I’ll give a few examples, so first of all the first sentences in ‘The Pair of Shoes’:
“There once was a pair of shoes that got married. The right shoe, which was the man, was called Nicolas, and the left shoe, which was the lady, was called Tina.”
These few lines, which form the seed for the story that follows, come from young Nicolas Riccardi, whose little sister’s name does indeed happen to be Tina.
Scoobidoo, the doll who knew everything, really existed, as did the guitar that became firm friends with the potato. And even as I write these words, the cunning little pig is still making himself useful as the piggy bank in Papa Sayeed’s cafe.
On this same cafe’s counter, in 1965, there was also a glass bowl that held two little fish, one red, the other yellow with black spots. It was Bashir who first realized that these fish could be “magic”, and this is why they appear in ‘The Witch in the Broom Cupboard’.
As for those who will say that these stories are too serious for children, I offer the following reply in advance, with the help of one last example:
In an early version of the tale titled ‘Uncle Pierre’s House’, my ghost only realized that he was a ghost thanks to the little girl amusing herself by putting her hand through his ethereal leg. It was Nadia, Papa Sayeed’s eldest daughter, who had the inspired idea of having the little girl sit in the same armchair as the ghost, so that, on waking, the ghost discovers her sitting “right inside Uncle Pierre’s tummy”. These last few words are Nadia’s own. Can grown-ups appreciate the symbolic value and moral beauty of this marvellous image? Our poor old ghost, a perfect specimen of the hardened, shrivelled-up, embittered old bachelor, is suddenly able to see himself as he really is. Suddenly liberty is within his reach, and truth, and generosity; he is—in short—set free, and his new freedom begins from the very moment when he symbolically becomes a mother. My friend Nietzsche also writes, I don’t recall exactly where, of men as mothers… Yet it took a little girl to come up with this perfect idea!
But I’ll stop here, for it would after all be a bit much if, in a book intended for children, the afterword meant for the adults were itself to take up more space than your average fairy tale!
In any case, I haven’t much else to add, except to wish my young friends from rue Broca happy reading, and the same to all who live on other streets in other towns, everywhere.
Pierre Gripari, 1966
* Apart from ‘The Witch in the Broom Cupboard’, which is inspired by Russian folklore.
Translator’s Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Audrey Stanton and Etty Bo Tedman specially for their very helpful reading, also Michelle Stanton and Kerry Bell for their interpretation and comments, and Harold Lewis, who is always a trusty reader.
Pierre Gripari, the Author
Pierre Gripari was born in 1925 in Paris, to a French mother and a Greek father. He studied at the prestigious Louis-le-Grand lycée, and tried his hand at various jobs, including serving in the army and acting as a trade-union delegate for an oil company.
He resigned in 1957 in order to become a writer, but it was not until the 1970s that he became famous, with the publication of his Contes de la rue Broca, translated in this volume. In these tales, the giants, witches and mermaids of traditional fairy tales leap from the page, animated by a very modern spirit. Blessed with a healthy disrespect for authority, the author took great pleasure in upsetting the natural order of the fantastic.
Pierre Gripari died in Paris in 1990.
Puig Rosado, the Illustrator
Puig Rosado was born in Spain on April Fools’ Day, 1931—a date of birth that is surely not entirely free of responsibility for the course the rest of his life then took. His humorous posters, drawings and cartoons have been published in numerous countries, his work is on display in museums across Europe, and he has been honoured with many prizes. Puig Rosado is absolutely convinced that people with no sense of humour go, without exception, to hell!
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Copyright
Pushkin Children’s Books
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Original Text © Éditions de la Table Ronde, Paris, 1967
Illustrations by Puig Rosado
Translation © Sophie Lewis 2013
First published by Pushkin Children’s Books in 2013
This ebook edition published in 2013
ISBN 978 1 78269 038 2
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The Good Little Devil and Other Tales Page 15
