World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Puss in Boots
穿靴子的猫
Puss in Boots (穿靴子的猫, Chuān xuēzi de māo) is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault, retold in simple Mandarin as a 4-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 2 (Elementary).
Retold from Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale: a poor miller's son inherits nothing but a cat. The cat asks for boots and a bag, and soon there's a made-up marquis, a princess and an ogre's castle.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — Tells Perrault's old tale plainly and warmly, with a quiet fondness for the cat's tricks.
- Puss · 猫先生 — The miller's clever, vain cat, who asks for boots and a bag, insists on being called Mister Cat, and always has a plan.
- The Miller's Son · 小儿子 — The miller's youngest son, honest and nervous, who inherits nothing but a cat and stammers whenever the cat's plans get too bold.
- The King · 国王 — A jolly, food-loving king who is delighted by every gift from the mysterious Marquis of Carabas.
- The Princess · 公主 — The king's daughter, said to be the most beautiful princess in the world, curious, warm and quick to laugh.
- The Ogre · 妖怪 — The richest ogre anyone has ever seen, who owns every field for miles and loves to show off his shape-changing magic.
- The Eldest Brother · 大哥 — The miller's eldest son, who takes the mill for himself and laughs at his little brother's share.
- The Farmers · 农民 — Farmers mowing the ogre's meadows, who are much too scared of a talking cat in boots to argue with him.
4 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: Only a Cat
只有一只猫
A poor miller's son inherits nothing but a cat. But this cat can talk, has big plans, and needs a pair of boots right away.
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Chapter 2: The Marquis in the River
河里的侯爵
Months of gifts make the king curious about the Marquis of Carabas. Then Mister Cat hears about a royal drive by the river and sends his master for a very cold bath.
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Chapter 3: Whose Meadow Is This?
这是谁的草地
Mister Cat races ahead of the king's carriage with a strange order for the farmers. At the end of the road waits a castle, and an ogre with a very unusual talent.
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Chapter 4: Lord Cat
猫大人
Mister Cat has one last trick for the ogre, the king arrives at a castle nobody expected, and a poor miller's son gets the surprise of his life.
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Key words in Puss in Boots
Behind the story
This book retells The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots (Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté), which Charles Perrault published in Paris in 1697 in his Stories or Tales from Times Past, the collection better known as Tales of Mother Goose. Italian storytellers had told of a clever cat who wins a fortune for a poor young man long before him, but the boots, the Marquis of Carabas and the shape-changing ogre are Perrault's.
In Chinese the tale is 穿靴子的猫, “the cat who wears boots,” and the nobleman the cat invents is 卡拉巴斯侯爵, the Marquis of Carabas. Perrault closed the story with two short morals in verse: that cleverness and hard work are worth more to the young than any inheritance, and that fine clothes, good looks and youth go a long way toward winning a princess's heart.
Did you know?
- Perrault called his hero the Master Cat. In this book the cat insists on being called 猫先生, “Mister Cat,” and by the last chapter he has earned an even grander title.
- The Brothers Grimm put a German version of the tale in the first edition of their fairy tales in 1812, then left it out of later editions because it was so close to Perrault's French story.
- Chinese cat lovers joke that the cat is really in charge: online, a pet cat is often called 主子, “the master,” and its owner is the 铲屎官, “the poop-scooping officer.”