Cinderella, also known as The Little Glass Slipper, is a folk tale with many different versions shared around the world. The main character is a young girl who faces difficult times but later gains great fortune and eventually becomes a queen through marriage. The oldest known version of the story is the Greek tale of Rhodopis, written by the scholar Strabo between 7 BCE and 23 CE. This story describes a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt.

The first written version of the story in Western Europe was an Italian tale called La Gatta Cenerentola, published in 1634 by Giambattista Basile in his book Pentamerone. The version most people in English-speaking countries know today was written in French by Charles Perrault in 1697. His story, titled Cendrillon, was later translated into English and became Cinderella. A German version called Aschenputtel was published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in their collection Grimms' Fairy Tales.

Although the story’s title and the main character’s name change in different languages, Cinderella is a commonly used name in English folklore. The word Cinderella has come to describe someone whose talents or abilities are not noticed at first but later gain recognition or achieve success after being overlooked. In sports, the term "a Cinderella" is used to describe an underdog team or club that defeats stronger, more favored opponents. The popular story of Cinderella continues to inspire many forms of media worldwide, influencing stories, themes, and common ideas in culture.

Ancient versions

The oldest known version of the damsel-in-distress story comes from ancient Greece and tells the tale of Rhodopis, a Greek woman who lived in the Egyptian city of Naucratis. Her name means "Rosy-Cheeks." The story was first written by the Greek geographer Strabo in his book Geographica. He wrote: "The Greeks living in Egypt tell a story about Rhodopis. While she was bathing, an eagle took one of her sandals from her servant and flew it to Memphis. When the king was giving justice in the open, the eagle dropped the sandal into his lap. The king was surprised by the sandal’s beauty and the strange event. He sent people to find the woman who owned it. When they found her in Naucratis, she was brought to Memphis and became the king’s wife."

A similar story was later written by the Roman writer Aelian in his book Miscellaneous History, which was written in Greek. Aelian’s version is very similar to Strabo’s but adds that the king’s name was Psammetichus. His account shows that the story of Rhodopis was well-known for many years.

Earlier, around 500 years before Strabo, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a woman named Rhodopis in his book Histories. He said she was from Thrace, a slave to a man named Iadmon of Samos, and a fellow slave of the storyteller Aesop. She was taken to Egypt during the time of Pharaoh Amasis and later freed by Charaxus of Mytilene, the brother of the poet Sappho.

The story of Rhodopis losing a sandal and being found by a king is similar to the tale of Cinderella. This connection was noted in the 19th century by Edgar Taylor and Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould.

Another possible early version of the Cinderella story comes from late Antiquity and involves a woman named Aspasia of Phocaea. Aelian wrote about her in his book Varia Storia. Aspasia lost her mother as a child and was raised by her father. She dreamed of meeting a noble man. In a vision, a dove turned into a woman and taught her how to fix a physical flaw. Later, she attended a feast hosted by the Persian regent Cyrus the Younger, where the Persian king noticed her and ignored the other women.

In the 12th century, a story called Le Fresne ("The Ash-Tree Girl") was written by Marie de France. It is a version of the Cinderella story. A wealthy woman leaves her infant daughter at the base of an ash tree outside a nunnery, leaving a ring and brocade as clues. The baby is found by a porter, who names her Fresne, meaning "ash tree." She is raised by nuns. When she grows up, a nobleman falls in love with her but is forced to marry another woman. Fresne becomes a handmaiden at the wedding and covers the bed with her brocade. Unbeknownst to her, the bride is her twin sister, and their mother recognizes the brocade. Fresne’s true identity is revealed, and she marries the nobleman, while her twin marries another nobleman.

In Malta, the Cinderella story is called Ċiklemfusa. She is an orphan who receives three magical items from her father before he dies: a chestnut, a nut, and an almond. She works as a servant in the king’s palace but is ignored. She hears about a ball and uses a spell to turn into a princess. The prince falls in love with her and gives her gifts. She hides in the palace cellar after the ball and later leaves magical biscuits with the gifts for the prince. He discovers the gifts, realizes his mistake, and marries her.

In China, the story of Ye Xian first appeared in a book written by Duan Chengshi around 860. Ye Xian is the daughter of a tribal leader whose mother died when she was young. Her father’s second wife abuses her. She befriends a fish, which is her mother’s spirit. Her stepmother and half-sister kill the fish, but Ye Xian finds its bones, which help her dress for a festival, including a golden shoe. She loses the shoe at the festival, and the king of another island finds it. He searches for the owner and marries Ye Xian. Her stepmother and sister are killed by falling rocks. Similar stories exist in many Chinese ethnic groups.

In Vietnam, the story of Tấm and Cám is similar. Tấm befriends a fish, which is killed by her stepmother and half-sister. Its bones help her dress for a festival, including a golden shoe. She loses the shoe, and the king finds it. He marries her. Her stepmother and sister are later killed by Tấm, who sends them to the afterlife. Some versions end with them being exiled or struck by lightning.

In Korea, the story of Kongjwi and Patjwi is similar to Cinderella. Kongjwi loses her mother and is mistreated by her stepmother and half-sister, Patjwi. She is helped by animals and magical beings, like a cow, a toad, and a fairy. They help her attend a dance and lose a shoe. The magistrate finds her and marries her. The story continues after the marriage, with Patjwi still causing harm to Kongjwi.

Literary versions

The first European version of the story written in prose was published in Naples, Italy, by Giambattista Basile in his book Pentamerone (1634). The story was set in the Kingdom of Naples, which was the most important political and cultural center in southern Italy and one of the most influential cities in Europe at that time. It was written in the Neapolitan dialect. Later, Charles Perrault included the story in his collection Histoires ou contes du temps passé (1697), and the Brothers Grimm added it to their book Grimms' Fairy Tales (1812).

The name "Cenerentola" comes from the Italian word cenere, meaning "ash" or "cinder." This refers to the fact that servants and kitchen workers in the past often had ash on their clothes because of their cleaning tasks and because they lived in cold rooms and stayed near fireplaces to stay warm.

Giambattista Basile, a writer, soldier, and government official, collected oral folk tales and wrote them down in a book called Lo cunto de li cunti (or The Tale of Tales), also known as Pentamerone. This book included the story of Cenerentola, which features a wicked stepmother, evil stepsisters, magical changes, a missing slipper, and a king searching for the slipper’s owner. The book was published after Basile died in 1634.

One of the most popular versions of Cinderella was written in French by Charles Perrault in 1697. He called his story Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre. Perrault’s version became famous because he added new elements, such as a pumpkin, a fairy godmother, and glass slippers.

Plot: A wealthy man marries a proud and haughty woman as his second wife. She has two daughters who are also vain and selfish. The man also has a young daughter from his first marriage, a girl who is kind and gentle. The stepmother is jealous of the girl’s kindness and makes her work hard as a servant. After finishing her chores, the girl sits near the fireplace to stay warm, and she often gets covered in ash. Her stepsisters mock her and call her Cendrillon ("Cinderella").

One day, the prince invites everyone to a royal ball. The stepsisters plan their outfits and tell Cinderella she cannot go because she is a servant. When the stepsisters and their mother leave for the ball, Cinderella cries. Her fairy godmother appears and turns a pumpkin into a golden carriage, mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, and lizards into footmen. She also turns Cinderella’s old clothes into a beautiful gown with glass slippers. The fairy godmother tells Cinderella to return before midnight, when the magic will end.

At the ball, everyone is amazed by Cinderella, especially the prince. She leaves before midnight and returns home, thanking her fairy godmother. She then greets her stepsisters, who do not recognize her.

The next evening, the prince holds another ball. Cinderella attends again, and the prince becomes even more interested in her. She loses one glass slipper when leaving the palace. The prince collects the slipper and vows to find the owner. Cinderella keeps the other slipper.

The prince’s messenger tries the slipper on all the women in the kingdom. When the messenger arrives at Cinderella’s home, her stepsisters try to wear it but fail. Cinderella asks to try, and the slipper fits perfectly. She also shows the other slipper. The stepfamily apologizes, and Cinderella forgives them. She marries the prince, and her stepsisters are married to wealthy noblemen. They all live happily ever after.

The first lesson of the story is that kindness and grace are more valuable than beauty. The second lesson suggests that even intelligence and courage may not lead to success without help from someone kind, like a godparent.

In this version, Cinderella’s father is alive but does not stop the abuse because her stepmother controls the household.

Another famous version was written by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century. They called their story Aschenputtel ("Ashfool") or Cinderella. This version is more violent than Perrault’s. Cinderella’s stepsisters cut their feet to fit a golden slipper, and there is no fairy godmother. Instead, help comes from a magical tree planted by Cinderella on her mother’s grave. In a later version, the Grimm brothers added a part where the stepsisters are punished for their cruelty. This version reflects the Brothers Grimm’s own experiences of working their way up in society after their father died.

A similar story, Aschenbrödel, was published by Ludwig Bechstein in 1845 in his book Deutsches Märchenbuch.

A wealthy man’s wife becomes very ill and dies. Before dying, she tells her daughter to stay kind, as God will protect her. The girl visits her mother’s grave daily. Later, the man marries another woman with two cruel daughters. The new wife forces the girl to wear rags and calls her Aschenputtel. The girl works hard in the kitchen while her stepsisters do nothing. She remains kind and visits her mother’s grave.

One day, the man goes to a fair and promises his stepdaughters gifts if they win a competition.

Plot variations and alternative tellings

Folklorists have studied many different versions of the Cinderella story in cultures around the world. In 1893, Marian Roalfe Cox, working for the Folklore Society of Britain, created a book titled Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin and, Cap o'Rushes, Abstracted and Tabulated with a Discussion of Medieval Analogues and Notes. Scholars have continued to study the story’s structure and changes over time.

Joseph Jacobs tried to find the original version of the story by comparing common parts in hundreds of versions collected from Europe. The Aarne–Thompson–Uther system classifies Cinderella as type 510A, called "Persecuted Heroine." Other stories in this group include The Sharp Grey Sheep, The Golden Slipper, The Story of Tam and Cam, Rushen Coatie, The Wonderful Birch, Fair, Brown and Trembling, and Katie Woodencloak.

In many international versions, there is no fairy godmother like in Perrault’s tale. Instead, the helper is often the heroine’s mother, who appears as an animal if she is dead or becomes a cow if she is alive. In some stories, the helper is an animal such as a cow, bull, pike, or a saint or angel. The cow helper appears in Greek, Armenian, and Central Asian versions. In some tales, the heroine’s sisters kill the mother-as-cow, collect her bones, and later use them to create magical dresses.

Africanist Sigrid Schmidt noted that in Kapmalaien (Cape Malay) tales, the mother becomes a fish, is eaten in that form, and the daughter buries her bones. A tree then grows from the grave. Professor Gražina Skabeikytė-Kazlauskienė explained that animals like fish, cows, or dogs in these stories often represent the mother’s legacy. Jack Zipes, commenting on a Sicilian version, said the mother helps the heroine in the form of doves, fairies, or godmothers. Joseph Jacobs also wrote that the heroine’s animal helper, like a cow or sheep, was clearly linked to her mother, as was the tree on her mother’s grave.

While many Cinderella versions include a wicked stepmother, the key feature of type 510A is a female persecutor. In Fair, Brown and Trembling and Finette Cendron, the stepmother is not present, and the older sisters are the ones who keep the heroine in the kitchen. In other stories, the heroine is driven from home by her father, who wants to marry someone else. These stories are classified as type 510B, such as Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, and Allerleirauh. In Katie Woodencloak, the stepmother forces the heroine to leave home, and she finds work as a kitchen helper.

In La Cenerentola, an opera by Gioachino Rossini, the roles are reversed: the heroine is mistreated by her stepfather (this makes the story type 510B). Rossini also made the reason for the conflict clear: the stepfather wants to give his own daughters larger dowries to attract better husbands, which would not be possible if he had to support a third daughter. Scholars often see the conflict between stepmothers and stepdaughters as a competition for resources, though the story rarely explains this directly.

In some retellings, at least one stepsister is kind to the heroine and questions the stepmother’s harsh treatment. This happens in Ever After, the two direct-to-video sequels to Disney’s 1950 film, and the 2013 Broadway musical.

The number of balls in the story varies—sometimes one, two, or three. The event does not always have to be a ball; in some versions, the heroine attends church instead. The fairy godmother is a character added by Perrault. In the Brothers Grimm’s version, the heroine’s dead mother helps her by answering her prayers at her grave. A tree grows on the grave, and doves from the tree drop the clothes she needs for the ball. This idea appears in other versions, like The Wonderful Birch. Playwright James Lapine used this idea in the musical Into the Woods. In La gatta Cenerentola by Giambattista Basile, the heroine asks her father to ask the Dove of Fairies to send her something, and a tree provides her clothing. Other versions show animals helping the heroine, like in Katie Woodencloak or The Golden Slipper, where a fish helps her after she gives it water. In The Anklet, a magical pot the girl buys gives her the clothes and anklets she needs for the ball. Rossini’s opera La Cenerentola avoids magic by having a philosopher, Alidoro, help the heroine instead.

Many versions do not include a midnight curfew. The heroine leaves the ball to return home before her stepmother and stepsisters or simply because she is tired. In the Grimms’ version, the heroine hides in a tree and then in a pigeon coop to escape her pursuers. Her father tries to find her by cutting down the trees, but she escapes.

The glass slipper is only in Perrault’s version and its derivatives. In other versions, the item is made of gold, or it is an anklet, ring, or bracelet. What matters is that the item fits only the heroine. In Rossini’s opera, twin bracelets are used instead. In The Wonderful Birch, the prince gains items like a ring, circlet, and slippers from the tar he uses at each ball. Some scholars suggest Perrault may have confused "squirrel fur" with "glass" in his story, but most believe he intentionally used "glass" as a poetic choice.

The 1950 Disney film uses the glass slipper to add a twist: the stepmother breaks the slipper before the heroine can try it on. Earlier in the film, the Duke warns that the slipper might fit many women, but the heroine later shows the matching slipper, proving she is the one from the ball.

In many versions, the prince is told the heroine cannot be the one because she is too dirty or ragged. This is often said by the stepmother or stepsisters. In the Grimms’ version, both the stepmother and father agree. The prince still insists on letting her try, and she proves her identity by fitting the slipper or other item.

According to Korean scholars, East Asian versions of Cinderella often continue with the heroine’s stepmother replacing the Cinderella-like character for her own daughter, while the heroine goes through her journey.

Works based on the Cinderella story

Works based on the story of Cinderella include:

• Cendrillon (1759) by Jean-Louis Laruette
• Cendrillon (1810) by Nicolas Isouard, with music and lyrics by Charles-Guillaume Étienne
• Agatina, o la virtù premiata (1814) by Stefano Pavesi
• La Cenerentola (1817) by Gioachino Rossini
• Cinderella (1893) by Baron Boris Vietinghoff-Scheel
• Cendrillon (1894–95) by Jules Massenet, with music and lyrics by Henri Caïn
• Aschenbrödel (1901) by Johann Strauss II, adapted and completed by Josef Bayer
• Cinderella (1901–02) by Gustav Holst
• La Cenerentola (1902) by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
• Cendrillon (1904) by Pauline García-Viardot
• Aschenbrödel (1905) by Leo Blech, with music and lyrics by Richard Batka
• Das Märchen vom Aschenbrödel (1941) by Frank Martin
• Zolushka or Cinderella (1945) by Sergei Prokofiev
• La Cenicienta (1966) by Jorge Peña Hen
• Cinderella, a "pantomime opera" (1979) by Peter Maxwell Davies
• Cinderella (1980) by Paul Reade
• Cinderella (1997) by Matthew Bourne, set in 1940 London using music by Sergei Prokofiev
• My First Cinderella (2013), directed by George Williamson and Loipa Araújo
• Cinderella (2016) by Alma Deutscher

In 1804, a version of Cinderella was shown at Drury Lane Theatre in London. It was called "A new Grand Allegorical Pantomimic Spectacle," but it was very different from modern pantomimes. It included Joseph Grimaldi, a famous clown, who played a servant named Pedro, a character similar to today’s Buttons. In 1820, a play called Harlequin and Cinderella at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, used parts of the story from Rossini’s opera La Cenerentola. It was a type of comedy called a Harlequinade and also featured Grimaldi. In 1830, Rophino Lacy used Rossini’s music but added spoken dialogue in a comic opera. The story included characters like the Baron, the two stepsisters, and Pedro the servant, along with a Fairy Queen instead of a magician. A version of this story written in rhyming couplets by Henry Byron helped create the modern pantomime version of Cinderella, which was shown at the Royal Strand Theatre in 1860. This version was titled Cinderella! Or the Lover, the Lackey, and the Little Glass Slipper.

In the traditional pantomime version, the story begins in a forest where a hunt is happening. Here, Cinderella meets Prince Charming and his friend Dandini, a character inspired by Rossini’s opera. Cinderella mistakes Dandini for the Prince and the Prince for Dandini. Her father, Baron Hardup, is controlled by his two stepdaughters, the Ugly Sisters, and has a servant named Buttons, who is Cinderella’s friend. Throughout the play, the Baron is often bothered by men called the Broker’s Men, who remind him about unpaid rent. The Fairy Godmother helps Cinderella by turning a pumpkin into a coach, mice into footmen, a frog into a coach driver, and rags into a beautiful dress so she can go to the ball. However, the magic only lasts until midnight.

• Cinderella by Rodgers and Hammerstein was shown on television three times and performed live in various productions. A version in 1958 at the London Coliseum included actors like Tommy Steele, Yana, Jimmy Edwards, Kenneth Williams, and Betty Marsden. This version added songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein and one written by Steele called "You and Me." In 2013, a Broadway version opened with a new story by Douglas Carter Beane and ran for 770 shows. In 2022, a version of Cinderella by VTT featured Naomi Infeld as Anastasia.
• Mr. Cinders, a musical, opened in London in 1929 and was made into a film in 1934.
• Cindy, a musical from 1964, was written by Johnny Brandon and has been performed many times.
• La Gatta Cenerentola, a musical from 1976 in Italy, was based on Giambattista Basile’s version of the story.
• Into the Woods, a musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, includes parts of the Grimm Brothers’ version of Cinderella, such as enchanted birds, a mother’s grave, three balls, and stepsisters who are hurt. It opened on Broadway in 1987 and won awards, including Best Score and Book of a Musical in 1988. In this version, Cinderella interacts with other fairy tale characters like Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk.
• Cinderella, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, opened in London in 2021 and closed in 2022. It later opened on Broadway with the title Bad Cinderella and closed after 85 shows. This marked the end of a 44-year period when one or more of Lloyd Webber’s shows played on Broadway.
• Cinderella’s Castle, a musical by Team Starkid, was announced in March 2024 and performed that summer. The story was written by Nick & Matt Lang, and the music and lyrics were by Jeff Blim.

Over the years, hundreds of films have been made that are either direct adaptations of Cinderella or have stories loosely based on it.

• Cinderella (1922), an animated short film by Walt Disney.
• Cinderella (1950), a full-length animated film by Walt Disney.
• Cinderella (1965), a live-action film by Walt Disney.
• Cinderella (1987), a live-action film by Walt Disney.
• Cinderella (1