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Tale Summary

There was once a king and queen who wished dearly for a child, and one day while the woman was sitting alone by the side of a waterfall a crab began to speak and told her that her wish would be granted. The queen consented to be led to the land of the fairies, and the crab became an old woman to guide her. Though it was the same path the queen usually traveled by, everything was changed to be more lush and magnificent. Six fairies approached from their palace to announce that soon she would have a little daughter, and gave her six flowers made of precious stones. Soon after a baby girl was born, named Désirée, and the queen wished to thank the fairies and invited them to her palace by uttering each of their names to the crystal flowers. The fairies arrived in magnificent carriages and brought gifts for the child, but the crab-fairy, who had been forgotten, cast a shadow on the celebration. She was irate and intended to kill the child, but after the other fairies flattered her, she instead cast a curse that if the girl was to see one ray of daylight before her fifteenth birthday she would come to an unlucky fate. After she left, the fairies conjured up a beautiful palace with no windows, which the princess was brought up in. Each of the fairies loved her, but most of all the Fairy Tulip, who grew wary as the girl’s fifteenth birthday approached. She warned the queen of her apprehension, and told her to send out portraits of the princess to all the neighboring courts to prepare her for marriage. All the princes fell in love with her, but one above all others became obsessed with her image and impatiently demanded her. He was engaged to be married to another woman, but convinced his father to abandon that union as he grew sicker with love. An embassy was sent to Désirée carrying the prince’s portrait, and led by the envoy named Becasigue, but the fairy Tulip told them that the marriage could not take place for three more months when the girl turned fifteen. The king gave his consent for this marriage, but again warned that she could not be seen until her birthday, and so took the prince’s portrait. When the queen later passed it to Désirée, the portrait spoke, giving her flattering compliments, and she fell in love. The prince was impatient and disappointed that the princess had not come back with the embassy, and so fell ill again. The king grew worried and sent another message to Désirée’s father to plead for the marriage to happen at once, and the girl came up with a plan. She proposed that at night she ride in a carriage with no windows, and arrive before dawn to remain in an underground chamber at the prince’s castle. Several days later, the princess stepped into the carriage with her faithful maid of honor, named Eglantine, her lady-in-waiting, who had also fallen in love with the prince and was named Cérisette, and Cérisette’s mother. The woman that the prince had been previously betrothed to was named Nera, and her godmother was the Fairy of the Fountain, who wished for the princess to be ill-fated and so put bad thoughts into the minds of Cérisette and her mother. While they were in the thick forest, the two cut a hole into the side of the carriage and as they entered the open country Désirée was hit with sunlight. She sprang out as a white doe, and Cérisette put on the clothes of the princess so that when she arrived at the prince’s castle she would appear as his bride. The prince was eager to see her and asked about her beauty but his chamberlains told him that she did not look like her portrait. He saw her for himself and agreed that she was ugly, and after his father declared that there had been some treachery done, the prince fainted from sorrow and that night he snuck out with Becasigue to start anew. Meanwhile, the white doe was very unhappy, and so the fairy Tulip guided Eglantine to her, and the maid of honor recognized her after looking into her eyes. After spending time together in the woods, the fairy Tulip shortened the spell that was put on the princess, making it so that at night she could resume her natural form. They were then instructed by her to go down a path to find a little hut for shelter, and found an old woman who gave them lodging. The prince and Becasigue also found the hut after wandering through the woods and were given lodging in the next room over from the princess and Eglantine. The next day, the prince walked alone and came across the white doe and tried to shoot it with his arrows, but she escaped and made it back to the hut. The next morning the prince returned to the same spot and was disappointed not to see the doe and found somewhere to nap, when the doe found him and recognized him, and kissed his forehead. He awoke to see the doe, but she fled, and he pursued her no longer wanting to injure her. When she could run no more, the prince took care of her, but when it began to grow dark and he went down to the stream she ran away to her room in the hut and lamented to Eglantine. They saw each other the next day as well, and he shot an arrow through her leg in order to capture her, but felt so horrible for wounding her that he carried her as far as he could to the hut, and left her tied beneath a tree as he went ahead for help. Eglantine found her and went to free her, when the prince appeared and accused her of stealing, and Eglantine proved that it was her doe by asking the princess to put her arms around her neck. She carried the doe back to the hut, and she and the prince were surprised to find that the other was also staying there. That night Becasigue told the prince that he was sure Eglantine was the maid of honor, and so the two cut a small hole in the wall, and observed the princess back in her natural form. The prince knocked on their door and was let in, and the two lovers recognized each other and spent the whole night together. In the morning they found that her spell had been broken, and learned that the old woman who owned the hut was really the fairy Tulip. There was a grand wedding feast, and Cérisette and her mother were shipped to a small island to work hard for their living.

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