Donkey Skin

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. — Albert Einstein

Those of us who grew up on
Disney films know the fairy tales: Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood. But Peau-d’ Ane or Donkey Skin , by the same great author, Charles Perrault, is lesser known.

When Perrault was 67 years old, in 1695, he dedicated his life to children. Two years later he published Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l’Oye, or what American children call Tales of Mother Goose.  I encourage you to stop reading this instant and click the link to read these tales. Spend as long as you want. They are all wonderful and brief. Then return here.

One reason you may not have heard of Donkey Skin is that it has a dark theme. Incest. In the story, A king wants to marry his beutiful daughter.

This weekend I watched the extraordinary film, Peau-d’ Ane, directed by Jacques Demy in 1970. Demy is a contemporary of two of the best directors, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. He is known for sumptuous musicals Musicals are not my favorite, but under Demy’s direction, when an actor bursts out into song, it doesn’t feel like someone with a loud voice and goofy lyrics has suddenly replaced the non-singing actor in the scene. Catherine Deneuve and her fairy-godmother, played by Delphine Seyrig, sing charming songs in Demy’s film that don’t take you out of the fairy-tale realm of sensibility.

Demy’s rendition of Donkey Skin is surreal and real at the same time. The beautiful princess, played by Deneuve, is confused when her father asks her to marry. Like most little girls, she loves her daddy. And she’s not mature and experienced enough to know the difference between love for her father and romantic love. Plus she is desperately lonely and wants to please her father, who hasn’t spoken to her since her mother, his queen, died. It’s the fairy godmother who sets the young princess right.

Donkey Skin, as written by Charles Perrault, leaves no doubt that incest is wrong and ends with the moral of the tale:

It is better to undergo the greatest hardships rather than to fail in one’s duty, that virtue may sometimes seem ill-fated but will always triumph in the end.

I hope you’ll get a chance to see Demy’s version of Donkey Skin, but there’s nothing stopping you from reading the fairy tale, as told by Perrault. Go do it.