"The fairy tales of Mary-Catherine le Jumel de Barneville, Baronesse
d’Aulnoy—first published in French in the 1690s—are full of jewel-like
foods, poisoned drinks, and violent feats of baking. The cooking is
extreme. In one story, 'Finette-Cendron,' a Cinderella figure, pleases
her fairy godmother by baking her a cake with 'two pounds of butter';
later, she serves her a feast made from two chickens, a cock, and 'two
little rabbits that were being fed up with cabbage.'... Lest anyone find d’Aulnoy’s repasts and their power unrealistic, the
opposite is true, as I discovered while attempting to re-create the food
with my friend Celia Bell, whose novel, The Disenchantment, published this May, was inspired by d’Aulnoy’s life and work. ..."
The Paris Review - Author Archives: Valerie Stivers
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