The Ridiculous Wishes
The Ridiculous Wishes or The Three Ridiculous Wishes (French: Les Souhaits ridicules) is a French literary fairy tale by Charles Perrault published in 1697 in the volume titled Histoires ou contes du temps passé. It is Aarne-Thompson type 750A.[2]
A woodcutter complained of his poor lot. Jupiter (or, alternatively, a tree spirit) granted him three wishes. The woodcutter went home, and his wife persuaded him to put off the wishing until the next day, after he had thought, but while sitting by the fire, he wished for sausages. His wife taxed him for his folly, and angry, he wished the sausages on her nose. Finally, they agreed to use the last wish to take the sausages off her nose, leaving them no better off than before.
In some different types of versions of this tale, black pudding is used instead of sausages.
References
- The fairy tales of Charles Perrault, 1922. The Ridiculous Wishes p. 130
- D. L. Ashliman, Foolish Wishes: tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 750A and other stories about the foolish use of magic wishes
External links
- Works related to The Ridiculous Wishes at Wikisource
- Media related to Les Souhaits ridicules (Charles Perrault) at Wikimedia Commons
- The Ludicrous Wishes
- (in French) The Ridiculous Wishes, audio version