Famed Italian author Italo Calvino, an author some intellectuals fiercely insist he never wrote fantasy or science fiction way beyond the point of the ridiculous, collected and translated 200 folktales from around the Country and published them in a vastly underrated book.
Among them, some tales will sound familiar and were already presented by Giambattista Basile in his Pentamerone, only to become famous because of Perrault or the Grimm Bros: there’s Beauty and the Beast (Bellinda and the Monster from Tuscany), Cinderella (Grattula Beddattula from Sicily), Snow White (La Bella Venezia, literally Beautiful Venice from Abruzzo), Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty and her children from Calabria), and Bluebeard (The Silver Nose from Pedimont).
Today I bring you the last one: it features the Devil, laundry and a very clever girl.
The illustration in the header comes from the fantastic project by Rebecca Yanovskaya, who illustrated the horror tabletop RolePlaying Game Bluebeard’s Wife for Magpie Games. You can see her work here.
You can read the rest on my Patreon.
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