Bluebeard

Charles Perrault · darkest tale · read with an adult

There was once a wealthy man with fine houses, gold dishes, coaches, and servants. But his beard was blue, and it made him so frightening that women fled from him. Worse, he had married several times, and no one knew what had become of his wives.

At last the younger daughter of a neighboring lady agreed to marry him. After a month Bluebeard announced that he must travel. He gave his wife all the household keys. “Open every room you please,” he said, “except the little room at the end of the gallery. If you open that door, nothing can save you from my anger.”

Her friends came to admire the treasures, but curiosity pulled her away. She unlocked the forbidden room. At first she saw nothing. Then she noticed the floor was dark with blood, and along the walls hung the bodies of Bluebeard’s former wives.

She dropped the key in terror. Though she scrubbed it, the enchanted blood would not come off.

Bluebeard returned unexpectedly and demanded the keys. When he saw the stain, he knew. “You wished to enter the room,” he said. “Now you shall take your place there.”

She begged for time to pray. Bluebeard allowed a few minutes. In the tower she called to her sister, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see anyone coming?” Again and again Anne answered, “I see only the sun on the road and the grass growing green.”

Bluebeard shouted for his wife to come down. At last Anne cried, “I see two horsemen!” They were their brothers, one a soldier and one a musketeer.

Bluebeard seized his wife by the hair and raised his sword. At that instant the brothers burst through the door. They pursued Bluebeard and killed him before he could escape.

His wife inherited the estate. She used part of it to help Anne marry, part to advance her brothers, and later married a good man whose kindness helped the terror fade. But the little key remained a warning: the forbidden room had hidden a murderer’s crimes, and the truth had demanded to be seen.