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The fairy tale "Le Turbot" (1699) by Henriette-Julie de Castelnau, Comtesse de Murat, is remarkable for its foregrounding of the fairy Turbodine: not only is Turbodine both the tale's true hero and heroine, but she is also the tale's author, a character both developing plot-her own and others'-and narrating it. Far from being an auxiliary character, Turbodine is the protagonist of the tale whose story is ultimately her story, not that of the traditional heroic couple of prince and princess. Her exceptionality is conveyed not only through her hyper fairy function-she ultimately shapes the destinies of three kings (Coquerico, Lucidan, and Grimaut), two queens (the unnamed Queen of Caprare and Grimasse), three princes (Fortuné, Princillon, and Brillantin), and four princesses (Bluette, Risette, Princillette, and Fleurbelle)-but also through her status as an independent sovereign queen with more influence and wealth than her husband, le roi de Coquerico, and more initiative and prowess than King Lucidan.
Turbodine is a woman who possesses power typically associated with masculinity, such as ruling and bestowing kingdoms, waging war, and arranging marriages. While highlighting this power, which is integral to her authorship of the plot, the narration also disguises it by placing limits and conditions on Turbodine's fairy art and attributing them to the superior dictates of fate. Further, the narration excuses and glosses over the specifics of Turbodine's masculine actions; thus is Murat able to present Turbodine as a forceful but feminine character without the need for cross-dressing or metamorphosis. Turbodine's virile heroism is tempered by the fact that she ultimately uses her power in pursuit of love, an appropriately feminine concern, working to restore her own marriage and coupling princes and princesses of the next generation. However, power and knowledge in the tale are repeatedly figured as feminine, and the precious concerns of the conteuses1 (e.g., infidelity, marriage of inclination, and female independence) are given a strong voice through Turbodine, who is also a vehicle for Murat's "defense of women" and the contestation and undermining of patriarchal authority, evident throughout her oeuvre.2
Whereas Murat figures the woman author as fairy in her preface, "To Modem Fairies,"3 which opens Histoires sublimes et allégoriques, "Le Turbot," which closes this collection of tales, figures the fairy as author. The figure of Murat-as-Turbodine...