Cinderella

Cinderella,

or The

Slipper (French: Cendrillon

ou

Little
La

Petite

Glass

Pantoufle

verre, Italian: Cenerentola, German:Aschenputtel,

de

Russian

, Zolushka), is a European folk tale embodying

a myth-element of unjust oppression. Written versions were
published

by Giambattista

Basile in

his Pentamerone (1634), by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou

contes du temps pass(1697),[1] and by the Brothers
Grimm in their folk tale collection Grimms' Fairy Tales (1812).
Although both the story's title and the character's name change in different
languages, in English-language folklore "Cinderella" is the archetypal name. The
word "Cinderella" has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes were
unrecognized, or one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a
period of obscurity and neglect. The still-popular story of "Cinderella" continues to
influence

popular

culture

internationally,

lending

plot

elements, allusions,

and tropes to a wide variety of media.

The AarneThompson system

classifies

Cinderella

as

"the

persecuted

heroine". The story of Rhodopis about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of
Egypt is considered the earliest known variant of the "Cinderella" story (published 7
BC), and many variants are known throughout the world.
There is also Gregory Maguire's novel Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister,
which gives the classic story from the view of one of the ugly stepsisters. In this
version, the Cinderella character is unusually beautiful, but also a shy enigma. Her
stepsister, though plain, is charming and intelligent. The novel has themes much
more adult than the traditional story.
Gail Carson Levine wrote Ella Enchanted, a story how "Ella" is under a fairy
curse of obedience (she does whatever someone tells her to). A movie also has
been made based on this book.
In 1982, Roald Dahl rewrote the story in a more modern and gruesome way in
his book Revolting Rhymes.