Page 27 - La Gatta racconta la storia della sia fiaba - PussTells the History of Her Fairy Tale
P. 27

than many later writers of fairy-tale writers, like
           Perrault and Grimm, who based many tales of
           their collections on Basile’s work. Basile was
           quite unlucky: he died before his masterwork was
           printed.
             I am sure that Basile based his version of my tale
           on Straparola’s version, though he changed some
           parts. For Basile, I wasn’t the cat of a dying
           mother anymore, but of a dying father, and the
           name of my owner, the youngest son, was now
           Pippo Cagliuso. His elder brother made a living
           by renting out his inheritance, a sieve, and gave
           nothing to his younger brother. Just as in any
           other tale of mine, I set out to help my starving
           master, offering my preys to the king in his name.
           I now lived in Naples, and instead of hunting I
           went fishing for mullets and breams.


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