Rapunzel Week: Petrosinella: A Neopolitan Rapunzel retold and illustrated by Diane Stanley

Petrosinella: A Neopolitan Rapunzel retold and illustrated by Diane Stanley is another great Rapunzel picture book.  Of course, this one is based on the older Italian variant of the tale by Giambattista Basile.  Again, this book is now out of print but available used online or through your closest library (interlibrary loan is your friend!).

You can read a version of the tale online at Petrosinella.  (It is also in my book Rapunzel and Other Maiden in the Tower Tales From Around the World.)

This is one of my favorite variants of the tale because Petrosinella and the prince are witty enough to escape the witch without the long separation and injuries of the more familiar version from the Grimms.  Our heroine was made much more helpless and naive in the later French and German versions.  In other words, when she is Petrosinella, she is spunky.  In that way, Petrosinella is the closest relative to the Tangled Rapunzel who is quite spunky herself. Of course, she uses magical acorns to fashion her escape, but she engineers it and spares herself quite a bit of pain and suffering.  Who knew that one of the oldest Rapunzels would be so closely related to one of the newest?