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RECYCLING RED RIDING HOOD
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Jack Zipes, Series Editor
Children’s Literature Comes of Age Narrating Africa

by Maria Nikolajeva George Henty and the Fiction of Empire
Rediscovering Children’s Literature by Mawuena Kossi Logan
by Suzanne Rahn Transcending Boundaries
Regendering the School Story Writing for a Dual Audience of Children
Sassy Sissies and Tattling Tomboys and Adults
by Beverly Lyon Clark edited by Sandra L. Beckett
White Supremacy in Children’s Literature Children’s Films

Characterizations of African Americans, History, Ideology, Pedagogy, Theory
1830–1900 by Ian Wojcik-Andrews
by Donnarae MacCann Russell Hoban/Forty Years
Retelling Stories, Framing Culture Essays on His Writings for Children
Traditional Story and Metanarratives in by Alida Allison
Children’s Literature Translating for Children
by John Stephens and Robyn McCallum by Riitta Oittinen
The Case of Peter Rabbit The Presence of the Past
Changing Conditions of Literature for Memory, Heritage, and Childhood in
Children Postwar Britain
by Margaret Mackey by Valerie Krips
Voices of the Other Inventing the Child
Children’s Literature and the Culture, Ideology, and the Story of
Postcolonial Context Childhood
edited by Roderick McGillis by Joseph L. Zornado
Empire’s Children Pinocchio Goes Postmodern
Empire and Imperialism in Classic Perils of a Puppet in the United States
British Children’s Books by Richard Wunderlich and Thomas
by M. Daphne Kutzer J. Morrissey
A Necessary Fantasy? Ways of Being Male
The Heroic Figure in Children’s Popular Representing Masculinities in Children’s
Culture Literature and Film
edited by Dudley Jones and Tony Watkins by John Stephens
Little Women and the Feminist The Feminine Subject in Children’s
Imagination Literature
Criticism, Controversy, Personal Essays by Christine Wilkie-Stibbs
edited by Janice M. Alberghene and Recycling Red Riding Hood
Beverly Lyon Clark by Sandra L. Beckett
Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent
Fiction
by Robyn McCallum
RECYCLING
RED RIDING HOOD
SANDRA L. BECKETT
Published in 2002 by
Routledge
711 Third Madison Ave,
New York NY 10017
www.routledge-ny.com
Published in Great Britain by

Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park,
Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
www.routledge.co.uk
Copyright © 2002 by Sandra L. Beckett

Children’s Literature and Culture Vol. 23
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beckett, Sandra L., 1953–

Recycling Red Riding Hood / Sandra L. Beckett.
p. cm. — (Children’s literature and culture ; 23)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN10: 0-415-93000-6 (hbk)

ISBN10: 0-415-80367-5 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-93000-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-80367-0 (pbk)
1. Children’s literature—History and criticism. 2. Little Red Riding Hood

(Tale) I. Title. II. Children’s literature and culture (Routledge (Firm)); 23.
PN1009.5.L56 B43 2002

809'.93351—dc21 2002021338
To my three J’s who patiently listened to scores of Riding Hood stories
Jordan, who wrote his own version from the wolf’s point of view
Jeremy, who preferred the Three Little Pigs
Jason, who recycled Red Riding Hood to get through the woods of OAC English
To my husband, Paul, who put up with my Little Red Riding Hood obsession
And to Vladia who shared it.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Series Editor’s Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xv
Chapter 1 Reminiscence and Allusion 1
Chapter 2 Retelling Images 29
Chapter 3 Fractured Fairy-Tale Games 69
Chapter 4 Upside Down, Inside Out, and Backwards 107
Chapter 5 Continuations and Post-LRRH Stories 185
Chapter 6 Metafictive Play 215
Chapter 7 Fairy-Tale Salads 277
Chapter 8 Expansion 299
Bibliography 333
Index 351
vii
Series Editor’s Foreword
Dedicated to furthering original research in children’s literature and culture, the

Children’s Literature and Culture series includes monographs on individual
authors and illustrators, historical examinations of different periods, literary
analyses of genres, and comparative studies on literature and the mass media. The
series is international in scope and is intended to encourage innovative research in
children’s literature with a focus on interdisciplinary methodology.
Children’s literature and culture are understood in the broadest sense of the
term to encompass the period of childhood up through adolescence. Owing to the
fact that the notion of childhood has changed so much since the origination of
children’s literature, this Routledge series is particularly concerned with transfor-
mations in children’s culture and how they have affected the representation and
socialization of children. While the emphasis of the series is on children’s litera-
ture, all types of studies that deal with children’s radio, film, television, and art
are included in an endeavor to grasp the aesthetics and values of children’s cul-
ture. Not only have there been momentous changes in children’s culture in the last
fifty years, but there also have been radical shifts in the scholarship that deals
with these changes. In this regard, the goal of the Children’s Literature and Cul-
ture series is to enhance research in this field and, at the same time, point to new
directions that bring together the best scholarly work throughout the world.
Jack Zipes
ix
Acknowledgments
Many people and organizations have helped me on my journey through the woods
with Little Red Riding Hood . . .
I am particularly indebted to members of the International Research Society
for Children’s Literature (IRSCL) who have suggested and often sent books, even
going so far as to obtain long-term loans from local libraries; who have gener-
ously translated passages or entire stories; or who have invited me to speak at
conferences in their countries or collaborate in research projects. I extend my col-
lective thanks to many members who have contributed in some way to this project
and who are too numerous to mention by name. I would, however, like to
acknowledge Helma van Lierop-Debrauwer, Marisol Dorao, Lena Kåreland,
Angela Lebedeva, Claire Malarte-Feldman, Rod McGillis, Maria Nikolajeva,
Riitta Oittinen, Lissa Paul, Jean Perrot, Kimberley Reynolds, Gunvor Risa, Rolf
Romören, John Stephens, Thomas van der Walt, Anne de Vries, and Jack Zipes. I
would also like to express my gratitude to the staff at the International Youth
Library in Munich and the International Institute for Children’s Literature, Osaka,
in particular Martha Baker, Lene Eubel-Plag, Jochen Weber, Yasuko Doi, and
Yoko Ueno. Several colleagues or former colleagues at Brock University have
also offered valuable advice and assistance, notably Irene Blayer, Corrado Fed-
erici, Maria Figueredo, Martha Nandorfy, Esther Raventós, Cristina Santos, and
Ernesto Virgulti. I am grateful to my students for their insightful questions and
responses. Very special thanks go to my tireless and enthusiastic research assis-
tant, Vladia Juskova.
I should further like to express my sincere thanks to the many authors and
illustrators who have graciously discussed their work with me and generously
granted permission for it to be reproduced in this book. I am particularly indebted
xi
xii Acknowledgments
to Jean Claverie for the original cover art, which he thoughtfully titled “Comment
s’y retrouver dans le maquis des versions du Petit Chaperon Rouge” (How to find
your way through the maze of versions of Little Red Riding Hood).
I wish to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Brock University Chancellor’s
Chair for Research Excellence, the Humanities Research Centre at Brock Univer-
sity, the International Youth Library in Munich, and the International Institute for
Children’s Literature, Osaka.
My sincerest thanks go to my parents who gave me my first book of fairy
tales, which I still treasure.
Figure 1. Les Contes de Perrault by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Gustave Doré, Pierre-Jules
Hetzel, 1861.
Introduction
Once upon a time there was a village girl, the prettiest ever seen and the
most famous in children’s stories.
ANTONIO ROBLES, “CAPERUCITA ENCARNADA”
Of course, everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood. But do you
know the one about Little Navy Blue Riding Hood?
PHILIPPE DUMAS AND BORIS MOISSARD, “LE PETIT CHAPERON BLEU MARINE”
No folk or fairy tale has been so relentlessly reinterpreted, recontextualized, and

retold over the centuries as Little Red Riding Hood. It would undoubtedly top the
list of well-known fairy tales that some critics feel belong to the “literature of
exhausted possibility.”1 The famous fairy tale would be more fittingly categorized
as a literature of “inexhaustible possibility” since one can only marvel at the
apparently endless and innovative ways in which Little Red Riding Hood has been
recycled, and not only in a parodic mode, in recent decades. As well as being the
most retold, it is indisputably the most commented on fairy tale of all time. A vast
scholarship seeks to explain why the story of Little Red Riding Hood is continu-
ally retold. In addition to the literary critics who study the tale from a diverse
range of theoretical approaches, the tale also fascinates folklorists, cultural histo-
rians, sociologists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, and educators. It is, as Jack
Zipes writes in his groundbreaking book, The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red
Riding Hood, “the most popular and certainly the most provocative fairy tale in
the Western world.”2
Over the centuries, many authors have acknowledged the attraction and
allure, even the seductive power, of the little girl in red. She was the “first love” of
xv
xvi Introduction
Charles Dickens, who confessed: “I felt that if I could have married Little Red
Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss.” In a poem dedicated to the cher-
ished fairy-tale heroine of his childhood dreams in 1875, the American poet,
James Whitcomb Riley, calls her the “earliest love of [his] infantile breast.”3 The
fact that the classic tale was a cherished icon of childhood did not prevent authors
from tinkering with its sacred content, as Riley’s homage to his beloved “Red
Riding-Hood” demonstrates. Both emotionally and legally, Little Red Riding
Hood has long been in the public domain. Playful attention is drawn to the cul-
tural poaching and pilfering that has been going on for centuries in David Fisher’s
parodic Legally Correct Fairy Tales, in which the little girl who has “created a
public image” by wearing her distinctive red costume becomes the plaintiff in a
case of trademark infringement and defamation of character (90).4 The fairy tale
is “almost entirely a hypertextual genre,” to borrow the expression Gérard
Genette applies to the fable. The story of Little Red Riding Hood could perhaps
be considered the hypertext par excellence, since authors have unceasingly
rewritten in their “own register” a tale whose origins are lost in the collective
imagination of the oral tradition.5 Charles Perrault’s first literary version, which
was to become the hypotext, or pre-text, for countless re-versions, already had a
hypertextual dimension since it was a retelling of one or more preexisting oral
versions. The age-old tale has an amazing capacity to adapt to new social and cul-
tural contexts, and ever since it was penned, the classic text has been refashioned
and reworked to reflect those changes. A nineteenth-century re-version by Emilie
Mathieu, set in Nivernais in 1780, bears the title Le Nouveau Petit Chaperon
Rouge (The New Little Red Riding Hood, 1893), reminding us that retellings
have always been an attempt to rejuvenate the tale for a contemporary audience.
In recent decades, there has been a marked increase in the number and vari-
ety of retellings, particularly in the field of children’s literature. The reasons for
the popularity of Little Red Riding Hood as an intertext in books for children and
young people are multiple. In addition to the sheer pleasure authors and illustra-
tors feel in returning to a favourite childhood icon, one cannot discount the fact
that the little girl in red is a commodity that sells extremely well. Most important
is her status as one of the most familiar icons of Western culture, which makes
Little Red Riding Hood a highly effective intertextual referent. Critics often point
to the problematic nature of intertextuality in children’s literature, since young
readers have a limited cultural heritage. Decoding depends upon readers’ literary
competency and their past exposure to narrative conventions, genres, and specific
texts. The prodigious number of retellings of Little Red Riding Hood attest to the
story’s success as a hypotext. The incipit of Philippe Dumas and Boris Moissard’s
parodic retelling acknowledges the universal renown of the pre-text: “Of course,
everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood” (15). The Italian children’s
author, Gianni Rodari, who has written his own re-version, suggests that the
series of words—girl, woods, flowers, wolf, grandmother—immediately brings
Introduction xvii
the tale to mind.6 The ease with which it is identified is demonstrated convinc-
ingly by an exhibit at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, which plays an unin-
telligible version (written “Ladle Rat Rotten Hut”) that children have no difficulty
identifying.7 Thanks to Little Red Riding Hood’s cult status, the processes of
intertextuality, which often seem to be for more cultured readers, become quite
accessible for a young audience. In France, where Perrault’s Contes is, in the
words of Marc Soriano, “the only classic that every French child knows by heart
before going to school,”8 and where the picturesque archaic formulas of his Le
Petit Chaperon Rouge have a kind of nursery-rhyme independence in contempo-
rary children’s culture, authors are able to engage in quite sophisticated wordplay,
knowing that many children have the necessary competence to decode the parody.
The strong appeal of Little Red Riding Hood for so many contemporary
authors and illustrators is no doubt explained in part by the fact that, unlike most
fairy-tale favourites, she does not owe her cult status to Disney. Little Red Riding
Hood has not been cinematized as a full-length animated fairy-tale film by Dis-
ney, with the result that children are likely to remember it more accurately than
other popular fairy tales that have been contaminated. John Stephens suggests
that Disney versions are no longer intertextual in effect “because their dissemina-
tion is so widespread and general that young audiences are exposed to no other
variant.”9 Further, a Disney remake tends to become the “original” version in the
minds of young readers. In the case of Little Red Riding Hood, authors know that
a Disney version has not assumed the status of a kind of pseudo-hypotext against
which their retelling is being read. That is not to say that Little Red Riding Hood
entirely escaped the Disney makeover. One of Walt Disney’s very first animated
efforts, and the first of the Laugh-o-Gram shorts, was a silent black-and-white
cartoon of Little Red Riding Hood completed in 1922, but it was listed on the
American Film Institute’s list of “10 Most Wanted Films for Archival Preserva-
tion” in 1980, and it wasn’t until 1998 that a print of the 16-millimetre film was
found and restored.10 The 1998 Disney animated short film, Redux Riding Hood,
which offers a kind of “Groundhog Day” version in which the wolf—the laughing
stock of Toontown—decides to build a time machine in order to go back and get
it right, was nominated for an Academy Award, but it was released only through
the animation film festival circuit and never theatrically.11 Neither of these Disney
Riding Hoods has had much impact on the cultural imagination.
Although the story that most children know is not a Disneyfication, neither is
it generally the integral classic tale of either Perrault or the Grimms, but more
often a sanitized version that frequently combines elements from both. Soriano
indicates the generic and autonomous status of the well-known fairy tale in the
collective imagination when he states that Perrault’s famous tales have become a
text “without a text” and “without an author.”12 The majority of readers, adults as
well as children, are unaware of the classic French version with its stark ending.
Even versions that are attributed to Perrault often have the Grimms’ reassuring
xviii Introduction
ending tacked on. Sometimes the author’s name is eliminated, so that the tale
returns to its original anonymity. A surprising number of authors and illustrators
who rework the tale admitted to me that they did not realize there were two “clas-
sic” versions. As Roger Sale pointedly states, Little Red Riding Hood is “known
in some version or other by millions who have never heard of Perrault.”13
Although young readers may not know an integral classic version, a few vivid
images of the key scenes of the short tale are enough to provide a very effective
hypotext. The hypothesis that the more succinct a tale is, the more possibilities it
provides for retellings would certainly seem to be supported by Little Red Riding
Hood. The extraordinary range of the re-versions, like the diversity of the inter-
pretations of the classic tale, attest to the multifarious dimensions and eternal
appeal of a narrative that offers multiple layers of meaning for readers of all ages.
Retellings of Little Red Riding Hood are, for the most part, truly intertextual
because authors can generally assume that their young audience is familiar with
some version of the tale, however generic it may be, and will read the new story
in relationship to it. This is the assumption made by Dumas and Moissard when
they juxtapose “the story of Little Red Riding Hood,” which “everyone knows,”
with “the story of Little Navy Blue Riding Hood” in the opening lines of their
revision (15). Authors can then play with the intertextual tension created between
the pre-text and the re-version, so that the meaning of the story is actually situ-
ated, as Stephens rightly states, “in the process of interaction between the texts,”
making it “intertextual in its fullest sense.”14 Further, such retellings often give
children the strong desire to re-read the integral classic pre-text, thus ensuring the
survival of Little Red Riding Hood in our cultural heritage.
An impressive number of international children’s authors and illustrators
have retold the story of Little Red Riding Hood in one form or another. This real-
ization reoriented my research on intertextuality in children’s literature a few
years ago: what was initially to have been a few pages in a chapter on fairy tales
in a book on retold stories ended up yielding material for two books devoted
entirely to Little Red Riding Hood. When you wander into the woods with Little
Red Riding Hood, there is no telling when, or if, you will come back out again!
The original book was to have been written in French on an entirely French cor-
pus, in view of the tricentenary of Charles Perrault’s Histoires ou contes du temps
passé (Stories or Tales of Past Times) in 1997, which inspired a particularly large
number of re-versions in France. However, a paper I wrote for the tricentenary
conference, organized by Jean Perrot at the International Charles Perrault Insti-
tute, in order to show that Little Red Riding Hood was an inveterate globetrotter,
revealed that she was inspiring intriguing new retellings not only throughout
Europe, but from Australia to Japan and Columbia to Canada. The number, diver-
sity, and richness of the retellings from so many countries presented a rare oppor-
tunity to introduce, through a very familiar story, many important international
authors and illustrators who all too often remain completely unknown in the
Introduction xix
English-speaking world. These include some of the most innovative, preeminent,

and notable names in contemporary children’s literature: Jean Claverie, Philippe
Corentin, Philippe Dumas, Fam Ekman, Pierre Gripari, Janosch, Carmen Martín
Gaite, Bruno Munari, Pef, Yvan Pommaux, Antonio Robles, Gianni Rodari, and
Grégoire Solotareff, to name only a few. One rare exception is Tomi Ungerer, but
his “Little Red Riding Hood” was originally published in English. Retellings
from as many countries and cultures as possible have been included, although
they are, for the most part, products of European-based or derived cultures and
within the frame of what John Stephens and Robyn McCallum have termed the
“Western metaethic.”15 When Ed Young’s Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story
from China (1989) won the Caldecott Medal in 1990, it brought the Asian tradi-
tion of Little Red Riding Hood to the attention of the West, but it seemed neces-
sary to limit this study to retellings of Perrault’s and the Grimms’ literary tales.
Several of the books were published in Japan, but they have their source in the
Western narrative tradition, because, unlike many European fairy tales, Little Red
Riding Hood has no equivalent among Japanese folktales.16 Little Red Riding
Hood is a very popular icon in Japan, however, and has inspired many interesting
retellings there, as I discovered while a fellow at the International Institute for
Children’s Literature, Osaka, in Spring 2002, just as Recycling Red Riding Hood
was going to press.
The project was daunting, as there are literally thousands of versions of Lit-
tle Red Riding Hood. I decided to concentrate on books published after 1970,
although a few earlier works are included because they are of particular signifi-
cance. I have collected well over two hundred retellings from twenty countries in
twelve languages, and the constant discovery of new ones threatened to turn the
book into a never-ending story. As if to underscore this fact, Amazon.com
announced the publication of Alma Flor Ada’s propitiously titled P.S. Thanks to
Little Red Riding Hood just as this book was being completed.17 In addition to
tracking down all these Riding Hoods in far-flung parts of the world, the other
major challenge was the fact that the majority of the texts had never been trans-
lated into English.18 A forthcoming companion volume to this book, which exam-
ines retellings of Little Red Riding Hood for a cross audience of children and
adults, will include English translations of a selection of interesting and innova-
tive re-versions. Since a large number of the books dealt with in the present study
are not available in English, some background information has been provided
along with the analysis. As many illustrations as possible were included, espe-
cially from the books that would be least familiar to readers. At the same time, I
did not want to entirely eliminate well-known English-speaking authors and illus-
trators, such as Anthony Browne, Gillian Cross, Roald Dahl, James Marshall, and
Tony Ross, whose retellings help to put the others in a familiar context.
Throughout the history of children’s literature, the famous tale has been rein-
terpreted according to the social and literary preoccupations of the time. A num-
xx Introduction
ber of studies, notably Zipes’s The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding
Hood, examine the sociocultural implications of the tale and its retellings. Recy-
cling Red Riding Hood deals primarily with the narrative strategies used to retell
the fairy tale for contemporary children and young adults. The study begins with
brief allusions and ends with lengthy expansions in novel form. A chapter is
devoted to the highly original retellings that illustrators of the classic tale often
present in their visual narrative. Retold fairy tales offer a fascinating interplay of
tradition and innovation. Authors and illustrators use the archetypes, characters,
motifs, and narrative structures of the traditional tale to address today’s issues in
texts that are written in every mode: humorous, serious, tragic, satirical, ironic,
cynical, playful, nonsensical. There are retellings to fit almost every generic cate-
gory and to suit almost every literary taste and age group. Carles Cano warns
readers of his T’he agafat, Caputxeta! (Got’cha Little Red Riding Hood!) that the
title really tells them almost nothing, “because it could be a spy story, a horror
story, a detective story, an adventure story, or even a fairy tale” (17).19 In fact, the
story of Little Red Riding Hood has inspired picture books, pop-up books, novels,
modern fairy tales, short stories, mysteries, westerns, science fiction, poems,
plays, and comics. Today her popularity extends well beyond the literary domain
to all areas of high and low culture, including all of the mass media of our tech-
nological age (cinema, television, video, CD-ROM, advertising, music, cartoons,
etc.). Some of these areas will be touched on briefly, although this study deals
essentially with literary texts. The fact that the tale is part of the literary heritage
of almost every child in the Western world allows children’s authors to pursue,
with fewer constraints, the postmodern trends of adult literature. This has resulted
in some extremely exciting and innovative aesthetic experimentation. Contempo-
rary retellings of Little Red Riding Hood often use complex narrative structures
and techniques, such as polyfocalization, genre blending, metafiction, parody,
irony, mise en abyme, fragmentation, gaps, anticlosure, and the carnivalesque.
The vast range of topics is also quite striking, as Little Red Riding Hood has been
recycled to examine such contemporary preoccupations as technology, ecology,
animal rights, physical fitness and well-being, seniors, the physically challenged,
and gender issues. Authors are able to deal with difficult subjects such as sexual-
ity and violence in a way that is acceptable to adult mediators. Particularly in
recent years, the emancipation of children’s literature from rigid moral codes and
taboos has allowed both authors and illustrators to explore with fewer constraints
the sexual implications of the well-known fairy tale.
The protean nature of the little girl in red is truly extraordinary; she seems
equally at home as a peasant girl or a city hood, a rock star or an actress, a film
star or a superheroine, a cartoon character or a steamy seductress. Her story has
always been a very malleable material, a kind of “narrative clay, made to be
played with and reshaped” or narrative fabric whose threads are being constantly
rewoven into different patterns, “with no definitive version possible.”20 The age-
Introduction xxi
old story of Little Red Riding Hood and company has been appropriated by every
literary genre and recycled in every media in most Western cultures. More than
three hundred years after her literary début in Perrault’s Contes, Little Red Riding
Hood is alive and well and thriving in contemporary children’s literature around
the world. The tale’s popularity as an intertext in so many countries is a reflection
of its privileged status in the literary heritage of Western children.
Notes
1. See John Barth, “The Literature of Exhaustion,” in The Friday Book: Essays and
Other Nonfiction (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1984), 64.
2. Jack Zipes, The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood: Versions of the
Tale in Sociocultural Context, 2nd ed. (NY: Routledge, 1993), 343.
3. Quoted in Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Impor-
tance of Fairy Tales (New York: Random House, 1975), 23; “Red-Riding Hood”
in The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, ed. Edmund Henry Eitel, vol. 1
(Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers, 1913), 66.
4. Page references for all primary sources will be indicated in parentheses in the text.
If page numbers are not cited, it is because the book is not paginated. All transla-
tions from texts not originally published in English are mine unless otherwise
indicated.
5. Gérard Genette, Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree, trans. Channa
Newman and Claude Doubinsky (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997),
72. Originally published as Palimpsestes: La littérature au second degré (Paris:
Seuil, 1982). Genette uses the term hypotext to refer to the pre-text or specific ear-
lier text that inspired the retelling or hypertext.
6. Gianni Rodari, The Grammar of Fantasy, trans. Jack Zipes (New York: Teachers
& Writers Collaborative, 1996), 34. Originally published as Grammatica della
fantasia (Torino: Einaudi, 1973).
7. The strange version was written in 1940 by a professor of French, H. L. Chace,
who wanted to show his students that intonation is an integral part of language.
See ⬍www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/ladle/index.html⬎.
8. Marc Soriano, Les Contes de Perrault: Culture savante et traditions populaires,
rev. ed. (Paris: Gallimard, 1977), 13.
9. John Stephens, Language and Ideology in Children’s Literature (London: Long-
man, 1992), 88.
10. Disney obtained the film from a British collector who had discovered the priceless
reel in the late 1980s at a London film library and had bought it for two pounds.
11. A number of very famous actors, including Michael Richards, Mia Farrow, Fabio,
Don Rickles, and Adam West did the excellent voice characterization for the hilar-
ious short narrated by Garrison Keillor and directed by Steve Moore.
12. Soriano, Les Contes de Perrault, 16.
13. Roger Sale, Fairy Tales and After: From Snow White to E. B. White (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1978), 50.
14. Stephens, Language, 88.
xxii Introduction
15. John Stephens and Robyn McCallum, Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Tradi-
tional Story and Metanarratives in Children’s Literature (New York: Garland,
1998), 7.
16. See Yoshihiko Ikegami, Ikuko Sannomiya and Kazuhiro Yamazaki’s “Afterword”
to their Japanese translation of Alan Dundes’s Little Red Riding Hood: A Case-
book, titled “Akazukin” no himitsu (Tokyo: Kinokuniya Shoten, 1994), 314–325.
They point out, however, that some Japanese folktales contain similarities to cer-
tain episodes of Little Red Riding Hood.
17. Alma Flor Ada told me later that the publisher did not think that “P.S.” was suit-
able for a title so it was changed to With Love, Little Red Hen, although Little Red
Riding Hood still plays an important role in the book (e-mail, February 12, 2002).
18. Jack Zipes has made a certain number of German, French, and Italian re-versions
of the tale for both children and adults available in English in The Trials and
Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood.
19. Page references are to the Castilian edition, ¡Te pillé, Caperucita!.
20. Deborah Stevenson, “‘If You Read This Last Sentence, It Won’t Tell You Any-
thing’: Postmodernism, Self-Referentiality, and The Stinky Cheese Man,” Chil-
dren’s Literature Association Quarterly 19, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 32.
1
Reminiscence and Allusion
“Look!” said Sophie. “Who’s that?”

“I’m sure I don’t know.”
The girl was only visible for a few seconds, then she was gone. Sophie
noticed that she was wearing some kind of red hat.
JOSTEIN GAARDER, SOPHIE’S WORLD
Little Red Riding Hood is generally an unmistakable intertextual referent for even
the youngest reader. Rather subtle allusions to the familiar tale are often easily
recognized by children and are likely to evoke a network of associations. Since
the mere mention of the name Little Red Riding Hood suffices to call forth the
entire story, many contemporary authors and illustrators are content to include
passing references to, or fleeting glimpses of, the fairy-tale heroine in their works.
Direct and indirect references to Little Red Riding Hood pervade Western chil-
dren’s literature of every genre and for all age categories. The fairy tale provides
the best example of the kind of pre-text Michel Tournier describes in his autobi-
ography, one whose elements are “consciously or unconsciously remembered” by
other authors and thus have an impact “on thousands of subsequent works of
every type and description.”1 Even a book that deliberately seeks to avoid fright-
ening stories like Little Red Riding Hood may allude ironically to the popular tale,
as in the case of María Luisa Lázzaro’s Mamá, cuéntame un cuento que no tenga
lobo (Mum, tell me a tale that doesn’t have a wolf, 1984). The term “reminis-
cence,” which Tournier uses even when the reference is so clear “that it takes the
form of more or less literal citation,” will be reserved here only for vague allu-
sions to a pre-text which never become entirely transparent and certainly never
approach direct citation, although it could include misquotation. Reminiscence
would seem to target a sophisticated adult reader. Tournier describes it as “a kind
of furtive homage to the ‘master’ with a wink of the eye to the reader alert enough
1
2 Recycling Red Riding Hood
or well-read enough to understand.”2 Although the decoding of reminiscence gen-

erally requires a high level of competence on the part of readers, when the inter-
text is as familiar as Little Red Riding Hood, even faint echoes of the tale often do
not go unnoticed by young children. Reminiscence and allusion can be either tex-
tual or pictorial, and can serve a multitude of functions, ranging from the simple
desire to provide the reader with a familiar element to a sophisticated mise en
abyme of events or themes. This chapter presents only a very small sampling of
the innumerable allusions to and reminiscences of Little Red Riding Hood in con-
temporary children’s books, but the examples have been selected from a wide
range of genres and a diversity of cultures. As we shall see, the little girl in red
and her associates turn up in the most unexpected places.
REMINISCENCES OF RED RIDING HOOD IN AN OGRE STORY

The first sentence of Philippe Corentin’s L’ogre, le loup, la petite fille et le gâteau
(The ogre, the wolf, the little girl, and the cake, 1995) informs readers that they
are about to read yet another “ogre story,” but before they can begin calling up the
codes that correspond to that genre, they are warned that this ogre story is to be
read differently, as it is “funny.” One would expect nothing else from the talented
and witty author-illustrator who has gained international renown with his hilari-
ous, award-winning picture books. But what does Corentin’s ogre story have to
do with Little Red Riding Hood? In some versions of the tale, the wolf is replaced
by an ogre, but that is obviously not the case here, as both an ogre and a wolf are
included in the curious, heterogeneous title that enumerates the story’s cast of
characters in descending order, if not of importance, then at least of size. It soon
becomes clear that it is the order of the food chain. Without ever referring directly,
or even indirectly to Little Red Riding Hood, Corentin’s modern tale nonetheless
relies for its full effect on reminiscences of the well-known tale. With the excep-
tion of the ogre, the other three characters in the title all seem to have been appro-
priated from the familiar fairy tale to create this funny ogre story. This new ogre
embodies the colonialist: fat and well-fed, he stands proudly on the top of a hill
surveying his castle in desert khakis and holding a large rifle, while his three vic-
tims stand or sit behind him anxiously awaiting their fate. Just back from a hunt-
ing trip that has gleaned him a wolf, a little girl, and a cake, this ogre certainly
seems to have been doing his hunting in the forest that is the haunt of Little Red
Riding Hood and the wolf. However, nothing in the little girl’s appearance really
suggests that she is in fact Little Red Riding Hood, since her distinctive headgear
is a large white bonnet, and a footnote rather late in the story reveals that the little
girl’s name is Jeannine. The wolf is also given a Christian name, Dédé, the
diminutive for André, a rather ridiculous name for a wolf. Corentin has a predilec-
tion for wolves, but his are never of the “big bad” variety. The anthropomorphized
cake’s status as a character is somewhat diminished when the narrator humor-
ously concludes his footnote by informing the reader that the cake’s name is
Reminiscence and Allusion 3
Figure 2. L’ogre, le loup, la petite fille et le gâteau by Philippe Corentin, copyright © 1995 L’École
des loisirs. Used by permission of Philippe Corentin.
unknown to him, but is of little consequence since Jeannine is going to eat it.
Since both the ogre and the cake remain nameless, the little girl and the wolf seem
to be the most important characters in the story.
The sidesplitting story revolves around the dilemma that the ogre faces on his
return from the hunting trip: his chateau is on the other side of the lake and his tiny
boat can take only one passenger at a time. Based on a traditional enigma that
places a traveller, a lion, a donkey, and a sack of carrots in a similar scenario, the
ogre has to figure out how to get the wolf, the little girl, and the cake to the other
side without having them devour each other in the process. As the ogre transports
the little girl back with him, she sticks her tongue out at the vexed wolf left fuming
on the other side. He is “clever,” observes the narrator, whose comments often
interrupt the story in the manner of the traditional storyteller. Young readers who
are familiar with the enigma will feel empowered and question the “cleverness” of
the blundering ogre who obviously has difficulty working out the solution. After a
series of hilarious antics, it is the ogre who, in the end, seems destined to be eaten
when his boat overturns in his croc-infested moat. Food is a common theme in
Corentin’s books and here everyone is the object of at least one other creature’s
gluttony. The oblong book is stretched out lengthwise, and the alternating half-
pages, which hide several comical surprises for the reader, speed up the rhythm
and create a sense of movement, rendering expressively the to-ing and fro-ing of
the ogre on the water. When the half-page is turned, the setting remains the same,
but the characters have changed positions, creating the effect of animation.
Corentin plays with the typography, penciling several words in handwritten script
above the character’s picture. As each of the characters, in turn, is about to be
eaten, he, she, or it calls out a fearful “Maman!” that is handwritten with an excla-
mation mark, much like a speech bubble in a comic book. Yvan Pommaux wrote
the same call for help in jagged letters above the Little Red Riding Hood being
held captive by the wolf in John Chatterton détective, a picture book published two
years earlier that draws heavily on comic book techniques. The incongruity of a
cake calling out for its mother is particularly comical. Toward the end of
Corentin’s book, it is the ogre’s turn to call “Maman!” when he finds himself sur-
rounded by crocodiles and staring into the huge, open mouth of a hippopotamus
after his boat sinks. On one occasion, Corentin writes in a much longer comment
in the colloquial language that adds a distinctively humorous note to his picture
books. The ogre has just had to make another trip with the cake, whose cries of
alarm had alerted him to the fact that the little girl had her eye on his dessert, and
the text contains his ironic complaint that they are all a bunch of pigs. Below the
text, the indignant retort of the little girl, who returns his insult and calls him a pig
himself, is handwritten and punctuated with several expressive exclamation marks.
The moral of this story echoes the many proverbs which warn that greedy,
grasping pigs usually end up empty-handed.
Corentin has fun with the conventions of book publishing and enjoys
deliberately thwarting readers’ expectations. The word “FIN” (end) is promi-
nently displayed on the spread depicting Jeannine staring gleefully at the bub-
bles that mark the spot where the ogre sank, but when the half-page on which it
is written is turned, the endpaper shows a dripping-wet ogre on the shore
angrily shaking his fist at the hippo and the crocs, one of which now jauntily
wears his hat. The reader is forced to question the reliability of the narrator who
had foretold the death of the cake (which was to have been eaten by Jeannine)
because the cake is alive and well at the end of the book, where it can be seen
running off with the wolf as fast as its little legs will carry it. The ogre’s demise
leaves the little girl and the wolf free to head back into the woods ready to
appear in another story. The following year, Corentin would publish an uproar-
iously funny parody of Little Red Riding Hood.
PICTORIAL ALLUSION
RED is for Riding Hood
Many allusions to the story of Little Red Riding Hood are strictly visual. Even
very young readers will recognize instantly the bright-eyed, curious little girl in
red with a basket, whose face is bathed in red light as she lifts a corner of the
immense red curtain on the cover of Rouge, bien rouge (Red, very red, 1986). The
wordless picture book was published by Le Sourire qui mord (The smile that
bites), directed by Christian Bruel, who, like his precursor, Harlin Quist, produced
visually sophisticated, innovative books dealing with themes such as sensuality,
violence, and death. In 1981, Bruel acknowledged that there was a connection
between the traditional tale and the books of Le Sourire qui mord, which were
meant to provide springboards for dreams and relied heavily on symbolism, but he
denied the presence of specific “cultural references” since children are unable to
decode them.3 In the case of the popular icon of Little Red Riding Hood, it seems
that he made an exception. The allusion to Little Red Riding Hood in this wordless
picture book is much more complex than Kathy Stinson’s reference in Red Is Best
(1982), where a little girl explains that she likes her red jacket best because she
can’t “be Little Red Riding Hood in her blue jacket.” The blurb on the back cover
discloses that “red” is the “password” that gives readers access to the images of
Rouge, bien rouge. Nicole Claveloux’s cover illustration suggests that the first
image that comes to mind when we think of the colour red is Little Red Riding
Hood. The fairy-tale character is not just one of many heterogeneous images cho-
sen to represent the ambivalent colour, she is described as an “Open Sesame” who
will provide readers with a key to this enigmatic “reading game.”4 One cannot
help but wonder to what extent Little Red Riding Hood has coloured this picture
book’s portrayal of red as an “appealing, secret, always ambivalent” colour.5
The importance of the image of Little Red Riding Hood in Rouge, bien
rouge is further suggested by the fact that the doublespread from which the cover
illustration is taken appears exactly at the midpoint of the book, a kind of centre-
fold. The little girl dressed in red from her head to her feet shod in galoshes is
dwarfed by the huge expanse of rich, blood-red curtain that extends across the
entire doublespread and evokes French classical theatre, which was the genre par
excellence in Perrault’s time. Hidden in the folds of the curtain, but visible to even
mildly attentive viewers, are several disturbing figures, including the profile of a
devil and a large wolf’s head. Like a child in a school play, a Little Red Riding
Hood in red galoshes lifts the red curtain, apparently oblivious to the frightening
figures it conceals, to peer out in excited anticipation at the audience. The well-
known fairy-tale heroine has been given a lead role in Rouge, bien rouge: she is to
provide a “path” through the strangely disorienting silent pictures.6 With the
exception of the colour red, there seems to be absolutely no interrelationship
Figure 3. Rouge, bien rouge by Christian Bruel and Didier Jouault, illustrated by Nicole Claveloux,
copyright © 1986 Le Sourire qui mord. Used by permission of Christian Bruel.
between the disparate pictures, which do not form any comprehensible sequence
and certainly do not suggest the thread of a narrative. Even adults are apt to feel
lost among the strange images that include a little red-head with pigtails applying
iodine or mercurochrome to a sleeping native chief’s red hand, red ants roaming
over red cherries in the remainder of a picnic lunch, a child covered in red spots
lying in a bed covered in red spots in a room where absolutely everything (furni-
ture, doll, stuffed elephant, book, roller skates) seems to have caught the red
measles. Viewers can only follow the example of Little Red Riding Hood, linger-
ing along the path and losing themselves in these fascinating images, in no hurry
to reach their destination.
Red Riding Hood and Her Band of Storybook Characters

In Tord Nygren’s wordless picture book, Den röda tråden (1987), published in
English as The Red Thread, Little Red Riding Hood is only one of a multitude of
disparate characters that readers encounter as they follow the enigmatic, mean-
dering red thread that winds its way from the beginning of the book to the end.
Although its meaning is ambiguous, Nygren’s red thread reminds us of the real
red cotton thread that Bruno Munari uses to carry the thread of the narrative in
several of his remarkable libri illeggibile (unreadable books).7 Little Red Riding
Hood and the wolf join a horde of storybook characters that surge forth from their
place on the bookshelf to invade the bedroom of a little boy who, apparently
oblivious to their presence, reads a book that is an obvious self-reflexive allusion
to The Red Thread itself. A second, more conspicuous mise en abyme of Nygren’s
book occurs on the same spread, where it lies open at the last doublespread on the
floor next to a closed book that is obviously a collection of fairy tales, since the
portrait on the cover is that of Hans Christian Andersen, whose name is synony-
mous with the fairy tale in Nordic countries, in the same way that Perrault’s is in
France or the Grimms’ are in Germany. In this very metafictive picture book, the
doublespread of the little boy reading his own copy of The Red Thread while
characters from children’s classics invade his room illustrates the role assumed by
Nygren, and indeed by all of the authors and illustrators included in this study,
that of the transmission of the stories that make up our cultural heritage. The sto-
rybook characters appear to follow the red thread that weaves its way through the
figures from the little girl in a red bonnet, whose bouquet of flowers probably
explains why she brings up the rear on the top left, and then makes a detour over
the bed as if to lasso the boy and his book and include them before winding its
way back through more fictional figures, including a wolf with a walking stick
that bears a certain resemblance to Walter Crane’s famous engraving of the wolf,
and onto the next page. The paratext attempts to provide some assistance in
decoding this enigmatic wordless picture book that puzzles and challenges older
readers in particular.8 Forewarning readers that Nygren’s “fantastical tableaus”
are a bricolage of allusions to “history, art, and children’s literature,” the dust-
jacket of the English edition seeks to reduce the strangeness of his imaginary
world by highlighting the “familiar elements” which readers can look for as they
follow the red thread. Little Red Riding Hood is the first fairy-tale character in the
“Can you find” list.
Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf are almost inevitably present when
contemporary picture-book makers evoke the world of fairy tales. They can be
found in Tor Åge Bringsværd’s modern retelling of Alice in Wonderland, Alice
lengter tilbake (Alice longs to go back, 1983), in which an elderly Alice returns to
Wonderland with two children to discover that it has become the “Land of No-
No,” a land without children. Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf become
spokespersons for the fairy-tale realm, explaining that Wonderland has become
wonderless, grey, and sad, because “stupid” and “dangerous” things such as fairy
tales are now forbidden. Rather than separating them in the crowd of fairy-tale
characters, as Nygren does, Judith Allan depicts Little Red Riding Hood and the
wolf together, as an inseparable couple.
An Icon of Western Culture

In the profusion of minute detail and the multitude of figures that make up Mit-
sumasa Anno’s wordless picture book, Tabi no ehon (Anno’s Journey), which
won the prestigious Golden Apple Award of the Bratislava International Biennale
in 1977, the reader has no difficulty picking out Little Red Riding Hood and the
wolf. In fact, among the hundreds of tiny figures that the solitary, enigmatic little
traveller on horseback encounters, they are easily the most recognizable. The
“journey form,” which Anno eventually used in four picture books, was the
artist’s practical solution to the problem of “how to pack one thousand items into
one picture book.”9 Is Little Red Riding Hood merely one of the thousand items
that the artist wished to cram into his first “journey” book? In the ambitious pic-
ture book, which constitutes a record of his travels throughout northern Europe in
1963 and 1975, the Japanese artist acknowledges his debt toward Western culture.
Since childhood Anno had been intrigued by Europe, particularly medieval West-
ern Europe, and not only by its art and architecture, but also its literature, and
notably its folk and fairy tales, and Anno’s Journey presents a glorious confusion
of history, legend, folklore, literature, customs, topography, and popular culture.
The subsequent “journey” books would be dedicated to a particular nation, but
the first is a homage to European culture in general and Little Red Riding Hood’s
place is clearly in this one. The story of Little Red Riding Hood is an integral part
of the cultural heritage, not only of Perrault’s France and the Grimms’ Germany
but of the entire Western world, of which it is one of the most popular cultural
icons. Little Red Riding Hood’s presence in the Japanese picture book nonethe-
less confirms that she enjoys a widespread, international fame unknown to most
children’s book characters and even to other familiar fairy-tale figures, and that
the well-known tale can be used quite successfully as an intertext beyond the bor-
ders of the Western world, on condition that there is some previous knowledge of
the European fairy tale. In order to demonstrate how an object in a picture
depends for meaning on external contextual information, Perry Nodelman writes:
“Only someone familiar with European fairy tales would give much weight to the
tiny image of a little girl in a red hood surrounded by trees and hidden in the cor-
ner of one of the pictures in Anno’s Journey.”10 At the same time, she is seen from
an outsider’s point of view in a vast panorama of the cultural markers that consti-
tute the Japanese artist’s image of Europe in a picture book whose first market
was Japanese children.
The publisher’s blurb on the dustjacket of Anno’s Journey places even more
emphasis than the one in The Red Thread on the “familiar characters from
favorite tales” that readers are told they will recognize and a partial list of those
“beloved stories,” including Red Riding Hood, is provided at the end of the book.
Since young readers rarely take notice of such paratextual elements, unless an
adult chooses to enlighten them, they will not start their journey burdened with
preconceived expectations and checklist in hand. Paradoxically, the Japanese edi-

tion of Anno’s Journey does not contain paratextual information to guide readers
on their journey through European culture. Anno feels that it is important peda-
gogically that children be allowed to experience the joy of making their own dis-
coveries, and he accuses mothers (but surely fathers are equally guilty) of being in
too much of a hurry during story time to let their children find the figures for
themselves. The artist states that it is very difficult to bring out a character with “a
small detail,”11 but when that detail happens to be a red hood, especially on a page
that is almost entirely shades of green and brown, the figure is easily recognized
by young and old alike. Perry Nodelman uses the example of Anno’s representa-
tion of Little Red Riding Hood to show how illustrators “often draw attention to
significant objects by depicting them in a colour unlike those of the remaining
objects in the picture.” In this case, the only splash of vivid red on a pastel green
background draws the reader’s eye immediately to the tiny figure, giving it weight
and significance. However, rather than being “hidden in the corner of one of
the pictures in Anno’s Journey,” as Nodelman suggests,12 Little Red Riding Hood
and the wolf seem, in fact, to have a somewhat privileged position in the book.
Unlike the majority of Anno’s tiny figures, the little girl in red and the wolf are
not lost in the crowd of a densely populated page, but are the sole occupants of the
upper left-hand corner (the point at which most Westerners would begin to read)
of one of the least busy doublespreads in the book. The list of “things to look for
in Anno’s Journey” is perhaps partially justified in that many of the pictorial allu-
sions to art, history, and literature that crowd the pages of the wordless book are
beyond a child’s decoding and appear to be intended for the informed adult
reader. That is certainly the case for the numerous details from paintings, such as
the gleaners from Millet’s Les Glaneuses, who are gathering grain in a field as
Little Red Riding Hood gathers flowers in the forest close by. The unnecessary
inclusion of storybook characters, and notably Little Red Riding Hood, in the “to
look for” list is perhaps merely a way of indicating to potential adult buyers that
this is indeed a book suitable for children.
Toddlers will engage in simple recognition and naming, proudly pointing to
the familiar figures and exclaiming: “Little Red Riding Hood! the Wolf!” Older
children will generally attempt to construct a narrative from the pictures, although
even very young children can move quickly beyond the naming stage with a fig-
ure as familiar as Little Red Riding Hood. Without the guidance of a written text,
each reader-viewer interprets Anno’s pictorial narrative differently and becomes,
in turn, a storyteller. “Each traveller with Anno can create his own version of the
story,” states the publisher’s insert in Anno’s Journey. Little Red Riding Hood and
the wolf will evoke the well-known tale for all readers, but the way in which that
story is inserted into the frame story they invent in collaboration with Anno, will,
in each case, be different. Placed in the context of Anno’s Journey, the familiar
figures of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf take on fresh meaning and
become part of a new narrative that changes with each reading. When the reader
spots Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, the solitary rider in medieval Japanese
garb, whom readers often identify with the artist himself, has already left them
behind. The little traveller on horseback is, as always, intent upon the road ahead,
whereas Little Red Riding Hood is engrossed in picking flowers and the wolf is
busy watching her. The reader is left to surmise about the possible prior encounter
of the fairy-tale characters and the rider. One senses, however, that no such meet-
ing took place. Little Red Riding Hood is picking flowers close to a fork in the
road, and the reader does not know for certain which of the two roads the rider
passed along, although it seems doubtful that it was the one that winds through
the forest. The little girl has a clear view of both roads, but she is so preoccupied
with her flower-picking that she probably didn’t even lift her head to watch the
stranger ride by. For his part, the wolf seems to have eyes only for Little Red Rid-
ing Hood. As for the rider, it is unlikely that he saw the wolf partially hidden
behind a tree, particularly if he arrived by the lower road that skirts the forest. No
doubt he rode by totally oblivious to the presence of the well-known fairy-tale
characters in these woods situated surprisingly close to the everyday world of a
bustling farm. Apparently there have been no words of warning to Little Red Rid-
ing Hood, no attempt to chase off the wolf, in short, no intervention whatsoever
on the part of the rider. To a reader who once told Anno that his book made him
very sad, the artist replied that he had understood his intentions. He explains that
it is the point of view of a silent, solitary traveller who makes a journey in a
strange land, where “most people ignore him” and “he remains on the periphery,”
not seeing the people or the life that goes on just beside him. The traveller contin-
ues his journey, “certain that he has learned many things, but, in actual fact, he
sees almost nothing.”13 This statement makes it virtually certain that the little
traveller on horseback has not noticed Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf.
The reader shares the artist’s bird’s-eye view that encompasses a much larger
portion of the passing scene than that which the little rider can see, even if his
view was not obscured by the blinders Anno implies he is wearing. The traveller’s
perspective is of little relevance to most young readers, who are unlikely to use
him as a focalizer. The fact that the curious, reappearing figure constitutes the
only narrative thread running through the book from beginning to end, bringing
us full circle on the last page (rather like Nygren’s red thread), does not mean that
children will necessarily give him a special role in their own narrative. The young
reader-storyteller will select from Anno’s visual narrative the elements that catch
his or her eye in order to construct a story. Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf
will undoubtedly find their place in that narrative, along with the farm, the bal-
loon, the dog on the bridge (although his role may have nothing to do with
Aesop’s fable The Dog and the Shadow), and the other objects and events that are
relevant to children’s lives, but it is unlikely that Millet’s gleaners, for example,
will be included without the intervention of an adult!
The inclusion of Little Red Riding Hood’s picture in Anno’s wordless book
is similar to the mention of her name in a written text. However, pictorial allusion
in a wordless picture book can often be far more intertextually effective than tex-
tual allusion. In a written text, the reader is propelled onward by the momentum
of the words aligned after Little Red Riding Hood, and is therefore less apt to
linger over the name and take the time to project into the story potential intertex-
tual connotations. In Anno’s wordless picture book, on the other hand, the reader
is encouraged to indulge in a kind of wandering, rambling “reading,” lingering at
will, even daydreaming, over the images that trigger his or her personal reverie. In
terms particularly appropriate for our study, one critic states that the reader of
Anno’s Journey remains free “to ‘stray from the path’ as it were,” and Anno him-
self admits that he had set out on his journey “to lose [his] way.”14 Unlike the lit-
tle rider who keeps to the path, readers are invited to imitate the artist and wander
into the woods to meet the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. In his vast iconic
representation of European culture, Anno seems to give a place of honour to Lit-
tle Red Riding Hood and the wolf. The pictorial allusion to Little Red Riding
Hood in Anno’s Journey evokes all of those “beloved stories” of the Western
world to which the publisher’s insert refers. It is emblematic of the realm of fairy
tale and Story. At the same time, no borders separate Little Red Riding Hood’s
woods (which may or may not be enchanted) from the “real,” everyday world of
the adjacent, busy, working farm, so that fairy tale is woven into the fabric of the
reality that is Europe.
The Archetypal Bedtime Story

Even when a picture book contains verbal narrative, intertextual references to Lit-
tle Red Riding Hood often occur only in the illustrations. Elsa Devernois’s Grosse
peur pour Bébé-Loup (Baby Wolf’s big fear, 1997), for children three years and
up, is the story of a baby wolf who wakes up in the night terrified that there is a
nasty little boy under his bed. A rather unusual dedication on the endpaper sug-
gests that the book was written as a form of therapy for an Estelle who was afraid
of wolves. Devernois has adopted a very different approach from Margo Lemieux
in Paul and the Wolf (1996), in which a father tells his son the story of a Native
American boy befriended by a wolf to allay the boy’s fear that there is a wolf
under the bed. In Devernois’s humorous role reversal, the little wolf’s father
checks under the bed before assuring his son that there is no terrible little boy hid-
ing there. Sabine Pied’s playful illustrations show a room filled with the kinds of
toys that delight little wolves: three large stuffed pigs, a couple of stuffed lambs,
and a play set of the three little pigs and their houses. The four books on his book-
shelf have no titles, but the pictures on the spines clearly identify them all as sto-
ries about wolves. Beside The Three Little Pigs stands Little Red Riding Hood,
which is unmistakable even for very young children thanks to the naive, childish
figure in red holding a little basket on the spine. The Riding Hood of indetermi-
nate sex resembles a boy more than a girl, perhaps explaining the wolf’s fear of
little boys. The mise en abyme of Little Red Riding Hood and other wolf stories in
Grosse peur pour Bébé-Loup humorously underscores the reversal of wolf and
human roles in this contemporary tale.
A book about Little Red Riding Hood also finds its way into one of Mireille
Levert’s illustrations for Jeremiah and Mrs. Ming (1990) by Sharon Jennings.
Like the baby wolf, Jeremiah is unable to fall asleep because, as he puts it: “All of
my books are reading their stories.” In the accompanying illustration, three books
suspended in the air above his head seem to come to life. The first is Little Red
Riding Hood and the third is once again that other popular wolf story, The Three
Little Pigs. Jeremiah’s eyes are rivetted on the wolf in grandmother’s clothing that
has escaped from the confines of the cover of Little Red Riding Hood and seems
headed in his direction. The only explanation for the presence of Little Red Riding
Figure 4. Jeremiah and Mrs. Ming by Sharon Jennings, illustrated by Mireille Levert, copyright ©
1990 Mireille Levert. Used by permission of Annick Press, Toronto.
Hood in Jeremiah and Mrs. Ming is that it is the archetypal bedtime story, and the
illustrator confirms that she was looking for “a universal, immediately recogniz-
able story.” Three years later, the reference reappeared in the sequel, Sleep Tight,
Mrs. Ming (1993), this time to express the child’s “universal fears.” Knowing that
Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf haunt the dark corners of the child’s imagi-
nation, Levert uses the allusion as the archetypal Fear. Readers of the first story
will immediately recognize the familiar book, but it is no longer the centre of
attention as it has been reduced drastically in size and now lies on the floor where
it is invisible from Jeremiah’s position on the bed. The terrified boy is staring at a
large wolf standing on his toy-box at the end of the bed. The wolf bears a striking
resemblance to the one from the earlier book, but he has now completely escaped
from between the covers of Little Red Riding Hood, no longer wears granny’s
nightclothes, and has assumed much larger proportions. In 1995, Levert pub-
lished her own Little Red Riding Hood, a version quite faithful to the Grimms’,
but marked by her distinctively funny style, and dedicated to “all the big bad
wolves.” When she and Louise Gay decided to illustrate fairy tales, Levert chose
Little Red Riding Hood spontaneously because it was a tale which “touched her
profoundly,” and she says the illustration of the book “literally burst forth,” as if
she had been carrying it in her “for a very long time.”15 That would explain the
striking similarity with which the fairy-tale heroine is portrayed on the cover of
Jeremiah’s books and on the cover of Levert’s own version of the tale. The Little
Red Riding Hood embedded in the Jeremiah series strangely foreshadows the
later book and adds an interesting self-referential dimension to Levert’s intertex-
tual play with the classic tale.
EXTENDED ALLUSION
In many books, authors and illustrators do not stop at a single reference to Little
Red Riding Hood, but develop it in further textual or pictorial allusions (or both).
The extended allusion can be of an anecdotal or extraneous nature, or it can be
integral to the new story. An interesting example of a somewhat anecdotal, but
very humorous, extended allusion occurs in Fam Ekman’s Lommetørkleet (The
Handkerchief, 1999), in which a disgusted, self-centred cat abandons his forget-
ful owner, taking the handkerchief in which the old lady would tie knots in an
attempt to remember things. Little Red Riding Hood is one of several characters
that the cat encounters who all want to have the handkerchief tied around his
neck for very different purposes. The first allusion to the fairy-tale character is
both textual and visual. When the cat takes a path into the forest, he catches sight
of something red, which he takes for “a big cranberry” until he hears the voice of
what seems to be a little girl. The illustration depicts a very homely little girl in
a large red bonnet that is the only splash of colour on the otherwise almost
monochromatic page. Pointing to her large, square basket on the ground, she
Figure 5. Lommetørkleet by Fam Ekman, copyright © 1999 Cappelen. Used by permission

of Fam Ekman.
explains that she was supposed to have a picnic in the woods, but there are ants
everywhere and she has nothing to put her food on. A large cake lies on its side
on the ground against the basket which still contains a corked bottle, and the
familiar attributes immediately establish her identity. It seems doubtful that the
little girl was “supposed” to have a picnic or her mother would have supplied her
with a tablecloth. In any case, the cat has no intention of giving away his hand-
kerchief. The allusion to Little Red Riding Hood is developed in the final illus-
tration, although this time there is no accompanying reference to her in the text.
The stork that had wanted the cat’s handkerchief to deliver a baby is now doing
so in Little Red Riding Hood’s basket, which also contains an old man and the
fairy-tale heroine herself. All that we see of the little girl is one eye and a corner
of her red bonnet, once again the only touch of colour in the illustration. Little
Red Riding Hood adds a familiar, humorous, and colourful note to the pages of
Lommetørkleet.
Dark Forests and Big Bad Wolf Obsessions

Extended allusion can be used to show how deeply a story like Little Red Riding
Hood is embedded in our subconscious and how it colours our vision of the real
world. In Anthony Browne’s The Tunnel (1989), for which he received a Dutch
Silver Slate Pencil Award, Little Red Riding Hood is never mentioned in the text,
but the numerous pictorial allusions to the well-known tale constitute a narrative
thread that winds its way through the illustrations. The intertextual relationship is
established in the first full plate, which contains several transparent allusions to
the classic tale. The red coat with the hood which hangs visibly on a hook behind
Rose’s bedroom door, and which she later wears when she goes outdoors, sets up
an early connection between the heroine and Little Red Riding Hood. Browne’s
original idea had been to cast a boy in the role and he began the story with the
image of a boy in a red duffel coat being sent to visit his grandmother, but a satis-
fying conclusion eluded the author.16 Rose’s brother, Jack, assumes the role of the
wolf, as he is depicted creeping in through the door at night wearing a wolf’s
mask to scare her and casting a dark shadow that looks disturbingly like that of a
real wolf.
The book of fairy tales that Browne embeds into many of the illustrations of
The Tunnel invites the reader to interpret Browne’s story as a modern fairy tale.
The book appears with obsessive frequency in the early pages of the story, where
Rose is rarely portrayed without it. The little girl’s fears and sleepless nights seem
to have their origin in the cherished book, which is conspicuously present under
her arm as she tries to dissuade her brother from entering the tunnel, in which she
imagines there might be witches or goblins or something equally terrifying. The
book first appears on the front cover lying open where Rose has dropped it before
crawling reluctantly into the dark, scary tunnel. When it appears for the last time
on the back cover, the book is lying closed with its back cover up in the empty
tunnel, suggesting that it has been intentionally abandoned after Rose coura-
geously rescues her brother from a frightening, fairy-tale-like adventure.
Browne’s modern tale evokes reminiscences of a number of fairy tales, including
Hansel and Gretel (the blazing fire in the woods is an intratextual allusion to the
artist’s own illustration of the story in 1981), Brother and Sister (Rose and Jack
are initially introduced generically as “sister and brother”), and The Snow Queen
(like Gerda, Rose rescues a brother who has become cold and hard). All of these
stories are perhaps contained in Rose’s precious collection of fairy tales. It is only
when the closed book reappears on the back endpaper that the title of Rose’s book
of Fairy Tales is revealed and then only in tiny print that is barely discernible.
From its very first appearance on the cover, however, the subject matter is clearly
established thanks to its illustrations, although Browne teasingly taxes viewers’
eyes in the tiny illustrations embedded in his illustrations. An attentive reader
with very good eyes (or a magnifying glass) will discover that the story Rose has
been reading in bed, when Jack creeps into her room in wolf disguise, just hap-
pens to be Little Red Riding Hood. However, the reader must look closely indeed
at the black-and-white illustration to discern the tiny heads of Little Red Riding
Hood and the wolf (in grandmother’s cap) side by side in bed. Contrary to the
vague reminiscences or isolated allusions to other fairy tales, the series of trans-
parent pictorial references to Little Red Riding Hood constitutes a narrative that
weaves its way through Browne’s illustrations. John Stephens uses the plate of
Rose reading and her brother playing with a soccer ball in the junk-filled empty
lot to show how Browne questions conventional social constructions of “girl” and
“boy” by portraying the sister dressed as Red Riding Hood but reading “about
daring and risk-taking in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.” Gender stereotypes
are overturned when the timid, introspective Rose courageously undertakes to
rescue her brother Jack, a transformation that Stephens also feels “is presented in
part as a re-version of the Red Riding Hood story.”17
As Rose walks through the dark forest at the other end of the tunnel, her
thoughts are haunted by fairy-tale figures, including that of the wolf. In the
strange trees of the surrealistic forest, Browne cleverly hides animals in a manner
that is somewhat reminiscent of Anno’s Mori no ehon (Anno’s Animals, 1979),
whose wolf hidden in a tree inspired the title of the French translation Loup y es-
tu? (Wolf-where-are-you?—the name of a popular children’s game). The most
striking of Browne’s hidden animals is the huge wolf whose prominent position in
the centre of the page ensures that readers will not overlook it. The wolf dressed
in peasant clothes and standing on its hind legs leaning on a twisted walking stick
will be very familiar to informed adult readers, as it is strikingly similar to the
anthropomorphized wolf in Walter Crane’s well-known engraving of the
encounter between Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf. With playful humour,
Browne has integrated the wolf into the bark of the tree that is depicted behind
him in the original. In both illustrations, the tree is positioned exactly in the cen-
tre, but Crane’s large tree with uniform lines forms an unobtrusive background
behind the two characters, whereas Browne’s enormous tree is the focal point and
its strange contours virtually fill the entire page. The nightmarish quality of the
tree is emphasized by one of the surrealistic details that are the signature of
Browne’s work: a branch is supported by a crutch of the same type that props up
the face in Dali’s famous painting Sleep. Although it is in a parodic mode,
Browne’s picture illustrates Jack Zipes’s statement that “the gifted illustrator Wal-
ter Crane [ . . . ], like Doré, left his imprint on future illustrators” of Little Red
Riding Hood.18 In a very clever blending of styles, the contemporary picture-book
Figure 6. The Tunnel by Anthony Browne, copyright © 1989 Anthony Browne. Used by permission
of Anthony Browne.
artist surrealistically mimics the nineteenth-century engraving. Even young read-

ers who are unfamiliar with Crane’s illustration should at least recognize the par-
odic intent, since Browne carefully adds an intermediary level to the parody.
Hanging visibly on Rose’s bedroom wall is a framed print representing Crane’s
famous illustration, so that the Little Red Riding Hood allusions in The Tunnel are
intratextual as well as intertextual.
Rose’s red coat, which hangs conspicuously close to the framed picture,
bears a striking resemblance to the one worn by Crane’s Little Red Riding Hood.
The distinctive red garment that links Rose to the fairy-tale character is high-
lighted later in the forest scene, as it constitutes the only vivid splash of colour in
the dark doublespread of the menacing trees in which the wolf is hidden. By giv-
ing the eye of the otherwise monochrome wolf a reddish tint, Browne creates a
powerful association between the little girl in red and the wolf’s red eye fixed on
her. In the illustration of Little Red Riding Hood that Molly Bang develops as her
working example in Picture This, she accidentally sets up the same association
when she replaces her wolf’s mauve eye with a red, pointed eye. In her attempt to
explain why the red eye is so much scarier, the artist suggests that our association
of red with blood and fire makes it a “bloody, fiery eye,” and reminds us that some
fairy-tale witches have red eyes.19 Browne multiplies the associations in his illus-
tration, as the wolf’s red eye also reflects the red eyes of Jack’s wolf mask as well
as the reddish eye in the hidden face of the devil in the bark of the same tree. We
are reminded of the wolf and the devil who stare out at the viewer from the folds
of Claveloux’s red curtain in Rouge, bien rouge. This assimilation of the wolf and
the devil has been going on for centuries, and a twelfth-century bestiary expresses
this affinity in terms of the eye: “The devil bears the similitude of a wolf: he who
is always looking over the human race with his evil eye.”20 The appearance and
stance of Browne’s wolf are identical to those of Crane’s, but Rose, in her role as
Little Red Riding Hood, is depicted quite differently. Crane’s Little Red Riding
Hood, who is visibly older than Rose and tall enough to be almost eye-level with
the wolf, is standing quite still and gazing calmly into his eyes. Browne adjusts
the proportions of the original so that the wolf towers over Rose, who is glancing
back at him with terror-filled eyes as she runs away from him as fast as her legs
will carry her. The technique of blurred lines has been used to suggest movement
and create a striking contrast with the immobility that characterizes his predeces-
sor’s illustration.
The surrealistic style of Browne is a very effective vehicle for evoking the
language of the subconscious. The dark and scary tunnel is a transparent symbol
of the subconscious, where Rose must encounter and vanquish her fears and anx-
iety. Is it Rose who imagines the wolf according to the Crane image that decorates
her bedroom wall and perhaps even her favourite book of fairy tales? When the
narrator tells readers that the “quiet wood” at the other end of the tunnel “soon
turned into a dark forest,” is it not the vivid imagination of a little girl obsessed by
fairy tales that has brought about the transformation? She populates the woods
with figures and objects from familiar fairy tales. Once the intertextual relation-
ship between The Tunnel and Little Red Riding Hood has been decoded, the
reader soon sees other reminiscences of the classic tale in Browne’s masterly pic-
tures. For John Stephens, the woodcutter’s axe leaning against a stump is a reso-
nance of the story of Hansel and Gretel,21 but for some readers it may evoke the
woodcutters whose presence in the forest prevents the wolf from immediately
devouring Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood. The overturned basket, from which
a cake has fallen, at the base of one tree, bears a striking resemblance to the bas-
ket that Crane’s Little Red Riding Hood carries over her arm. Whereas the axe
appears to be real, the basket and the animals in the bark of the tree seem to be
figments of the little girl’s imagination. The borders between the real and the
dreamworld disappear in Browne’s modern fairy tale, which contains resonances
and reminiscences of Little Red Riding Hood and other traditional fairy tales
while cleverly drawing its inspiration from a nineteenth-century illustrator and
twentieth-century surrealist paintings.
Little Red Riding Hood often serves as the cornerstone on which a new story
is constructed. The title of Rascal and Nicolas de Crécy’s La nuit du grand
méchant loup (The night of the big bad wolf, 1998) evokes reminiscences of all
the fairy tales which feature a big bad wolf. The dark, frightening forest on the
cover is an appropriate setting for the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, but three
protagonists walk warily along the dark path and none of them is a little girl nor
even human. The strange, humanized toy protagonists of La nuit du grand
méchant loup—a robot, a teddy bear, and a stuffed elephant who resembles a pig
with a rather long snout—are more apt to bring to mind the story of The Three Lit-
tle Pigs. The first lines of the text reveal immediately, however, that the wolf in
question is indeed the one who ate Little Red Riding Hood. The famous fairy tale
is the point of departure of La nuit du grand méchant loup, which begins with the
closing lines from Perrault’s version: “With these words the big bad wolf leapt
upon Little Red Riding Hood and gobbled her up” (4). The black-and-white char-
coal drawings, with their contrasting light and shadow, are extremely effective in
portraying this story about the fears that lurk in the darkness of a long night. The
illustrations generally occupy a full page on either the recto or the verso as well as
a panel on the far side of the text on the facing page. With its distinctive layout,
the first spread is particularly striking: the opening text appears on the left side of
the verso, so that the illustration on the recto now extends over the gutter to form
one vast, nightmarish picture of a horde of monstrous wolves, ranging in colour
from black to ghostly white, bearing down menacingly, with their huge, open
jaws, on a terrified Little Red Riding Hood. On the following page, the shift from
italics to roman characters marks a change in narrative level as the three protago-
nists voice their dismay at their owner’s choice of bedtime stories. Stories, like
the one he read tonight about “this poor little girl and her grandmother eaten by
the wolf . . .,” send chills up the spine of his teddy bear Pinpin, while Jaco the ele-
phant wonders in dread what he has in store for them tomorrow, and Bric the
robot, standing among the books strewn on the bedroom floor, mournfully shines
his comical light-nose on Dracula, which had been the previous night’s bedtime
story (6). A comical contrast is set up in the full-page illustration on the recto that
depicts the three sleepless toys huddled together unhappily on the floor while
Joachim sleeps soundly in his bed. The smile on the boy’s face suggests that his
dreams have not been disturbed by the bedtime story he has just read from the
book that still lies open on his bedspread, undoubtedly Perrault’s Contes. From
the shadows of the room, terrifying monsters leer at the three toys illuminated by
an invisible light source. Sexist stereotyping seems to exist even in the toy world,
Figure 7. La nuit du grand méchant loup by Rascal, illustrated by Nicolas de Crécy, copyright ©
1998 L’École des loisirs. Used by permission of Nicolas de Crécy and Éditions Pastel-L’École des
loisirs.
as Bric the robot tells the other two—Jaco and Pinpin—to stop whining “like
dolls.” He quells the teddy bear’s qualms about leaving their master—this is
Bric’s solution to their problem—by pointing out that Joachim could care less
about their sleepless nights. Ever since he learned to read, Joachim has totally
neglected all of his toys, and Jaco curses the beastly books that have replaced
them in a humorous passage that presents the literacy question from a toy’s
inverted perspective.
The antics and conversations of the three toy protagonists in La nuit du
grand méchant loup remind us of famous road show comedies. The narrator
refers to them as “les trois comparses,” which could be translated as “the three
stooges,” and some of the slapstick humour is reminiscent of the famous comedy
trio. The toys’ escape produces one such farcical scene in which Pinpin and Bric
attempt to stuff the enormous elephant through the cat-flap. The friends soon find
themselves on a path that leads into a dark forest, and when two large eyes glow-
ing like coals stop them in their tracks, a terrified Jaco is convinced that it is “the
big bad wolf” from Joachim’s most recent story. Nicolas de Crécy plays cleverly
with perspective in the two frames that illustrate the encounter with the “wolf.”
The smaller picture on the verso depicts the dark, shadowy, ominous figure in the
trees as it is first perceived by the three toys, whereas the full-page on the recto
places viewers behind the three toys, so that we not only see the huge, black head
glaring menacingly out of the shadows, but also have a clear view of the toys’
comical, vulnerable-looking backsides bathed in the light of a clearing. The story

of Little Red Riding Hood is fresh in their minds and the toys are terrified that
they too will be eaten by the wolf. When a very frightened Pinpin asks if he had
already eaten Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, the huge hound
seems to miss the allusion and asks them condescendingly who they take him for;
the only one he would gladly eat is the master who abandoned him on the side of
the road during a vacation. There is a clever weaving together of intertextual allu-
sions in this passage. The heavy-hearted, hungry hound that has been mistaken
for the big bad wolf does not appreciate the advice of these well-read and no
doubt well-meaning toys who suggest that he could go to Bremen and become a
town musician. This direct allusion to the Grimms’ tale of The Bremen Town
Musicians is not entirely unexpected. As early as the cover illustration that
depicts the robot riding on the elephant’s back in the lonely, dark woods, the trav-
elling toys bear a certain resemblance to the animals journeying through the for-
est to Bremen. Convinced that the toys are mocking him, the hungry hound says
that he would eat them at once if they weren’t made of straw, cloth, and tin.
Although much less explicit, the reference to the stuff of which the toys are made
seems to add yet another intertextual layer, as this just happens to be the stuff/ing
of another story: straw, cloth, and tin are the materials we associate with Dorothy’s
three companions in The Wizard of Oz. A few of the numerous allusions to other
fairy tales scattered throughout the text are extended as much, if not more, than
the intertextual references to Little Red Riding Hood, but they do not have the
same significance. It is Little Red Riding Hood which provides the pretext and the
pre-text for the new story. Only readers who know their fairy tales well will grasp
all of the intertextual allusions in the story. At one point, the toys decide that they
need to find a white duck, “like the one that helped Hansel and Gretel cross the
river,” and Gretel’s cry for help is quoted in italics, but the outcome is very differ-
ent, as the hungry old dog they had mistaken for a wolf offers to “replace” the lit-
tle duck that he has just devoured and transport them across the river (31). The
tale ends happily as the toys, like Hansel and Gretel, find themselves in ever more
familiar surroundings and finally catch sight of Joachim’s house.
There is a tender humour in this initiatory story about three innocent toys
who ironically head into the dark woods to escape scary, secondhand bedtime sto-
ries. As the epigraph to La nuit du grand méchant loup indicates, the charming
picture book is a reflection on reading and books. It is highly doubtful, however,
that young readers will attach any importance to, or indeed even read, the quota-
tion by the French poet Louis Aragon: “Je n’ai jamais rien demandé à ce que je
lis/ Que le vertige” (I have never asked anything of what I read/But vertigo”). It is
precisely this kind of fever that has been induced in the three toys who have been
the reluctant audience of the stories that Joachim has been reading aloud. But
they feel none of the gratitude that Aragon expresses in the remainder of the trun-
cated sentence in which he thanks those who allow him to lose himself in a story
with a single phrase.22 The formulaic “Once upon a time” is undoubtedly the best
example of such a phrase. The three toys leave home to escape the overwhelming
fear and sleepless nights that are the result of losing themselves in stories such as
Little Red Riding Hood. Their initiatory journey reveals how deeply ingrained
these stories are in the toys, suggesting just how profoundly we are all marked by
our childhood stories. There is no escape from these stories that now form part of
their cultural baggage. The world around them seems full of intertextual allusions
to familiar stories, particularly fairy tales. Garden ornaments, a stray dog, a trap,
a house, an old woman, a river, all evoke reminiscences of Joachim’s bedtime sto-
ries. But the toys’ knowledge of these stories serves them well and they draw on
them to deal with the difficult situations they encounter in the world. Their jour-
ney brings them full circle, back out of the woods and safely home, thanks to the
help of the dog-wolf that they no longer fear. The toys return to Joachim, appar-
ently having conquered their obsessive fear, and willing to listen to Little Red
Riding Hood or whatever scary story the little boy has in store for them next.
PLAYFUL ALLUSION IN NONFICTION

Allusions to the story of Little Red Riding Hood often occur in nonfiction, particu-
larly scientific books on wolves. This is certainly not a new phenomenon. In Mayne
Reid’s Quadrupeds: A Book of Zoology for Boys, first published in 1867, the entry
on the wolf contains the following remark: “Everyone has heard of his fierce and
savage disposition: for who is ignorant of the story of Little Red Riding Hood?”23
In contemporary nonfiction, such allusions generally have a comic and ludic func-
tion, and serve to render the factual information more palatable to young readers.
The fairy-tale heroine finds her way into an “encyclopaedia” about ogres
published in France in 1993. With its pseudo-scientific title, Sylvie Chausse’s Les
Ogres: Encyclopédie thématique de l’ogritude is a parodic encyclopaedia that
offers a tongue-in-cheek examination of the topic of ogritude, in other words the
quality and state of being an ogre. Little Red Riding Hood serves as an example
in the third section of the chapter devoted to “Powers, potions, and accessories.”
The accessory in question is the ogre’s famous seven league boots, which a rather
technical explanation describes as allowing the giant to take strides of seven
leagues or “31.11 km” (18). The illustration which precedes the entry playfully
thwarts readers’ expectations because instead of depicting the logical example of
Tom Thumb, it is a plump Little Red Riding Hood who runs along merrily with
her basket, unaware of the ogre on the hill in the distance behind her. There are
several layers of narrative on the page, creating a fragmented text that can be read
in multiple manners. The pseudo-technical discourse in roman characters is inter-
spersed with illustrations, which are accompanied by captions in italics that pro-
vide a short narrative. Little Red Riding Hood is not mentioned in any of the
layers of text, but the incomplete caption below the first picture does specify that
Figure 8. Les Ogres: Encyclopédie thématique de l’ogritude by Sylvie

Chausse, illustrated by Christophe Durual and Philippe-Henri Turin,
copyright © 1993 Albin Michel Jeunesse. Used by permission of Édi-
tions Albin Michel.
the “kid” referred to elsewhere is female: “Little girls who go for a walk singing
gaily . . .” The entry devoted to the seven league boots is punctuated by a vignette
that depicts only the little girl’s basket and shoes. The accompanying caption
completes the suspended sentence: “. . . will quickly be caught thanks to the seven
league boots.” The tongue-in-cheek “strategy” that is outlined in the boxed text at
the bottom of the page fills the gap between the two pictures: when an ogre smells
a plump child from two-hundred kilometres (or forty-five leagues) away, instead
of arriving in an hour and a quarter in a three-hundred-horsepower convertible or
in twenty hours of competitive walking in sneakers, he can have a foot on either
side of the kid in seven steps. The full-page illustration on the recto depicts a
disgruntled Little Red Riding Hood dwarfed by the enormous boots that consti-
tute the ogre’s first and most famous accessory. It would seem that Little Red Rid-
ing Hood is the fairy-tale victim par excellence and that she can be substituted for
any protagonist in danger of being eaten, whether it be by a wolf, an ogre, or
another fairy-tale carnivore.
Les grands méchants loups (Big bad wolves, 1990) presents facts about
wolves in a playful manner that appeals to young readers. Mayne Reid’s negative
image of the “savage” wolf is subverted in this book, which describes the leg-
endary animal as “quite civil.” There is only one problem: the wolf has “une faim
de loup” (the French equivalent for being as hungry as a horse), which sometimes
drives him to devour whatever comes his way: “sheep, chickens, pigs, and some-
times a grandmother, like the one in Le Petit Chaperon Rouge,” thus “nourishing
the imagination” of storytellers and their audiences (6). Puig Rosado’s series of
small, cartoon-like illustrations beside the text portray a hungry wolf with a bib
holding his utensils, and a half-dozen savoury dishes that culminate in a dessert
decorated with the head of a grandmother. In spite of the very funny pictures and
the light tone of the text, there is an attempt to teach children the facts about
wolves and the importance of protecting the endangered animal. The name of the
children’s game Loup y es-tu? provides the title of a section that discusses the
wolf’s habitat. Further detailed information, including statistics, is given in small
bold text on the side of the page. Here children learn that wolves have completely
disappeared from many European countries, and that the last wolf census in 1970
revealed that there were only 150,000 left in the entire world. Juxtaposed to these
scientific facts is another cartoon-like picture in which an anthropomorphized
wolf leaning against a tree is asking Little Red Riding Hood, in a speech bubble,
if she speaks Italian (“parla italiano?” (8)), presumably because wolves are still
present in small numbers in Italy, but have disappeared completely from France.
TEXTUAL ALLUSION
From the countless novels for all ages that contain textual illusions to Little Red
Riding Hood, two very different examples have been selected from opposite ends
of the spectrum, in order to suggest the range of functions such allusions can
serve.
Hervé Debry’s Rock’n loup (1999) was published for children nine to ten
years of age, in a series titled Éclats de rire (Bursts of laughter), with the sole inten-
tion of providing young readers with a good laugh. In accordance with the French
expression “Quand on parle du loup, on en voit la queue” (Talk about the devil and
his tail appears), a large grey wolf appears on the doorstep when Romain and
Angèle’s parents call upon the wolf to come and devour their unruly children (18).
With a growl and a fierce clacking of his jaws, the “well-mannered” wolf tells
Angèle (depicted on the cover dressed in red) that although he can be “very bad,”
he hasn’t eaten children for a long time, in fact, he has never eaten children. Loup
turns out to be a vegetarian who reproaches the father for his carnivorous gorman-
dise. Modern wolves commonly lodge similar complaints against the human race.
In Monique Bermond’s Pouchi, Poucha et le gros loup du bois (Pouchi, Poucha
and the big wolf of the woods, 1976), the logical wolf, who has never eaten any-
one, doesn’t see why humans should eat roasted chickens. Loup explains that “the
wolf devourer of children” is a “fable” invented by humans to frighten kids, and
after centuries of serving as the bogey, he’s come to set the record straight (12–13).
He intends to put an end, once and for all, to the stories of Little Pigs and Riding
Hoods, and to show by his example that the wolf is “a peace-loving animal” (19),
not to mention a philosopher and an ecologist. Allusions to Le Petit Chaperon
Rouge occur throughout the novel. The wolf turns out to be a storyteller and the
first story in his repertoire is an excellent example of the backwards tales that will
be discussed in a subsequent chapter, in which “the Wicked Little Red Riding
Hood leapt upon the little wolf and gobbled him up” (19). The dual reception of
Loup’s new version is not so very different from that of the classic tale: the chil-
dren find the bedtime story “fantastic,” but the mother protests that it will give
them nightmares. His repertoire also contains a family story about his grandmother
who was devoured in a similar manner by the “Three Big Bad Pigs” (20). There
are comical allusions to other children’s stories and games, for example they use
the expression Loup y es-tu? to call Loup when he is lost.
The most important allusion to Le Petit Chaperon Rouge occurs toward the
middle of the novel and extends throughout three chapters. A Gestapo-like agent
from the SSE, le Service de surveillance des espèces (the Species Surveillance
Service), by the name of Rabouni, arrives on their doorstep convinced that they
are illegally harbouring a wild animal of the lupus family and insists on searching
the apartment. Chapter 12 opens with Loup, disguised as a grandmother, asking
in a quavering voice who is at the door of her dark room. He daringly risks dis-
closure by using the term of endearment, “mes petits loups,” to refer to his sup-
posed great-grandchildren, Angèle and Romain, in the presence of the agent (73).
The children immediately join in the game. Angèle adopts the role of the wolf, but
attributes to Loup-Grandma the role of Little Red Riding Hood, threatening to eat
her with a show of her teeth. Loup-Grandma protests that she is very scrawny and
says that they would be better off devouring someone else, citing the agent as an
example. In a very funny parodic treatment of the famous dialogue, Loup-
Grandma assumes Little Red Riding Hood’s role and addresses the questions to
Rabouni, who stammers out answers as best he can. Not content to limit himself
to the physiognomical features of the original, Loup’s very long enumeration
adds new ones, as in the case of the nose, which is then humorously subdivided
into large nostrils, large nose-holes, and a large hair on the nose. At one point,
Angèle answers for Rabouni, and Loup’s remarks start coming so fast toward the
end that the agent doesn’t have time to formulate a reply. The charade has the
desired effect and Rabouni can’t wait to escape. Debry has a great deal of fun
with the central theme of disguise and role-playing. Loup is commended for play-
ing his part (or rather his parts) so well, and is urged to give a repeat performance.
His multiple roles in the charade remind us humorously that the wolf is actually
all three characters in the original tale as well, since he pretends to be Little Red
Riding Hood for the grandmother and the grandmother for Little Red Riding
Hood. Loup’s re-enactment of Little Red Riding Hood, like his other hilarious
antics, serve to convince everyone that there is no truth to the “big bad” image of
fairy-tale wolves.
The international bestselling novel Sofies verden (Sophie’s World ), which
Jostein Gaarder published in 1991, contains three allusions to Little Red Riding
Hood in the sections devoted to Kant and Darwin. Although the novel about the
history of philosophy was marketed in the United States for adults, it was pub-
lished in Norway as a book for young adults. There is an accumulation of mean-
ing with each additional reference to Little Red Riding Hood. The first allusion to
the tale is very obscure and likely to go unnoticed by the reader. The inability of
the characters (Sophie and Alberto) to identify the little girl who is visible for
only a few seconds between the trees on the opposite side of the lake tends to dis-
courage any attempt at recognition on the part of the reader. Sophie’s comment
that the little girl was wearing “some kind of red hat” is probably not sufficient to
alert the reader at this point (329). A second, lengthier, and this time direct refer-
ence occurs a few pages later, enlightening readers and probably inducing them to
flip back to see if they should have decoded the first allusion. Sophie and
Alberto’s philosophical discussions are interrupted by a knock at the door and
they open to find a little girl in a white summer dress and a red bonnet carrying a
basket of food over one arm. The narrator informs us that Sophie and Alberto rec-
ognize her as the little girl they had seen previously on the other side of the lake.
In spite of the uncharacteristic white dress, the little girl’s accessories (red bonnet
and basket) will allow many readers to identify the famous fairy-tale character;
Sophie, however, remains in the dark and asks the visitor who she is. The little
girl is obviously used to being recognized, as she replies brusquely: “Can’t you
see I am Little Red Ridinghood?” (332). Sophie has difficulty accepting the irrup-
tion of a fairy-tale character into her world, but the fact does not seem to strike
Alberto as the least bit unusual. Although Little Red Riding Hood seems to be
lost, as she says she is looking for her grandmother’s house, her presence at their
door is not, in fact, fortuitous. It turns out that she has a letter to deliver and she
hands Sophie an envelope addressed to the latter’s double, Hilde. Sophie’s famil-
iarity with the fairy tale inspires her to call out after Little Red Riding Hood as
she skips away: “Watch out for the wolf!” Alberto tells his pupil the warning is
futile: “She will go to her grandmother’s house and be eaten by the wolf. She
never learns. It will repeat itself to the end of time.” But Little Red Riding Hood’s
incongruous behaviour on this particular occasion throws into question the impli-
cations of Alberto’s metafictive discourse concerning the eternal and unchanging
nature of a tale. The perspicacious protagonist replies: “But I have never heard
that she knocked on the door of another house before she went to her grand-
mother’s” (333).
A third allusion occurs almost a hundred pages later and links the fairy-tale
figure with the Biblical characters of Adam and Eve. When Sophie and Alberto
catch sight of Adam and Eve walking down by the lake, the philosopher explains:
“They were gradually forced to throw in their lot with Little Red Ridinghood and
Alice in Wonderland” (417). In other words, Darwin’s theory relegated the origi-
nal couple to the world of myth and fiction to which fairy-tale characters belong.
The fact that the author refers to Little Red Riding Hood on three separate occa-
sions, and once at some length, forces the reader to attach importance to the inter-
textual allusions. With each additional allusion, the meaning becomes more
transparent. In Gaarder’s postmodern novel, Little Red Riding Hood, like Alice in
Wonderland, is emblematic of the fictional world. The irruption of the fairy-tale
character into Sophie’s world is highly significant and premonitory because the
surprising ending reveals that the heroine herself is just a fictional character in
Hilde’s book.
These few examples of the countless allusions to Little Red Riding Hood in
contemporary children’s literature demonstrate that although allusion and remi-
niscence are often more difficult for young readers to decode than other forms of
intertextuality, children’s authors and illustrators around the world include pass-
ing references to Little Red Riding Hood in books for all age categories, confi-
dent that most readers will recognize this popular icon of Western culture.
NOTES
1. Michel Tournier, The Wind Spirit, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Boston: Beacon
Press, 1988), 39.
2. Ibid., 39–40.
3. Christian Bruel, “Christian Bruel: conforter l’intime des enfants,” interview with
Bernard Épin, in Les livres de vos enfants, parlons-en!, by Bernard Épin (Paris:
Éditions Messidor/La Farandole, 1985), 153–54.
4. Ibid.
5. Catalogue of Le Sourire qui mord, 1995, 9.
6. Ibid.
7. See for example Libro illeggibile N.Y. 1 (New York: The Museum of Modern Art,
1967).
8. For a more detailed study of this fascinating book, see Carole Scott, “Dual Audi-
ence in Picturebooks,” in Transcending Boundaries: Writing for a Dual Audience
of Children and Adults, ed. Sandra L. Beckett (New York: Garland, 1999), 99–110.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Die Cigarette
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Title: Die Cigarette

Ein Vademecum für Raucher
Author: Stephan Dirk
Release date: March 11, 2024 [eBook #73143]
Language: German
Original publication: Leipzig: Verlag für Industrie-Kultur, 1924
Credits: Hans Theyer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIE CIGARETTE

***
Anmerkungen zur Transkription
Die Schreibweise und Interpunktion des Originaltextes wurde übernommen;
offensichtliche Druckfehler sind stillschweigend korrigiert worden.
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Trennlinien eingefügt worden.
DIE CIGARETTE
EIN VADEMECUM FÜR RAUCHER
von
Stephan Dirk
Herausgegeben von der Reemtsma A. G.
VERLAG FÜR INDUSTRIE-KULTUR

LEIPZIG 1924
Alle Rechte,
insbesondere das Übersetzungsrecht, vorbehalten
Copyright 1924 by Verlag für Industrie-Kultur,
Leipzig
Druck von Günther, Kirstein & Wendler in Leipzig

INHALTSVERZEICHNIS
Seite
Die Bedeutung der Cigarette für die Allgemeinheit 7
Unterlagen zur Beurteilung einer Cigarette 21
Das Mischungsproblem 32
Die Fabrikation der Cigarette 38
Die wichtigsten Arten des Orienttabaks 44
Über die Genußwirkung des Tabaks 65
Eine Psychologie der Raucher 81
Über die Kultur des Cigarettengenusses 96
Es gibt wenig Genußmittel, die für die Menschheit eine so
verallgemeinerungsfähige Bedeutung gefunden haben wie die
Cigarette, und es ist deshalb besonders verwunderlich, daß man in
den breiten Raucherkreisen über die Herkunft der Cigarette und ihre
Unterschiedlichkeiten so wenig Kenntnisse antrifft.
Es gibt wohl sehr viele Weinkenner, die einen Pfälzer von einem
Steinwein und einen Mosel gegenüber einem Rheingauer nicht nur
an Flaschenformen und Flaschenfarben unterscheiden können oder
sogar innerhalb enger Gebiete gleichartige Weinarten noch nach
Lage, Jahrgang und Auslese bestimmen; es mag auch eine ziemlich
große Anzahl Cigarrenraucher geben, denen die
Geschmackseigenarten bestimmter Sumatra-, Brasil-,
Virginiapflanzen usw. bekannt sind, aber die Cigarette hat trotz ihrer
großen Bedeutung bis heute nur wenig Freunde gefunden, die sich
auch mit den Feinheiten unterschiedlicher Provenienzen und
unterschiedlicher Mischungen beschäftigt haben.
Es mag die allgemeine Unkenntnis über die Cigarette mit ihrer
verhältnismäßig kurzen Verbreitungszeit begründet werden können;
aber die eigentliche Ursache wird darin zu suchen sein, daß sich die
Cigarettenraucher noch kaum darüber klar sind, wie außerordentlich
mannigfaltig Orienttabake sind, und wie weit ihre Verarbeitung und
Mischung an Kompliziertheit und Schwierigkeit alles übertrifft, was
bisher bei der Fabrikation von Genußmitteln in Betracht kam. Noch
heute kann man häufig die Meinung vertreten finden, daß der Inhalt
einer Papierhülse ziemlich gleichgültig ist, wenn nur überhaupt ein
echter Tabak verwendet wurde. Nach dem Kriege nahm man auf
Grund der Zwangswirtschaftserfahrungen sogar allgemein an, daß es
wirklich reine Orientcigaretten kaum gibt, und daß selbst eine
wesentliche Untermischung mit deutschen Tabaken und Surrogaten
geschmacklich kaum feststellbar ist.
In Wirklichkeit sind die heutigen Raucher weitaus verwöhnter, als
sie selbst wissen. Wenn es manchem Unternehmer vor dem Kriege
gelingen konnte, mit gestreckten und gefälschten Orienttabaken
auch auf dem freien Markt noch Abnehmer in genügender Anzahl zu
finden, so dürfte dies heute, sogar unter dem Zwang der hohen
Preise für importierte Tabake kaum mehr möglich sein, ohne daß er
die größten Gefahren für die Weiterentwicklung seines
Unternehmens heraufbeschwört. Das durch die Kriegserfahrungen
geschärfte Mißtrauen gegen Ersatzgenußmittel hat für heute eine
Qualitätsforderung gebracht, an die vor dem Kriege niemand denken
konnte, und die vor allen Dingen auch den Rauchern selbst gar nicht
zum Bewußtsein kam.
Der Krieg und die Nachkriegsjahre, die ja in vieler Hinsicht an
Stelle langsamer Entwicklung einen raschen Umschwung gebracht
haben, haben gezeigt, wie sehr die Cigarette dem Bedürfnis unserer
Generation entspricht. Bis gar nicht so lange Zeit vor dem Kriege war
die Cigarette eigentlich eine nur wenig anerkannte
Nebenerscheinung der Cigarre. In der Meinung kultivierter
Raucherkreise blieb sie bis zu einem gewissen Grade das
unkultivierte Requisit von unreifen Jünglingen und zweifelhaften
Existenzen, die ohne Geschmacksverfeinerung und wirkliche
Genußfähigkeit ein gleichgültiges Fabrikat in einer überflüssig
eleganten Form verbrauchten. Wie mancher Vater hat damals
seinem herangewachsenen Sohne das Rauchen unter der Bedingung
gestattet, daß er bei einer vernünftigen ordentlichen Cigarre bliebe
und nicht der Geschmacklosigkeit der überdies weitaus schädlicheren
Cigarette anheimfiele.
Die Cigarette wurde gegenüber der Cigarre lange Zeit
geringschätzig beurteilt. Als besonderes Abschreckungsmittel wurde
die schädliche Wirkung des verbrannten Papiers und weiterhin die
Zweifelhaftigkeit des Inhalts betont, zu dem ein richtiger
Cigarrenraucher ja tatsächlich keine Stellung finden konnte. Das
alles aber hat das rasche Anwachsen der Bedeutung von Cigaretten
nicht aufhalten können, und heute wird ihr Antagonist, die Cigarre,
sowohl in der Zahl der Anhänger wie in wirtschaftlicher Hinsicht
durch die Cigarette weit übertroffen.
Wenn die Wandlungen menschlicher Genußbedürftigkeit im Laufe
der Zeiten auch kaum einer aburteilenden Kritik unterworfen werden
können, so ist der Rückgang der Cigarre gegenüber der Cigarette
doch sehr zu bedauern. Denn mit der Cigarre wandert wieder einmal
ein Bild alter und feiner Lebenskultur in die Vergangenheit. Eine
wirkliche Raucherkultur wird heute noch sehr selten mit der
Cigarette verbunden; ihr Dasein ist hierzu noch zu jung. Aber es
wäre sehr wünschenswert, wenn die Cigrettenraucher etwas von der
alten Cigarrenraucherkultur lernen könnten und auf dieser Tradition
eine wirkliche Cigarettenkultur aufbauen würden. Es ist deshalb
wünschenswert, weil sich mit der Kultur solcher
Lebensgewohnheiten regelmäßig auch eine Kultivierung der
Lebensformen überhaupt gleichzeitig zu entwickeln pflegt, und weil
außerdem mit einer Kultur der Genußmittel der für die
Volksgesundheit beste harmonische Ausgleich der Kontraste des
menschlichen Lebens erreicht wird.
Man könnte auch sagen, daß eine Kultur der Genußmittel die
Schädlichkeit derselben auf ein Mindestmaß beschränkt, aber man
würde damit eine unrichtige Beurteilungseinstellung gegenüber den
narkotischen Genußmitteln im allgemeinen und gegenüber der
Cigarette im besondern einnehmen. Wohl scheinen die
Meinungskämpfe für und gegen irgendwelche Genußmittel und
damit die Betonung oder Ableugnung der Schädlichkeit von Alkohol,
Tabak, Kaffee usw. kein Ende nehmen zu wollen, aber der
Einsichtige weiß, daß mit der einfachen Schädlichkeitsfeststellung für
den menschlichen Organismus noch keine Entscheidungsbasis für
solche Streitigkeiten gewonnen sein kann. Wir wissen heute, daß der
Mensch ein Mittelpunkt für Kraftansammlung und Kraftverbrauch, für
Kräfte und Gegenkräfte, Gifte und Gegengifte, körperlich fördernde
und körperlich schädigende Einflüsse ist. Die eine Seite ist nicht
ohne die andere Seite denkbar. Ein Körper, an den geringe
Kräftebeanspruchungen gestellt werden, wird wenig Kräfte sammeln
können. Worauf es ankommt, ist nur das Gleichgewicht, und was
vermieden werden muß, ist nur ein Gleichgewicht zerstörendes
Übermaß auf der einen wie auf der anderen Seite.
Außerdem ergibt das menschliche Leben so viele und vor allem so
starke Beanspruchungen des Nervensystems, daß die angenommene
Schädlichkeit des Tabakgenusses dagegen nur gering erscheint.
Wenn noch dazu der Nachweis erbracht wird, daß nervöse
Spannungen des Menschen durch den Tabakgenuß eine beruhigend-
harmonische Auflösung erfahren können, so bedeutet dies die
Anerkennung eines positiven Wertes des Tabaks. Solche nervöse
Spannungen lassen sich keineswegs im Leben vermeiden, wie es die
Naturapostel verlangen, und solange dies der Fall ist, wird das
Bedürfnis nach einem Ausgleich immer wieder Genußmittel suchen,
die einseitig starke geistige Leistungen kompensieren können. Es ist
charakteristisch, daß einerseits die Gesundheitsfanatiker extremer
»Anti«-Bestrebungen meist selbst körperlich und geistig nicht sehr
kräftig sind, und daß es andererseits niemandem gelungen ist, den
Nachweis zu erbringen, daß durch ängstliches Vermeiden größerer
Kräfteanspannungen des Gehirns und des Körpers das Leben
verlängert werden kann. Selbstverständlich müssen
Kräftebeanspruchungen der jeweiligen Leistungsfähigkeit des
Menschen entsprechen. Bei solchen Streitfragen sind Meinungen
eigentlich immer Ergebnisse ganz persönlicher Erfahrungen und
Empfindungen. Das einzige objektive Vorbild, das die Forderung
eines »naturgemäßen« Lebens vorweisen kann, ergibt das Tier, denn
es gibt keine auch noch so primitiven Menschenrassen, die für
Enthaltsamkeit nachweislich als Vorbild Geltung behaupten können.
Wir wissen aber, daß der Mensch im Gegensatz zum Tier geistigen
Anforderungen genügen muß, die in gar keinem Verhältnis mehr
zum Körper stehen. Schon die einfachen Nervenbeanspruchungen
des täglichen geistigen Lebens sind im eigentlichen Sinne der
Naturapostel derartig ungesund, daß jeder Vergleich mit Lebewesen,
die nur ihrer Gesundheit und natürlich also nur der körperlichen
Selbsterhaltung und Fortpflanzung leben, hoffnungslos ist. Die
vielleicht Überzüchtung zu nennende Entwicklung des menschlichen
Geistes bedingt dann eben Mittel, die einen Ausgleich schaffen, und
es ist sinnlos, gegen diese Mittel zu Felde zu ziehen, oder sie auch
nur als überflüssigen Luxus zu betrachten, solange die Ursachen
nicht beseitigt werden können, die sie veranlaßt und erzwungen
haben.
Der Mensch braucht Schuhwerk, da er im allgemeinen für den
Spezialsport des Barfußlaufens kein Interesse mehr aufbringt. Er
braucht Kleidung, da sein Körper allein den Witterungseinflüssen
nicht mehr standhalten kann. Und so braucht er auch Genußmittel,
da der Körper des Menschen nicht mehr in der Lage ist, den
übersteigerten Anforderungen geistigen Lebens den erforderlichen
Ausgleich zu geben.
Die heilsame Wirkung des Tabakgenusses ist nicht mit Heilmitteln
zu vergleichen, die das Wandeln und Vergehen des Menschen nach
der Meinung Lebensunkundiger aufhalten sollen, aber sie ist
segensreich durch die Anregung oder die Beruhigung, die sie im
Ausgleich widerstrebender Spannungen zu geben vermag.
Die weitaus meisten Raucher werden den Genuß von Tabak als
Ausgleichsmittel auch fast immer irgendwie körperlich empfinden
können. Wer im Felde gewesen ist und dort nach den ungeheuren
Nervenbeanspruchungen die Gier nach dem Tabak kennengelernt
hat, wer im heutigen Erwerbsleben steht und sich weder innerlich
noch äußerlich von den aufregenden Verhältnissen unserer Zeit
unabhängig machen kann und zum Tabak greift, der weiß, daß
dieses manchmal als schädlich verschrieene Kraut eine sehr
segensreiche Wirkung besitzt. Die Voraussetzung ist immer wieder
die Kultivierung des Genusses und die sich daraus ergebende
Einstellung zur Leistungsfähigkeit des eigenen Körpers mit dem
Ergebnis eines tatsächlichen Ausgleichs. Extreme Beanspruchungen,
die über die Elastizitätsgrenze des Körpers hinausgehen, haben
natürlich relativ schädliche Folgen. Aber selbst dann ist die
Schädlichkeit des Tabaks überhaupt nicht mit der Schädlichkeit
anderer Genußmittel, die er ersetzen will, zu vergleichen. Die
generelle Annahme, daß mit oder ohne Tabak ein Mensch oder ein
Volk eine kürzere oder längere Lebenszeit gewinnen kann, ist irrig.
Außerdem wird doch wohl nach allgemeinem Empfinden ein Leben
nicht nach seiner Länge, sondern nach seiner Intensität bewertet.
So können zu allen Zeiten und bei allen Völkern Mittel
nachgewiesen werden, die mit der narkotischen Wirkung des Tabaks
vergleichbar sind. Bei vielen primitiven Völkern ist es die Betelnuß,
bei anderen das Opium, dessen schädliche Folgen — so groß sie für
den Körper eines Europäers auch sein mögen — für den Körper des
Asiaten viel geringer sind, als allgemein angenommen wird. An
weiteren Mitteln sind Haschisch, Kiff-Kiff und andere pflanzliche
Produkte usw. bekannt. In Deutschland und vielen anderen vor allem
europäischen Ländern erfüllte die gleiche Aufgabe Jahrhunderte
hindurch der Alkohol. Erst nach den Zeiten des Sir Francis Drake trat
daneben mehr und mehr der Tabakgenuß in Erscheinung, und es ist
auffallend, daß mit der Zunahme und Verfeinerung des
Tabakgenusses in den letzten Jahrzehnten gleichlaufend eine
Abnahme des Alkoholgenusses nachweisbar ist. Die Bedürfnisse
einer Allgemeinheit wandeln sich im Laufe der Zeiten und passen
sich dem jeweiligen Entwicklungszustand der Menschen und der
Völker immer wieder an. Es scheint, als ob der Tabakgenuß dazu
berufen wäre, die Jahrhunderte alte Aufgabe des Alkohols in
weitgehendem Maße zu übernehmen. Der mittelalterliche und
spätere Verbrauch von Alkohol war geradezu ungeheuer. Wir können
uns heute kaum noch eine Vorstellung machen, was die damaligen
Menschen vertragen haben. Die bedeutendsten geistigen Träger
ihrer Zeit wie beispielsweise Luther, Goethe, Bismarck und viele,
viele andere waren frohe Zecher und genossen die
Ausgleichswirkung dieses geistigen Genußmittels mit einer
Lebhaftigkeit, die in unserer augenblicklichen Zeit Befremden
erregen würde. Das Zeichen unserer Zeit sind zahllose
Antialkoholbewegungen und ein tatsächlich außerordentliches
Nachlassen des Konsums. Dem Kenner menschlicher
Entwicklungserscheinungen gibt beispielsweise das Alkoholverbot in
Amerika nicht so sehr den Beweis, daß theoretisch
volksgesundheitliche Bestrebungen praktisch in großem Maße
durchführbar sind, sondern er erkennt daraus, daß tatsächlich die
Zeit des Alkohols langsam vorübergeht, und daß die Möglichkeit
eines Verbotes hierfür nur ein Symptom ist. Gerade in den
Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika hat der Tabakverbrauch in
ganz besonderem Maße zugenommen, so daß nur von einer
Richtungsänderung der Ausgleichsbedürfnisse gesprochen werden
kann. Die Notwendigkeit eines Ausgleiches zeigte sich sehr deutlich,
als graue Theoretiker der Volksgesundheit auch noch ein
Nikotinverbot als Gesetz durchsetzen wollten, und ein alter Senator
die Debatte in Washington mit den Worten erledigte, daß die Staaten
keine Kleinkinderbewahranstalten seien. Noch deutlicher zeigt sich
die Verschiebung im Ausgleichsuchen bei den mohammedanischen
Völkern, bei denen auf Grund des Alkoholverbotes der Religion die
Kultur des Kaffees und des Tabaks eine Höhe gewonnen hat, wie sie
nirgends sonst in der Welt erreicht wird. Verbote sind stets völlig
zwecklos, wenn die menschliche Natur nicht die zum Verbote nötige
Majorität durch eine entsprechende Wandlung ihrer Bedürfnisse
zuläßt, oder wenn kein Ersatz für die aufgegebene Genußmöglichkeit
vorhanden ist.
In Zusammenfassung der vorher gegebenen Argumente kann mit
allgemeiner Gültigkeit behauptet werden, daß Genußmittel mit dem
Ziel einer anregenden oder beruhigenden Wirkung auf das
Nervensystem und damit auf die menschliche Psyche nicht
ausgeschaltet werden können und naturnotwendig sind.
Volksgesundheitlich können nur diejenigen Genußmittel als schädlich
bezeichnet werden, die dem jeweiligen Entwicklungszustand und
den sich daraus ergebenden Bedürfnissen des Menschen oder des
Volkes nicht entsprechen. Der Kenner der Massenpsyche weiß, daß
zwangsweise durchgeführte Verbote, die nicht in einem Instinkt
gegenüber den allgemeinen Bedürfnissen, sondern in der Theorie
einzelner ihre Ursache haben, die Gefahren von Entladungen der
anders nicht gelösten Spannungen zur Folge haben. Es steht
weiterhin fest, daß der Tabak für die Gegenwart als Ausgleichsmittel
eine so allgemeine Bedeutung hat, daß weder von physischer
Schädlichkeit noch von einem volkswirtschaftlich schädlichen Luxus
gesprochen werden kann. Es scheint weiterhin, daß von den
verschiedenen Formen des Tabakgenusses die Cigarette die
bevorzugte Form des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts ist.
Da für die Wertung der Tabakfabrikate das einfache Bedürfnis für
den einzelnen Menschen unmittelbar vorausgesetzt werden muß, ist
es selbstverständlich nicht zu verteidigen, wenn jemand auch ohne
ein irgendwie unbestimmtes Bedürfnis zur Cigarette greift, da dann
weder Genußmöglichkeit noch der Ausgleichwert des Tabaks
gefolgert werden kann. Es ist unverantwortlich, dem
Nachahmungstrieb, der Eitelkeit usw. nachzugeben und
beispielsweise heranwachsenden Kindern das Rauchen schon zu
einer Zeit zu gestatten, zu der ein wirkliches Ausgleichsbedürfnis
noch nicht denkbar ist. Erst durch das Bedürfnis wird erwiesen, daß
ein Genußmittel dem Organismus entspricht, wobei natürlich
krankhafte Übersteigerungen des Genußtriebes ausgenommen
werden müssen.
Aber selbst für Exzesse krankhaft übersteigerter Genußtriebe ist
der Tabak im allgemeinen viel zu harmlos; man vergleiche nur die
manchmal verheerenden Wirkungen von Alkohol, Opiaten usw.
gegenüber der großen Seltenheit von gesundheitlichen
Schädigungen durch übertriebenen Tabakgenuß. Auch bei solchen
seltenen Beispielen wird man meistens nicht in dem starken
Tabakgenuß die wirkliche Ursache der gesundheitlichen
Schädigungen suchen müssen, sondern in den jeweiligen
Umständen, die ihrerseits erst den Tabakgenuß zur Folge haben. Es
dürfte vielleicht sogar der interessante Nachweis erbracht werden
können, daß die anscheinend gesündesten Speisen durch
übertriebenen Genuß praktisch einen größeren Prozentsatz an
gesundheitlichen Schädigungen in der Menschheit ergeben, als der
— selbstverständlich stets zu vermeidende — übergroße
Tabakgenuß.
Die Menschheit verliert langsam ihre Robustheit; ihre
altersunterschiedlichen Gruppen, Völker und Rassen drängen
langsam nach Verfeinerung, und mit der wachsenden
Differenzierung des einzelnen Menschen geht eine steigende
Verfeinerung und Differenzierung der Genußmittel parallel. Das
Nachlassen des Bierkonsums, die zunehmende Verfeinerung auch in
alkoholischen Getränken, die vielfache Aufgabe des Alkohols als
tägliches Getränk beispielsweise zugunsten des weitaus
kultivierteren Tees, das Anwachsen der Schokoladen- und
Konfiturenindustrie usw. veranschaulichen den natürlichen
Entwicklungsvorgang, wenn auch vielleicht nur der Tee mit der
außerordentlichen Genußdifferenzierung verglichen werden kann, die
der Cigarette die Zukunft sichert.
Die Verfeinerung des Geschmacksempfindens, die in Deutschland
seit dem Kriege registriert werden kann, scheint eine Kultivierung
der Cigarette gewährleisten zu können, die eine segensreiche
Bedeutung dieses Genußmittels für das 20. Jahrhundert erhoffen
läßt. In den außerdeutschen Ländern sind die Verhältnisse etwas
anders. Heute steht Deutschland von den größeren Völkern
bezüglich der Qualitätsforderungen an der Spitze, wenn auch diesen
Forderungen vorläufig noch infolge mangelnder Kaufkraft der
Konsumenten nur von wenigen qualitätsstolzen Fabriken in einem
wirklich ausreichenden Maße entsprochen werden kann.
Die Cigarette ist in Deutschland noch nicht seit sehr lange
bekannt, und erst in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten des vergangenen
Jahrhunderts gewann sie für Deutschland eine stetig anwachsende
Bedeutung. Da wir die Cigarette in ihrer heutigen Form aus dem
Osten bekommen haben, nennen wir sie zum Unterschied zu später
in Deutschland bekannt gewordenen Abarten »Orientcigarette«. Wir
bezeichnen mit diesem Namen eine ganz bestimmte Art von in
Papier gehüllten Tabakfabrikaten, deren Herkunftsländer für uns im
Orient liegen. In Wirklichkeit ist die Kenntnis des Tabaks und der
Cigarettenform auch nach dem Orient erst vor wenigen
Jahrhunderten gelangt. Sie stammt aus Amerika, wo bereits
Columbus Cigaretten in Form von maisblattumwickelten Tabaken
gesehen hat. Als die Kenntnis des Tabaks nach dem Orient kam,
wurde dieses Genußmittel mit einer erstaunlichen Sicherheit den
Bedürfnissen des Landes angepaßt. Es entwickelte sich im Orient
eine Kultur des Tabakanbaus, die sehr bald an Differenzierung die
Erzeugnisse der amerikanischen Ursprungsländer weit übertraf. Mag
auch der orientalische Tabak ursprünglich vorzugsweise in Pfeifen
unterschiedlicher Art geraucht worden sein, so wurde auch die
Gewohnheit, den Tabak in Papierhüllen zu fassen, übernommen, und
damit entstand im Orient zugleich eine Kultur der Cigarette, die so
groß wurde, daß für uns der eigentliche Cigarettenbegriff mit dem
der Orientcigarette völlig identisch wurde. Wenn der deutsche
Raucher amerikanische Tabake zu Cigaretten verarbeitet findet, so
pflegt er diese als minderwertig abzulehnen und den Inhalt der
Papierhülse mit »schwarzem« Tabak zu bezeichnen. Eine Cigarette
mit schwarzem Tabak erscheint dem deutschen Raucher nicht als
eine richtige Cigarette. Wenn dies geschichtlich auch nicht zu
vertreten ist, so wird es eben dadurch verständlich, daß die uns
bekannte Orientcigarette an Verfeinerung und Veredlung des
Genusses den Tabaken der Neuen Welt so außerordentlich überlegen
ist, daß ein Wettbewerb beider Tabakarten wenigstens in der Form
einer Cigarette in Deutschland ausgeschlossen erscheint.
Die Tabake, die der Cigarettenraucher als schwarze Tabake
bezeichnet, sind uns unter der Vorstellung von Cigarren- oder
Pfeifentabaken geläufiger. In den außerdeutschen Ländern ist diese
Einstellung den Tabaken gegenüber nicht allgemein. Beispielsweise
werden in Frankreich, Spanien, Belgien, Argentinien und anderen
stark romanisch gefärbten Ländern die sogenannten schwarzen
Tabake den Orienttabaken vorgezogen. Es mag dies teilweise durch
die Wirtschaftspolitik der Länder, wie z. B. Frankreich, wo für die
Regiecigarette ein hoher Prozentsatz französischer Tabake
verarbeitet wird, begründet werden können. Aber in anderen
Ländern wieder neigt das Bedürfnis der Raucher so offensichtlich zu
dem einfacheren und herberen Genuß der sogenannten schwarzen
Tabake, daß von ganz individuellen Bedürfnissen verschiedener
Rassen gesprochen werden kann.
In Nordamerika wurde durch das Alkoholverbot der
Tabakverbrauch ganz wesentlich verstärkt. Es werden dort
Orientcigaretten fabriziert, die an Qualität unübertrefflich sind; doch
für die breite Masse des Volkes kommen vorzugsweise amerikanische
Tabake zur Verarbeitung. Allerdings entspricht der in Amerika zu
Cigaretten verarbeitete Tabak nicht unmittelbar den in Europa
bekannten schwarzen Tabaken, sondern es werden vorzugsweise
Virginia-Tabake verbraucht, die ursprünglich wie alle anderen
amerikanischen Tabake charakteristische Pfeifen- oder
Cigarrentabake sind, aber durch bestimmte Prozesse für den
Konsum in Cigarettenhülsen zubereitet werden. Diese
Virginiacigaretten sind in Deutschland aus dem Jahre 1919
besonders unter der Bezeichnung »englische Cigaretten« bekannt,
denn sie wurden vorzugsweise von englischer Seite aus in
Deutschland durch das »Loch im Westen« eingeführt. In England
selbst nimmt der Verbrauch von Virginiacigaretten ebenfalls einen
großen Raum ein, da er durch die dortigen klimatischen Verhältnisse
begünstigt wird. Außerdem gibt es in England, vor allem auf Grund
der guten Beziehungen zum Orient und besonders zu Ägypten, auch
sehr wertvolle Orientcigaretten, die sich jedoch bei weitem noch kein
so großes Publikum verschafft haben wie die entsprechenden
Fabrikate in Deutschland.
Nach den Gepflogenheiten des deutschen Rauchers können wir die
Orienttabake als eigentliche Cigarettentabake glatt von sämtlichen
anderen Tabaken abtrennen, da die letzteren innerhalb Deutschlands
fast ausschließlich für Pfeifen und Cigarren verwendet werden. Zu
diesen Pfeifen- und Cigarrentabaken gehören auch die Erzeugnisse
des deutschen, überhaupt des westeuropäischen Tabakanbaues.
Mangels einer größeren Einfuhrmöglichkeit von Orienttabaken

während des Krieges wurden vielfach Versuche gemacht, die
Restbestände an wirklichen Orienttabaken durch deutsche Tabake
usw., also sogenannte schwarze Tabake zu strecken oder auch
ausgesprochene Surrogate zu verwenden. Die außerordentliche
Abneigung, die diese Cigaretten bei dem Raucherpublikum gefunden
haben, hat noch bis heute die Meinung bestehen lassen, daß der
Qualitätsgrad einer Cigarette an der hellen Farbe des Tabaks erkannt
werden kann. Wenn es auch richtig war, daß der Raucher seinen
Augen trauen konnte, sobald er in den Zeiten der Zwangswirtschaft
an der dunkleren Färbung einheimischer oder amerikanischer Tabake
die Minderwertigkeit eines Fabrikats erkennen wollte, so trifft diese
Farbgraduierung keineswegs zu, sobald es sich um eine Kritik
innerhalb verschiedener Sorten wirklich echter Orientcigaretten
handelt. Es gibt sehr wertvolle Orienttabake, die dunkel gefärbt sind;
andere sind wiederum rötlich, und das eigentümliche Mittelding
zwischen dem echten Orienttabak und den amerikanischen
Pfeifentabaken, nämliche der Virginiatabak, hat gerade eine
besonders helle Farbe, ohne daß er an Qualität auch nur im
entferntesten mit irgendeinem echten Orienttabak verglichen werden
kann. Abgesehen von einer Feststellung der Verwendung von Misch-
oder Ersatztabaken, die man sehr wohl noch dem Auge zutrauen
kann, ist es ganz außerordentlich schwer, bereits beim Anblick einer
Cigarette ein Urteil abgeben zu können. Die Anhaltspunkte zur
Beurteilung sind allzu gering. Neben Erwähnung der Farbe hört man
häufig für dieses oder jenes »Format« plädieren. Aber auch ein
Format kann niemals für die Qualität einer Cigarette
ausschlaggebend sein, denn es steht in den weitaus meisten Fällen
in unmittelbarer Abhängigkeit von der Art der verwendeten Tabake
und ihrem Mischungsverhältnis. Wenn es sich um schwere und
gehaltvolle Tabake handelt, so wird das Format relativ schmal und
klein sein müssen. Ist der Tabak leicht und sehr milde, so wird das
Format der Cigarette sehr voll sein müssen, damit die größere
Brandfläche, die jeweils dem Querschnitt der Cigarette entspricht,
einen volleren Geschmack auslöst. Je wertvoller und je sorgfältiger
Cigaretten hergestellt werden, desto bestimmter wird das
entsprechende Format festgelegt werden müssen. Die Abhängigkeit
von Tabak und Tabakmischung vom Format und umgekehrt ist so
weitgehend, daß ein und dieselbe Füllung in dem einen Format fast
ungenießbar sein kann, dagegen in einem anderen Format einen
überraschend schönen Charakter zur Geltung bringt.
Die einzige wirkliche Möglichkeit zur Beurteilung einer Cigarette ist
eine gewissenhafte Rauchprobe, und selbst dann sind noch eine
Anzahl Umstände zu beachten, deren Einwirkung häufig unterschätzt
wird.
Man stelle sich beispielsweise die Stimmung vor, in der man sich
nach einem guten und reichlichen Essen, zu allen edlen und schönen
Dingen bereit, einer fast körperlich übertriebenen Behaglichkeit
hingibt. Würde man sich dann eine Cigarette anzünden, die sehr
aromatisch und auf Grund einer gewissen Herbigkeit sehr anregend
wirkt, so würde man zweifellos sehr enttäuscht sein und diesen
Mißklang zur augenblicklichen Stimmung zu einer Verurteilung der
Cigarette umbiegen. Die meisten Menschen benötigen in einer
solchen behaglichen Stimmung eine weiche, milde, aber sehr volle
und blumige Cigarette, die den durch das Essen bereits gewonnenen
seelischen Ausgleich erhöht und jegliche Aufregung verhindert. Man
stelle sich jedoch andererseits einen Geistesarbeiter vor, der
nächtelang über kniffligen Problemen sitzt, und dessen unbedingt
zur Arbeit erforderliche Konzentration durch langsames Ermüden
nachläßt. Wenn er dann zu einer milden, weichen, versöhnlichen
Cigarette greifen wollte, so würde gerade das Gegenteil der
beabsichtigten Wirkung eintreten, und die erhoffte Spannung würde
sich ganz auflösen. In solchen Augenblicken benötigt er eine herbe,
kräftig-aromatische Cigarette von momentaner anregender Wirkung
und möglichst kurzer Brenndauer, da die Muße für einen langen und
stillen Genuß des Tabaks nicht vorhanden ist.
Es gibt Cigaretten, die man eigentlich nur in einem bequemen
Sessel richtig genießen kann, und die an anderer Stelle,
beispielsweise auf der Straße einfach deplaziert wirken. Es gibt
andere Cigaretten, die den hastigen, kurzen Augenblicken einer
Konzert- oder Theaterpause angepaßt sind, wieder andere, die nach
langen Anstrengungen körperlicher Art eine erfrischende, anregende
Wirkung auslösen, usw.
Neben diesen verschiedenen Wirkungsmöglichkeiten, die der
raffinierte Raucher kennt, gibt es natürlich für jeden einzelnen eine
eigentliche Leib- und Magencigarette, die man als die typische
Gewohnheitscigarette bezeichnen kann. Da die Menschen mit ihren
Bedürfnissen außerordentlich verschieden sind, sind natürlich auch
die Cigaretten verschieden, die den jeweiligen individuellen
Bedürfnissen entsprechen sollen. Wat den enen sin Uhl, is den
annern sin Nachtigall. Eine süße Smyrna-Cigarette, die dem einen
den ganzen Tag über ein immerwährendes Vergnügen bereitet,
würde dem andern völlig unerträglich werden können. Natürlich sind
dies Differenzierungen, wie sie nur der sehr verwöhnte Raucher
kennt, aber bei der Beurteilung von Cigaretten ganz allgemein spielt
der ganz persönliche Geschmack eine so große Rolle, daß man
häufig ein sehr schlechtes Urteil über eine Cigarette erleben kann
trotzdem diese eigentlich nur den jeweiligen
Geschmacksforderungen widerspricht, aber im übrigen qualitativ
unantastbar ist. Ein extremes Beispiel ergibt die bereits erwähnte
Cigarette mit sogenanntem schwarzem Tabak, die von manchen
Ausländern als die einzig mögliche Cigarette bezeichnet wird, und
die der größte Teil der deutschen Raucher mit dem besten Willen
nicht verträgt, ohne daß man deshalb sagen dürfte, die Cigarette
wäre an sich schlecht.
Die Schwierigkeit für das Auffinden einer richtigen Leib- und
Magencigarette beruht vor allen Dingen in der Gefahr der
Geschmacksübermüdung. Je wertvoller die Tabake sind, desto
charakteristischer sind sie in ihren Geschmackseigenarten, und es ist
eine sehr schwere Aufgabe des Fabrikanten, die
Geschmackseigenarten derart abzudämpfen, daß eine
Geschmacksübermüdung bis zu einem gewissen Grade ausgeschaltet
bleibt. Ganz und gar wird sich die Gefahr nicht beseitigen lassen,
denn es dürfte wohl überhaupt kein menschliches Genußmittel
geben, das nicht doch hin und wieder eine Abwechslung erfordert.
So haben sich bereits viele Raucher daran gewöhnt, mit bestimmten
gegeneinander abgeglichenen Cigaretten hin und wieder
abzuwechseln, um sich die Lebendigkeit der Wirkung zu erhalten
und eine Übermüdung zu vermeiden. Andererseits kann man sich
allerdings auch an eine bestimmte Cigarette oder einen bestimmten
Cigarettencharakter so gewöhnen, daß man kaum noch in der Lage
ist, anderen Arten Gerechtigkeit widerfahren zu lassen. Jede wirklich
wertvolle und eigenartige Mischung verlangt auch ein gewisses
Einleben, und man kann sich manchmal an eine anfangs abgelehnte
Cigarette durch gewissenhaftes Nachprüfen so gewöhnen, daß man
gegen diese wiederum keine andere eintauschen möchte. Man kann
eben manchmal erst langsam auf den richtigen Geschmack kommen.
Die einzige Anforderung, die man bei Voraussetzung
unterschiedlichster Arten an eine Cigarette immer stellen muß, ist
die jeweilig ihrer Art entsprechende wirkliche Reinheit und Qualität.
Wenn jemand an den Genuß reiner Orientcigaretten gewöhnt ist,
wird er stets sofort auch den minimalsten Prozentsatz der
Verwendung unedlerer Tabake feststellen können. Außerhalb reiner
Qualitätsfragen ist ein Streit nicht möglich. De gustibus non est
disputandum.
In erster Linie hängt der Charakter einer Cigarette von der Art der
verwendeten Tabake ab. Aber mindestens ebenso wesentlich sind
die Mischungsprobleme. Es ist heute noch wenig bekannt, daß auch
der denkbar edelste Tabak (und zwar je edler, desto weniger) allein
verarbeitet nicht rauchbar ist. Erst durch Mischung verschiedener
Tabake nach bestimmten Gesichtspunkten entsteht das
Tabakmaterial für eine Cigarette. Die Regeln und Rezepte für
Mischungen sind sehr komplizierter und variabler Art, da jeder
Tabak, der verwendet wird, seinen besonderen Eigenarten
entsprechend gemischt werden muß. Es werden immer wieder neue
Variationen erfunden, denen zahllose Experimente vorhergehen. Die
Mischungsgeheimnisse d. h. wertvolle Mischungsrezepte sind ein
sehr wesentliches Besitztum eines Fabrikanten.
Die Begründung der Unrauchbarkeit einzelner Tabaksorten für sich
allein ist darin zu suchen, daß jeder Tabak von Charakter
geschmacklich zu einseitig ist und seinen Charakter übermäßig
aufdringlich zur Geltung bringt. Die Absicht des Mischers ist es nun,
diejenigen Tabake gegeneinander abzuwägen, die sich gegenseitig
ausgleichen und dadurch ihre jeweilige Geschmackseinseitigkeit
verlieren, um dieses oder jenes feine Aroma oder diesen oder jenen
feinen Geschmacksakkord den jeweiligen Anforderungen gemäß
mehr oder weniger unaufdringlich auswirken zu lassen. Die
Mischungsforderung ist ähnlich wie bei weitaus den meisten Speisen,
die für sich genossen schal und leer schmecken würden und ihren
Wert eigentlich erst durch entsprechende Gewürze wie Salz usw.
offenbaren. Die Gewürze selbst wiederum können nicht allein
genossen werden. Erst der fein abgewogene Zusammenklang und
Ausgleich verschiedener Eigenarten ergibt die Genußmöglichkeit.
Deshalb unterscheidet man genau so wie bei vielen anderen
gastronomischen Materialien Tabake, die als Gewürze verwendet
werden und daher Würztabake genannt werden können, und
Tabake, die eine möglichst ruhige Basis ergeben, und auf denen sich
die Mischungen von Würztabaken frei entwickeln können. Da es sich
bei Tabaken nicht um Nahrungsmittel, sondern Genußmittel handelt,
sind natürlich die Würztabake die wichtigsten und wertvollsten. Die
zur Basis verwendeten Tabake kann man als Fülltabake bezeichnen.
Es sind dies vorzugsweise Tabake sehr ruhiger und unaufdringlicher
Geschmacksarten, die auf Grund der Bezeichnung durchaus nicht mit
Tabaken verwechselt werden dürfen, die man zu Zeiten der
Zwangswirtschaft als Füllsel für Cigarettenhülsen unter teilweiser
Beimischung echter Orienttabake verwendete. Wenn die Fülltabake
auch durch den Wert der edelsten Würztabake übertroffen werden,
so liegt doch gerade in der Auswahl, Verwertung und Dosierung von
Fülltabaken der Kern des ganzen Mischungsproblems. Durch
weitgehende Kenntnis, welche Fülltabake und Fülltabakmischungen
diesen oder jenen Würztabaken oder Würztabakmischungen die
harmonisch ausgleichende Basis geben können, kann ein Fabrikant
allen mit ihm im Wettbewerb stehenden Unternehmungen qualitativ
den Rang ablaufen. Die Geheimnisse der Fülltabake werden als
persönlichste Erfahrungen ängstlich gehütet. Die Schwierigkeiten der
Auswertung bestehen aber gerade darin, daß man jeweils nur unter
den auf dem Markt zur Verfügung stehenden Tabaken die Auswahl
hat und immer wieder neue Rezepte aufstellen muß, da gleichartig
geratene Sorten nur selten wieder aufzutreiben sind. Eine
grundsätzliche Unterscheidung zwischen Würztabaken und
Fülltabaken steht für den Tabakmarkt nicht fest, da in dieser oder
jener Mischung dieser oder jener Fülltabak auch als Würztabak
dienen kann. Weiterhin gibt es auch sehr wertvolle Sorten, die
eigentlich als Würztabake bezeichnet werden können, aber einen
Geschmacksausgleich bereits untereinander finden, ohne daß ein
gegensätzlicher Fülltabak benötigt wird.
Die Bauern der Ursprungsländer des Tabaks sind nicht so
empfindlich gegen starke und sehr herbe Cigaretten wie die
Europäer. Der türkische Bauer kann Mischungen rauchen, die nach
unserem Empfinden sehr einseitig gewürzt sind. Aber trotz der
gewissen Einseitigkeit der Mischungen für die Einwohner der
Tabakländer, die sich aus der bevorzugten oder ausschließlichen
Verwendung der örtlich vorhandenen Tabake ergibt, sind die dort
verwendeten Rauchtabake doch immer wieder Mischungen, in denen
ein Ausgleich wenigstens bis zu einem gewissen Grade gesucht wird.
Die Mischungsprobleme sind ganz außerordentlich diffizil und
setzen eine Geschmackskritik voraus, die Nichtfachleuten geradezu
märchenhaft erscheinen muß. Es gibt Orientalen, die beim Rauchen
einer Cigarette sofort die zehn oder zwanzig maßgebenden
Würztabake aufzählen, die in einer Mischung enthalten sind.
Infolgedessen werden auch in den europäischen Fabriken von Rang
die Mischungen fast ausschließlich von Orientalen ausgeführt oder
zumindest angeregt. Es ist sehr eigenartig und charakteristisch, daß
solche Mischer immer wieder die Tabaksorten ihrer engeren Heimat
besonders vorziehen und in diesen Sorten allein genügend
Differenzmaterial für Mischungen finden zu können glauben. Im
allgemeinen werden jedoch zu Mischungen für Europäer so ziemlich
alle Gebiete herangezogen, die als Ursprungsländer edler Tabake in
Betracht kommen, um damit Differenzierungen zu schaffen, die den
vielseitigen Anforderungen entsprechen können.
Die Mischungsaufgaben ergeben sich aus den jeweils zur

Verfügung stehenden Provenienzen, denn die Eigenarten
verschiedener Tabake, denen entsprochen werden muß, sind
unbegrenzt variabel. Für diese Geschmackseigenarten ist in erster
Linie die Pflanzenart bestimmend. Dazu kommt die
Bodenbeschaffenheit und die Lage der Anbaugebiete mit ihren
jeweils eigentümlichen klimatischen Verhältnissen. Weiterhin spielt
die Höhenlage und die Sonnenlage eine so große Rolle, daß schon
geringe Höhenunterschiede angebauter Flächen und kleine
Abweichungen in der Lage dieser Flächen zur Himmelsrichtung auch
bei sonst gleichartigen Voraussetzungen deutlich bemerkbar werden.
Selbstverständlich ist außerdem jeder Jahrgang, jede Ernte
unterschiedlich, denn die verschiedene Zahl der Sonnentage, der
Niederschläge, der Temperaturen usw. in verschiedenen Jahren
ergibt sehr verschiedene Tabake.
Man kann also, abgesehen von öfteren weitgehenden
Ähnlichkeiten verschiedener Tabakpartien, behaupten, daß genau ein
und derselbe Tabak nie zweimal auf dem Markt erscheint.
Liegen die benötigten Tabake nach Einkauf, Verzollung usw. in den
zur Fabrik gehörigen Lagerräumen zur Verfügung, und liegen die
obig besprochenen Mischungsrezepte für die jeweils vorhandenen
und zur Verarbeitung gelangenden Provenienzen fest, so ist der
weitere Fabrikationsvorgang bis zur Cigarette mehr ein Problem der
Präzision, der Sauberkeit, Zweckmäßigkeit und kaufmännischen
Rentabilität als ein maßgebender Faktor für die Geschmacksqualität
der Cigarette.
Da die zur Verfügung stehenden Provenienzen kaum in gleicher
Geschmackseigenart nachzubekommen sind, da aber andererseits
das Bedürfnis besteht, eine einmal eingeführte Cigarettenmarke von
bestimmter Geschmacksrichtung möglichst lange auf dem Markte zu
erhalten, werden die für den Geschmack maßgebenden Partien
jeweilig in sehr großen Mengen erworben, so daß möglichst auf
Jahre hinaus die gleichbleibende Qualität und Geschmackseigenart
einer Cigarette gesichert ist. Weiterhin bemüht man sich, möglichst
viele verschiedene Tabakarten zu Mischungen zu verwenden, so daß
der durch neue Ernten bedingte Ausfall dieses oder jenes
Mischungsteiles durch einen möglichst ähnlichen Tabak ergänzt
werden kann, ohne daß diese minimalen Differenzen dem Raucher
auffallen können, vor allem, wenn der Grundcharakter und die
Qualitätsstufe der Cigarettenmarke voll erhalten bleibt.
Das Tabaklager der großen Cigarettenfabriken steht unter dem

Tabakmeister, der die Tabake fachtechnisch behandeln muß, die
Mischungsrezepte in Vorschlag bringt und die Mischungen selbst
überwacht. Diese Stellung ist wohl ausschließlich Orientalen
vorbehalten, da selbst die verwöhnteste Zunge eines Europäers nicht
in der Lage ist, die minimalen Geschmacksdifferenzen praktisch zu
bestimmen. Trotzdem ist es natürlich, daß ein Tabakmeister, so
bedeutsam seine Stellung auch sein mag, keineswegs für die
Qualitätsstellung der Fabrik, für die er arbeitet, maßgebend sein
kann. Hierfür ist und bleibt die eigentliche Firmenleitung durchaus
maßgebend. Selbst bei den besten Beamten muß eine auch nur
etwas mangelhafte Fachkenntnis der Firmenleitung in Tabak- und
Mischungsfragen sehr verhängnisvoll werden. Denn an dieser Stelle
wird Qualitätswille, Stil und Geschmacksforderung maßgebend
festgelegt.
Die Tabake werden in den Ballen, in denen sie aus dem Orient
ankommen, in den Fabrikationsgang gebracht. In der ersten Station
werden die Ballen geöffnet, aufgeteilt, die eng aneinander gepreßten
Blätter werden einzeln auseinander genommen und sortiert. Nach
der Sortierung werden die Blätter (nach ihren Provenienzen
geordnet) in große Holzkisten gefüllt und erwarten in dieser Form
den Mischungsvorgang. Die nächste Station ist der Mischungsplatz,
auf dem aus den Holzkisten in dem angegebenen Verhältnis der
Mischungsrezepte die Tabake der verschiedenen Provenienzen
schichtweise übereinander gelegt werden. Es ist dies ein ziemlich
großer Platz, auf den der Inhalt der Kisten gekippt und von Arbeitern
in gleichmäßigen Lagen auf der ganzen Fläche verteilt wird. Bei
diesem Prozeß wird der Tabak den jeweiligen unterschiedlichen
Anforderungen entsprechend mehr oder weniger angefeuchtet.
Dann wird das Gemisch in große Boxen gebracht, wo es einige Tage
lagert.
Die nächste Station ist die Tabakschneiderei. Das Tabakgemisch
wird großen Schneidemaschinen zugeführt, die die Blätter in feine
Strähnen zerschneiden. Der von den Messern herunterfallende Tabak
wird auf Transportbändern in eine Entstaubungsanlage gebracht, die
als nächste Station die Aufgabe hat, den Tabak von dem bitteren
Tabakstaub gründlich zu reinigen. Aus der Entstaubungstrommel
wird der Tabak wieder in große Holzkisten gefüllt und neuerlich
einem Zwischenlager zugeführt.

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Crossover Picturebooks 1st Edition Sandra L. Beckett

Highlander of Mine Red L. Jameson

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Proficient Motorcycling The Ultimate Guide to Riding

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Textbook of Diagnostic Sonography 7th Edition Sandra L.

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Children’s Literature Comes of Age Narrating Africa

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Published in Great Britain by

Copyright © 2002 by Sandra L. Beckett

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beckett, Sandra L., 1953–

ISBN10: 0-415-93000-6 (hbk)

1. Children’s literature—History and criticism. 2. Little Red Riding Hood

PN1009.5.L56 B43 2002

Series Editor’s Foreword ix

Dedicated to furthering original research in children’s literature and culture, the

No folk or fairy tale has been so relentlessly reinterpreted, recontextualized, and

English-speaking world. These include some of the most innovative, preeminent,

Reminiscence and Allusion

“Look!” said Sophie. “Who’s that?”

or well-read enough to understand.”2 Although the decoding of reminiscence gen-

REMINISCENCES OF RED RIDING HOOD IN AN OGRE STORY

Red Riding Hood and Her Band of Storybook Characters

An Icon of Western Culture

preconceived expectations and checklist in hand. Paradoxically, the Japanese edi-

The Archetypal Bedtime Story

Figure 5. Lommetørkleet by Fam Ekman, copyright © 1999 Cappelen. Used by permission

Dark Forests and Big Bad Wolf Obsessions

artist surrealistically mimics the nineteenth-century engraving. Even young read-

comical, vulnerable-looking backsides bathed in the light of a clearing. The story

PLAYFUL ALLUSION IN NONFICTION

Figure 8. Les Ogres: Encyclopédie thématique de l’ogritude by Sylvie

Title: Die Cigarette

Author: Stephan Dirk

Release date: March 11, 2024 [eBook #73143]

Original publication: Leipzig: Verlag für Industrie-Kultur, 1924

Credits: Hans Theyer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIE CIGARETTE

Herausgegeben von der Reemtsma A. G.

VERLAG FÜR INDUSTRIE-KULTUR

Druck von Günther, Kirstein & Wendler in Leipzig

Mangels einer größeren Einfuhrmöglichkeit von Orienttabaken

Die Mischungsaufgaben ergeben sich aus den jeweils zur

Das Tabaklager der großen Cigarettenfabriken steht unter dem

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