The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones

Everyone knows the magical tales of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and the Cat in Boots, but few people know that these stories have their beginnings in the collection “Tales of Tales.” It was compiled by the Neapolitan court poet, Sir Cavalier Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Basile (1566–1632). The collection was not intended for printing; after the author’s death, it was found among his manuscripts and published in five volumes in 1634–1636 in Naples under the pseudonym Giùan Alessio Abbattìtìs. Later, after being translated into a number of European languages, this book greatly influenced the works of Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Clemens Brentano—thanks to whom the plots of Neapolitan tales became known also to the Russian reader. Their echoes can be seen in Pushkin’s “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” in Ershov’s “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” and even in Bazhov’s “Ural Tales.”

The subtitle of the collection, “Entertainment for Little Boys,” should not be taken literally: the book is undoubtedly intended for an adult reader. In these tales, as well as in their literary adaptations known to us from classic children’s literature, timeless human values are affirmed—but the adventures of the heroes and their dialogues are presented without adornment, in a streetwise, bright, and rough manner. The colorful, rich language of the Neapolitan tales—with many little words and expressions not accepted in the salons—will leave no one indifferent. Their lexical and phraseological richness was carefully preserved by the translator Petr Epifanov.

We offer everyone who has already left childhood behind to listen to magical stories for adults, brilliantly performed by masters of the spoken word.