Sleeping Beauty on trial
To The Times
Your leading article makes light of Sarah Hall’s objection to Sleeping Beauty as a story for small children, but she has a serious point. The version of the story that we all know derives from Charles Perrault’s bowdlerised 17th century La Belle au Bois Dormant. Perrault’s statement that the prince “kissed” the sleeping princess to wake her was an obvious euphemism (to his contemporaries).
All known earlier versions of this European folk tale (for example, from 17th century Italy and 14th century France) say that he rapes her and goes on his way. She bears twins while still unconscious: one of the babies sucks her finger in mistake for her nipple and draws out the splinter that caused her sleep. She wakes to find herself alone with two babies, about whose conception and father she has no idea at all.
This might be an interesting basis for a discussion with sixth-formers of sexual coercion in historical Europe and how far our society still has to go in shaking those attitudes off, but Ms Hall is quite right that the subject is a good deal too chewy for six-year-olds. Victoria Solt Dennis, Gillingham, Kent
To The Times
As the sleeping beauty had been unconscious for 100 years, it has always been clear to me that the handsome prince was performing nothing more than mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That some believe this benevolent action would be assumed by young children to constitute sexual assault beggars belief. The story provides parents with an excellent opportunity to use the story to reinforce the societal value of practising first aid. Nigel Bufton, Milton-under-wychwood, Oxfordshire
To The Times
If Sarah Hall cares to look at a translation of the French version of La Belle au Bois Dormant she could add attempted cannibalism to the charge sheet. After the princess’s marriage, her mother-in-law takes in the resultant children and seeks to have them cooked for her supper, stipulating, in the original, a Sauce Robert on the side. In some editions the recipe is given. Brian Alderson, Richmond, North Yorkshire