As best I can tell, Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness[1] d’Aulnoy (1652-1705) led a wild life.

At the age of 13, she was married to the Baron d’Aulnoy, who was a “freethinker,”[2] a gambler, and thirty years her senior. Three years and three children later, her husband was accused of treason. The accusations were proved to be false and his accusers were executed. There was speculation that she and her mother were involved in the plot against d’Aulnoy as a way of getting rid of a dissolute and possibly abusive husband.[3] A warrant was issued for their arrest. Madame d’Aulnoy escaped through a window and hid in a church. Her mother fled to England.

Madame d’Aulnoy spent the next twenty years traveling throughout Europe, occasionally making brief stops in Paris. Other than the fact that she had three more children, little is known of her life during this period. She later claimed she spent the time traveling in England, Holland, and Spain. Some believe she worked as a secret agent for King Louis XIV..

In 1685, Madame D’Aulnoy returned to Paris for good. Once re-established in Parisian society she enjoyed a successful career as an author, and hosted one of the most popular salons of the period. She published a popular novel and three pseudo-memoirs about her travels in England and Spain. But she was best known for her fairy tales, a term she invented. The tales were written for adults in a conversational style that reflected the salon culture of the day and featured strong female characters. (No waiting around to be rescued by a prince–for Madame d’Aulnoy or her heroines!) They don’t always end happily ever after

She often read her fairy tales at her salon before they were published. Her guests followed her lead, reciting fairy tales as part of the evening’s entertainment and occasionally coming in fairy tale costumes.

Altogether, she published twenty-five fairy tales in two collections, some of which were included by Andrew and Nora Lang in their popular fairy tale collections in the late nineteenth century.[4] Neither Madame d’Aulnoy nor her stories are remembered today, but she created a taste for fairy tales in the French court in which Charles Perrault and Antoine Galland could build. Perhaps making her the genre’s fairy godmother?

[1] Or perhaps comtesse. The records is not clear. We’ll just call her Madame d’Aulnoy going forward.

[2] A term that can be taken many ways.  In this case, I assume it means not adhering to church doctrine.  Or not.

[3] I could not find details about his eventual death in 1700.

[4] The Langs published twelve collections between 1889 and 1913, known as the Coloured Fairy Books. As happens all too often , Nora was not credited for the books on the cover or title page even though Andrew acknowledged in the preface of The Lilac Fairy Book, which appeared rather late in the series, that “The fairy books are almost wholly the work of Mrs. Lang, who haas translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish Catalan and other languages.” Grrr.