little red riding hood

Charles Perrault (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) included this poem in his “Little red riding hood”

version. He was one of the writers who laid the foundation for the new genre of fairy tales.

To make absolutely sure that no one would miss the moral of the story, he presents it in a nutshell:

“From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong

to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for

all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition — neither noisy, nor hateful, nor

angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who

does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!”

I always loved the multiple facettes of fairy tales. The origins of ‘lil red seemed to be based on werewolve

believes in rural France, and now see where it got us! All the way to Freud and back again to the “Twilight

saga”!