🎧 Emma's Library Audiobook cover: Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots

Classical Stories · No. 71 — An inheritance of one cat — worth a whole kingdom.

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About this audiobook

When a miller dies, his youngest son inherits only the family cat and despairs — but this cat can talk, and asks merely for a fine pair of boots and a bag. Thus equipped, Puss sets to work: he catches game and presents it to the king as gifts from his invented master, the grand 'Marquis of Carabas'; he stages a rescue that puts his master before the king in borrowed finery; and he goes ahead to a rich ogre's castle, where he flatters the ogre into showing off his shape-shifting powers — and tricks him into becoming a mouse, which Puss promptly eats. The castle, the lands, and the princess all fall to the penniless miller's son, all on the strength of one clever cat in boots.

Why it's worth a listen

A miller dies and leaves his youngest son nothing but a cat — a poor inheritance, the boy thinks, until the cat asks for a pair of boots and a sack and proceeds to talk, trick, and bluff his master all the way to a castle and a princess. The most charming con-artist in fairy tales, proving that confidence and quick wits can spin gold out of a single cat.

A question to keep

How much can cleverness and confidence create out of almost nothing?

Based on the book by A tale from France, published by Emma's Library original retelling

Chapters

  1. The Inheritance of a Cat
  2. A Pair of Boots and a Sack
  3. The Gifts of the Marquis
  4. A Splendid Bath in the River
  5. The Whispering Fields and the Ogre’s Keep
  6. A Question to Keep