Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochèreonnets
Przekładaniec, Issue 22-23/2009-2010 – Translating Fairy Tales, Issues in English, pp. 249 - 266
This comparative analysis of two translations of Charles Perrault’s “Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre” shows how the French conte was adapted for children in England at different moments and reflects different projects. Robert Samber’s “Cinderilla: or, The Little Glass Slipper,” published in Histories, or Tales of Past Times. With Morals (1729), is known as the first English translation of the tale. More recently, Angela Carter’s retranslation “Cinderella: or, The Little Glass Slipper,” published in The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (1977), pays homage to Samber but also modernises the tale to carry a more emancipatory message. While Samber’s translation reflects the working conditions of Grub Street writers and acculturation of Perrault’s fairy tale in Protestant England, Carter gives it a feminist twist as she turns it into a “fable of the politics of experience”. She would later rewrite it as “Ashputtle or The Mother’s Ghost” (1987), this time using Manheim’s English translation of the Grimms’ “Aschenputtel” as a starting point.