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Abstract
The last two volumes of Marie Catherine d’Aulnoy’s Contes nouveaux ou les Fées à la mode, published in 1698, contained the story “Nouveau Gentilhomme bourgeois.” Embedded in this narrative were the fairy tales “La Chatte blanche,” “Belle Belle, ou le chevalier Fortuné,” “Le Pigeon et la colombe,” “La Princesse Belle Etoile et le Prince Chéri,” “Le Prince Marcassin,” and “Le Dauphin.” However, in the later edition, Cabinet des fées, the fairy tales were published without the frame narrative. Until the publication of Philippe Hourcade’s adaptation in 1997, this story was omitted from all the later editions, in French or otherwise. Due to this, the story has never been translated. This hinders the ability of readers to understand fully all the aspects of the translated, embedded fairy tales, because, as a frame narrative, “Nouveau Gentilhomme bourgeois” provides essential, contextual information for them. By translating this frame narrative I alleviate this problem, by giving English readers all the context originally associated with the fairy tales.