Forget Shrek. Here’s a retelling of the original Puss in Boots story. It’s an excerpt from a book I once wrote for young and general readers, and I’m sharing it here because that’s the kind of guy I am
In the French fairy tale, The Master Cat or Puss in Boots, by Charles Perrault, a miller has three sons. The eldest inherits the mill, the middle son gets a donkey and the third son gets his father’s cat. The impoverished son despairs that he will have to eat the cat to live – but the cat has different ideas. He tells his master to fetch him a bag and a pair of boots and he will ensure they both live happily ever after.
The miller’s son does as he is told and the cat sets about on a remarkable series of adventures. First he catches some rabbits and takes them in the bag to the court of the king, declaring they are a present from the “Marquis of Carabas”, a name the cat has invented for his master. Over the next weeks and months, the cat takes many presents to the king, each time saying they are from the Marquis of Carabas.
One day when the king and his beautiful daughter are taking a ride in his coach alongside the river, the cat orders his master to take off his ragged clothes and jump into the river. “Help,” cries Puss. “The Marquis of Carabas is drowning!” The king orders his men to save the “Marquis”, whose name he well remembers. The cat then declares that thieves have stolen his master’s clothes, and the king orders his guards to fetch one of his own suits for the “Marquis”. When the king’s daughter sees the miller’s son, she immediately falls in the love with him – just as the cat had planned.
Puss then runs ahead of the coach party and sees some peasants in a field. He bares his fangs and tells the peasants that, if they are asked, they must say the land belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, otherwise he will slice them into mincemeat. When the king passes and enquires as to the ownership of the land, they declare together that its belongs to “our Lord, the Marquis of Carabas”. The king is mightily impressed.
The cat then runs further ahead, to the castle of a rich ogre. He says to the ogre: “I understand that you can turn yourself into any creature you so desire, such as a lion or an elephant.” “That is true,” says the immodest ogre, who demonstrates by transforming into a ferocious lion. Puss is genuinely frightened, but he regains his composure and says: “I have also been told that you can turn yourself into a tiny creature such as a mouse or rat, but I can hardly believe that to be true.” The ogre is offended, and he turns himself into a mouse – which the cat quickly pounces upon and gobbles up!
As the king’s party arrives at the gate of the castle, Puss races out, dips his hat and declares: “Welcome to the home of the Marquis of Carabas.” They then dine on the feast the ogre had prepared for some friends and, with the king’s encouragement, the miller’s son asks for the Princess’s hand in marriage. She accepts and they all do live happily ever after.
In a more modern spin on the tale, as told in the animated film Shrek 2, Puss in Boots is a hired assassin who discovers his softer side and his sense of justice to help the hero.
