Persinette is a literary fairy tale written by French author Charlotte-Rose de La Force.
Synopsis[]
After getting married a woman gets pregnant. In the same neighbourhood the couple lives there’s also a fairy, who owns a garden where all kinds of flowers, fruits and plants grow, including parsley, which is really rare in that kingdom and that the fairy managed to bring all the way from India. The pregnant woman craves for that parsley, but there’s not many ways to get it other than entering the fairy’s garden, something that the fairy has forbidden. However, one day the husband passes by the garden he notices the door is open and it seems like the fairy’s not home, so he enters the garden and takes a handful of parsley. But instead of calming the woman’s cravings, eating the parsley only increases them. The husband passes by the garden several times hoping to find the door open like the last time, but he isn’t as lucky, until finally one day he does. But when he gets in he discovers the fairy is also there, furious because the man has entered her garden. Getting on his knees the husband begs for the fairy’s mercy, saying he only entered to get some parsley for his wife, who’s with child. That’s enough to soften the fairy’s heart enough so she spares the man’s life and even allows him to enter her garden everytime he wants to get as much parsley as he wants. But in exchange, the man must give the fairy the baby his wife will have the day it’s born. The man agrees to the deal, and the same day his wife gives birth the fairy comes, names the newborn girl Persinette, gives her golden diapers and sprays her face with magical water to make her beautiful. After doing all of that the fairy takes Persinette to her house to raise her, and when the girl is twelve the fairy builds a doorless tower in the middle of the forest, where she locks Persinette, providing her with not only the necessary to cover her most basic needs, but also all kinds of luxuries to distract herself, like wardrobes full of the latests fashion, drawers full of jewels, musical instruments to play and books to read. The fairy goes to visit Persinette frequently, and to get in she must call Persinette to look through the window in the tower’s highest room and let her golden hair down, that the fairy uses to climb the tower.
Persinette’s favorite pastime when she’s alone is singing, and one day she’s heard by a prince who passed by the tower because he separated from his retinue after he got distracted chasing after a stag. When the prince raises his eyes and sees that the voice’s owner looks as beautiful as she sounds he falls in love with her. Wanting to talk to the girl the prince looks for a way to get inside the tower, but soon he finds out the tower has no doors. Also when Persinette finally notices the prince’s presence she gets scared and walks away from the window, because although she finds the prince attractive this is the first time she has seen a man and the fairy has only told her horrible stories about the evil they can do so she would stay away from them. When the prince sees that Persinette is no longer visible he goes to the nearest village and starts to question the locals about the tower, hoping one of them will tell him how to get in. But although everyone knows about the fairy’s tower and the beautiful maiden locked inside, no one knows anything about how to get in. The following days the prince goes to the forest everyday trying to figure out how to get in, until finally one day he sees the fairy coming to visit Persinette and witnesses how she gets in. After that the prince waits for the fairy to leave, and when she does he stands beneath the door and imitating the fairy’s voice he asks Persinette to let her hair down. Persinette does it, and is only after she sees who’s climbing her hair that she realises is not the fairy. She’s initially frightened, but the prince manages to convince her to let him be her lover with sweet words.
From that day on the prince goes to visit Persinette daily until she gets pregnant. When the fairy finds out about it she’s so enraged that Persinette bursts into tears and confesses everything. After learning about it the fairy cuts Persinette’s hair, forces her to leave the tower and takes her to a isolated spot at the seashore, which although not as luxurious as the tower’s interior, it still covers all the basic needs, with a spring with fresh waters to drink, a basket of biscuits that never empties to eat and a bed made of bushes to sleep in. The fairy leaves Persinette there and returns to the tower where she waits for the prince to come back, even singing imitating Persinette’s voice to lure him better to her trap. Thanks to that the prince doesn’t realise Persinette is nowhere to be found until he has gotten inside the tower. Concerned about Persinette’s absence the prince asks the fairy where she is and if he has done anything harmful to her. After answering the prince’s question saying he would never see Persinette again the fairy throws the prince from the top of the tower, and despite the fact the prince survives the fall, he’s blinded. After spending some time at the foot of the tower groaning and repeating Persinette’s name the prince starts to wander around without knowing exactly where to go once he has grown accustomed to his blindness. The prince spends the next years that way, feeding himself with herbs and roots, until one day he stops to rest underneath a tree and starts to hear a familiar voice. After realising that is Persinette’s voice the prince is found by the two children Persinette has given birth after she was left there by the fairy, and the kids call her mother. Overjoyed to finally meet the prince again, Persinette comes running and bursts into tears, and when the tears fall in the prince’s eyes his eyesight is restored. Unfortunately the joy doesn’t last very long, because when they sit at the table to eat the biscuits in the basket turn into stones, and soon after the waters from the spring turn into crystals, the herbs become poisonous snakes and toads and the birds dragons. Reaching the conclusion the transformations are the result of his presence the prince wants to live, preferring to die alone than having his family killed because of him, but Persinette insists him to stay saying she’d rather die with her family by her side. Right after the fairy appears in a golden carriage and rescues everyone. After that she carries Persinette, the prince and their children to the kingdom of the prince’s parents, who are very glad to see their son alive again after all those years.