World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Cinderella
灰姑娘
Perrault's Cinderella in 15 chapters, set in his France of the 1690s. A gentleman's daughter does all the work for her proud stepmother and two stepsisters, and sits in the ashes by the fire. When the prince gives a ball, her fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a coach and gives her glass slippers, on one condition: she must be home by twelve.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — Tells Charles Perrault's French fairy tale of Cinderella.
- Cinderella · 灰姑娘 — A gentleman's daughter, gentle, good and patient like her late mother, who does all the work of the house.
- The Stepmother · 继母 — Her father's second wife, the proudest woman anyone has ever seen, who cannot bear the girl's goodness.
- Big Sister · 大姐姐 — The stepmother's elder daughter, proud and the rudest one in the house.
- Second Sister · 二姐姐 — The stepmother's younger daughter, vain and silly, but not as rude as her sister.
- The Fairy Godmother · 仙女 — Cinderella's godmother, who is a fairy: kind, brisk and practical.
- The Prince · 王子 — The king's son, young and warm, who gives a ball for all the fine people of the land.
- The King · 国王 — The prince's old father, the king.
- The Gentleman · 先生 — A gentleman of the prince's court, polite, careful and fair.
- The Guard · 卫兵 — A guard at the palace gate.
15 chapters in 3 parts
Part 1: The First Ball 第一个舞会
Chapter 1: By the Fire
在火边
A kind girl does all the work in her stepmother's house and sits in the ashes by the fire. Then a letter arrives from the prince.
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Chapter 2: The Prince's Ball
王子的舞会
The sisters spend three days trying on dresses for the prince's ball. On the night, Cinderella does their hair while they laugh at the idea of her going.
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Chapter 3: The Fairy Godmother
仙女来了
Why a pumpkin? In the cold garden the fairy wants mice and a rat too, and before Cinderella goes anywhere, there is one thing she must remember.
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Chapter 4: A Princess Nobody Knows
没人认识她
A princess nobody knows steps out of a gold coach, and the whole palace stops dancing to look. Will her own sisters know her?
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Chapter 5: Who Is She?
她是谁？
The prince gives the unknown princess his own oranges, and she shares them with two ladies who must not know her: her own sisters.
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Part 2: The Second Ball 第二个舞会
Chapter 6: The Yellow Dress
黄衣服
A quarter to twelve, the prince at her side, her sisters at her elbow. Can Cinderella get away before the magic ends?
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Chapter 7: Midnight
十二点
At the second ball the prince never leaves the princess's side. Will she remember her godmother's words this time?
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Chapter 8: Run!
快跑！
The clock has begun to strike twelve, and the prince is still at her side. Can she get away before he sees her old clothes?
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Chapter 9: The Sisters Come Home
姐姐们回来了
Back from the second ball, the sisters tell Cinderella everything about the princess, while she keeps very still by the fire.
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Chapter 10: The Prince's Word
王子的话
A trumpet, a crowd at every door and a man from the palace with the prince's word. Three days later, the two sisters still talk of nothing else.
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Part 3: The Glass Slipper 玻璃鞋
Chapter 11: Whose Slipper Is This?
这是谁的鞋？
Two proud sisters, one tiny glass slipper, and a gentleman from the palace who must try it on every girl in the house.
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Chapter 12: All Eyes on Her
大家都看她
Big Sister is sure a girl from the ashes can never wear a princess's slipper. Then someone nobody let in is standing by the door.
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Chapter 13: The Two Sisters
两个姐姐
The sisters who laughed at her are on their knees, and every unkind thing comes out. What will Cinderella say to them?
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Chapter 14: Back to the Palace
回到王宫
The prince has waited days to see her again, but he fell for a princess. Now Cinderella must tell him who she really is.
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Chapter 15: Wedding Day
结婚那天
The wedding day has come and the palace is full, but the clock will strike twelve again, and the prince still wonders if Cinderella will run.
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Key words in Cinderella
Behind the story
Cinderella (灰姑娘) is one of the fairy tales Charles Perrault published in Paris in 1697, in his book Histoires ou contes du temps passé. Its French title is Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre: Cinderella, or the little glass slipper. Everything in this book comes from Perrault's own tale, told in simple Chinese.
Perrault's heroine is named for the ashes of the kitchen fire, where she sits when her work is done. The house calls her Cucendron, a rude name, and the younger sister, who is not as rude as the elder, calls her Cendrillon. In Chinese these are 灰丫头 (Huī yātou) and 灰姑娘 (Huī gūniang), and 灰姑娘 is her usual name in Chinese.
This book keeps to Perrault's France of the 1690s, with its people and rooms as his time and Gustave Doré's 1862 pictures show them. The slippers are glass, as Perrault's French says: 玻璃鞋 (bōli xié).
Did you know?
- 灰 (huī) means “ash” or “grey”. 丫头 (yātou) is an everyday word for a girl, and also for a servant girl. 姑娘 (gūniang) means “girl” or “young woman”.
- 舞会 (wǔhuì), “ball”, is one of this book's story words: 舞 (wǔ) is “dance”, and 会 (huì) is “meeting” or “party”.
- 变成 (biànchéng), “to turn into”, is one of this book's key words: with a tap of her wand, the godmother turns a pumpkin into a coach and six mice into six grey horses.