die in a vat of toads and vipers. However, the prince arrives at home just in time, and his mother, enraged at being thwarted yet again, throws herself into the deadly tub and is devoured. #sleepingbeauty #sleeping #beauty #fairy #fairies #queen #king #princess #prince #book #books #childrensbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks