"Graciosa and Percinet" (French: "Gracieuse et Percinet") is a French Fairy Tale by Madame d'Aulnoy. Andrew Lang included an English translation of the story in The Red Fairy Book.
Once upon a time, there is lovely princess named Graciosa, and a hideous duchess named Grognon who is jealous of the princess. When the princess's mother dies, her father goes out hunting and finds Grognon's castle, where she shows him all of her riches, inducing him to marry her. Graciosa, knowing the duchess loathes her, goes to her garden to cry, where she meets a fairy prince named Percinet, who promises to aid her as he has fallen in love with her. Many times he tries to prove his love to her, but Graciosa is hesitant about returning his love. And when the princess finds herself in danger, her life will depend on whether she agrees to go to his palace...
This tale is in the public domain and can be read here
, here and here. Also see Cupid And Psyche for a tale of the same type and this tale's likely inspiration.
Author Josepha Sherman adapted the tale into her book Child of Faerie, Child of Earth (1992).
"Graciosa and Percinet" contains the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Evil stepmother Grognon tries to have Graciosa beaten, and later killed.
- Adaptation Name Change: Graciosa's original French name is "Gracieuse," though the majority of translations call her the former. The Lang translation also calls Grognon "Grumbly."
- Beauty Equals Goodness: A staple for a d'Aulnoy story.
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: One of Graciosa's impossible tasks is to deliver a box she must not open. She does so, of course, and tiny people come out of it and party but refuse to return, until Percinet appears to aid her.
- Damsel in Distress: During the later part of the story, Graciosa is locked in a cell and forced to do impossible tasks, with which Percinet helps her.
- The Dog Bites Back: When Graciosa starts completing her impossible tasks, Grognon gets mad at the fairy who gave them to the point where she would have strangled her "if a fairy could be strangled." Cue the fairy snapping Grognon's neck when she realizes she had been punishing Graciosa.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The fairy who assists Grognon with giving Graciosa impossible tasks is described as being nearly as wicked as Grognon, yet when the fairy realizes exactly who she has been punishing, she begs Graciosa's forgiveness and gives Grognon her Karmic Death.
- Evil Redhead: Grognon is described as having "fiery red" hair.
- The Fair Folk: This story contains mostly good fairies, including the titular Prince Percinet. However, there is also the wicked fairy who assists Grognon to torment Graciosa, though even she is horrified when she finds out exactly who she has been punishing.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Grognon, after the king marries her.
- Good Princess, Evil Queen: Graciosa is the good princess, while her stepmother Grognon is the evil queen.
- Green-Eyed Monster: The hideous Grognon is so jealous of Graciosa's beauty that she claims to have more beauty in her own little finger.
- Guess Who I'm Marrying?: The king announces he is to marry Grognon, which terrifies Graciosa as she knows the former hates her.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Graciosa.
- Happily Ever After: Graciosa and Percinet get married and live happily together in the end.
- The High Queen: Percinet's mother, the queen of fairies. Also Graciosa's mother before she died.
- Impossible Task: Grognon gives Graciosa three: to untangle a hopelessly tangled skein without breaking a single thread, to separate a pile of bird feathers into piles of each species's feathers, and to deliver a box to her without opening it. Percinet uses fairy magic to help Graciosa with each.
- Karma Houdini: Grognon is never punished in the Lang translation.
- Karmic Death: The fairy Grognon asks to give Graciosa impossible tasks realizes who she has been punishing at the end and promptly snaps Grognon's neck.
- Kill It with Fire: When Graciosa successfully delivers the box of tiny people, Grognon takes it and throws the whole thing in her burning fireplace.
- Missing Mom: Graciosa's mother dies near the beginning of the story.
- Name and Name: "Graciosa and Percinet"
- Neck Snap: The fairy who had assisted Grognon kills her this way when the former realizes she's been punishing Graciosa.
- No Name Given: Averted for the three main characters, but the side characters (Graciosa's father, her birth mother, Grognon's ladies-in-waiting, the fairy who assists Grognon and Percinet's mother and sisters) are unnamed.
- Parental Neglect: Graciosa's father cares more for Grognon's riches than he does his own daughter, which causes him to abandon her to her stepmother's abuse and attempts on her life.
- Princess Protagonist: Graciosa.
- Spoiled Sweet: When Graciosa's mother was alive, she gifted her daughter with a golden dress every day, and Graciosa grew up having a whole lot of sweetmeats and jam for lunch. Despite this, she did not grow up vain or conceited.
- Wicked Stepmother: Duchess (later Queen) Grognon toward Graciosa.
