Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault

Our young misses were also invited, for they cut a very grand figure among the people of the country-side. It happened that the King’s son gave a ball, and invited to it all persons of fashion.

However, Cinderella, in spite of her mean apparel, was a hundred times more handsome than her sisters, though they were always richly dressed. The younger sister of the two, who was not so rude and uncivil as the elder, called her Cinderella. When she had done her work, she used to go into the chimney corner, and sit down among the cinders, hence she was called Cinderwench. The poor girl bore all patiently, and dared not complain to her father, who would have scolded her if she had done so, for his wife governed him entirely. The poor girl had to sleep in the garret, upon a wretched straw bed, while her sisters lay in fine rooms with inlaid floors, upon beds of the very newest fashion, and where they had looking-glasses so large that they might see themselves at their full length. The stepmother gave her the meanest work in the house to do she had to scour the dishes, tables, etc., and to scrub the floors and clean out the bedrooms. She could not bear the goodness of this young girl, because it made her own daughters appear the more odious.

The wedding was scarcely over, when the stepmother’s bad temper began to show itself. The gentleman had also a young daughter, of rare goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best creature in the world. She had two daughters of her own, who were, indeed, exactly like her in all things. O nce upon a time there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that ever was seen.

Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault