If the Shoe Fits...
...an Annotated Bibliography of Cinderella Stories

Cinderella is probably the best-known and most-researched individual fairy tale in the world. There are more than 700 variations of this story from several cultures around the world. What follows is an annotated bibliography (by no means exclusive) of stories from several cultures, commentaries (criticisms, if you prefer) on Cinderella as an important research tool, and video adaptations of this famous story. In my research, I have attempted to discover why Cinderella is such a popular story. I have discovered that there are many factors involved in classifying a Cinderella story, not all of them present in each story. I have come to a deeper love of this story for the simple reason that it spans many more cultures than I had previously known. Cinderella is loved by people throughout the world, a good way to begin to research the essence of human nature, common history, and different cultures. The purpose of this bibliography is to provide a stepping stone for others who are interested in the same questions. I will refrain from more comment on my opinions here because I think that each person will benefit more from reading these stories for him or herself and puzzling out a conclusion. I hope that this collection of sources can be beneficial for teachers, parents, and students, both young and old, as a stepping stone for falling more deeply in love with a favorite tale and for exploring ways that humankind can link together across cultures, a common denominator from which understanding of cultural differences can begin to form. The original format for this bibliography was a long websites with multiple tags and links.  

My stepping stone for locating most of the information included in this bibliography came from two internet cites about Cinderella:

Also, for the purposes of brevity, I have assumed knowledge of both the Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm versions of the story.  

The Bibliography

For ease of downloading (and printing and updating), the following links will call up files for each section of this bibliography.  "Variations" are stories in which some fundamental part of the story is changed, such as animals cast as the characters.  "Versions" refers to stories in which the original tale is told in a slightly different form.