If you're unfamiliar with this story, you ought to check it out. It's a lovely story, and I am continually shocked that it doesn't get turned into a movie or a longer story more often than it has. A couple of good classic versions of it are found on SurLaLune's fairy tale site (a delightful website in general) the first from Andrew Lang's "Color" Fairy Books, in the 1889 Blue book, specifically. Another practically identical version comes from Madame d'Aulnoy in 1892.
One picture book version that I don't totally hate is:
The White Cat
Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Gennady Spirin
ISBN: 9780531071700
I'm actually sad that I don't like this version more - between San Souci and Spirin, you'd think it would be right up my alley, but it's just a little too stiff and formal and sepia-toned for me to truly adore.
My all-time favorite version of the story is found in a collection.
A Book of Fairy Tales (Published by Dean's in 1977)
The story itself is the Madame d'Aulnoy version, dated from 1682 (the original French edition) and the illustrations are by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone.
This is a lovely book in general, and the illustrations are PHENOMENAL. This was the picture book of fairy tales that I first had as a child, and I love the elegant willowy characters and draping finery.
Short Version:
King has three sons, all decent and good, and only one kingdom. It's small, so breaking it up isn't really an option, and he really doesn't want to abdicate or get killed quite yet, so he figures he'll keep them busy with crazy quests to complete, vowing to give the kingdom to whoever best fills his requests, basically hoping for some time to rule in peace while they're all gallivanting around the kingdom.
First test: he wants a beautiful little dog. They have a year. Youngest prince hares about buying pretty dogs until he gets lost in a great wood and finds an enchanted castle, where he gets drugged and spends his year being entertained by a retinue of lovely cats. At the end of the year, he is reminded that he has to go back to the king with a dog, but the lady of the castle gives him an acorn with a tiny dog inside. Obviously the King thinks the tiny dog is a marvel, but he's still happy ruling, so...
Second test: a sheet of muslin thin and fine enough to draw through the eye of a needle. The prince is no slouch, and figures that if a tiny magic dog inside an acorn is no biggie, obviously this will be a piece of cake too, and besides this way he can spend his year being entertained by the Court of Cats and the lovely Lady of Cats. He does, they do, and a the end of the year, she gives him a walnut (but the cloth is actually inside a nested series of smaller nuts and seeds). Again, the other two princes have done amazingly well, and have actually found materials that can meet the condition, just barely, but the magic cloth is overwhelmingly amazing. The king is getting a bit worried, so he proposes a final test.
Last test: a beautiful princess to become queen. Prince heads back to the magic castle, and at the end of the year, the White Cat demands that if he loves her, and he wants to help her, he has to cut off her head. He does so, and voila! Beautiful enchanted princess! She tells her life story (Mom essentially went Rapunzel on the fairies, and they did the Rapunzel in the tower plot, but instead of the wandering in the woods blind ending, THAT Prince got eaten by a dragon, and the fairies turned the Princess into a White Cat when she refused their suggested suitor; the King of the Dwarves.) They both return to the old King, and glory be, she's got NINE kingdoms that she inherited from her parents, as well as scads of fairy wealth from her adopted parents, so the old King can continue with his own kingdom in peace, and she'll even give the other brothers their own kingdoms into the bargain.
Finis.
What I love most about this story is that instead of the Beauty and the Beast idea where a prince is changed into a beast through his own evil nature and must be "tamed" by love and kindness (his own or other's, depending on the story) this one has more of a Rapunzel flair to it, where the desires of the parents (and the subsequent stubborn refusal of the princess to marry the King of the Dwarves) are the cause of the transformation, and the Princess, although trapped as a cat, and restricted to the castle, is able to perform useful magics for the Prince, even if she can't break her own enchantment.
Now, as a story, I think it has some minor issues. It's pretty obviously sexist, and there are places where the story-book logic hangs a little bit thin, but overall it's delightful, rarely seen in picture books or in novelizations or adaptations, and has a beautiful castle filled with magical cats that fulfill wishes. What more could you want?
If I work on this story, I have a feeling I'm going to make the king's tests coincide with a set of tests from the White Cat to see if the prince is worthy (instead of just being told that he is worthy) to make a nice Weave of Words/Clever Anaeet parallel between the obviously bogus requests of the king to take up time and energy, and the actual clever and telling tests of the White Cat to show the prince's character and abilities.
I'm unsure about the brothers. On the one hand, it's nice to see siblings that get along well, but on the other hand it could be a nice callback to Cinderella to have step-siblings that dislike or try to sabotage the younger Prince.
Likewise, the backstory of the princess and how she got turned into a cat will be an interesting puzzle. The Rapunzel portion with her mother's cravings and her growing up with the fairies and then being locked into a tower is a full fairy-tale on it's own, and that's not even getting into the potential for storytelling that marrying the King of the Dwarves has. That part links back into Thumbelina thematically, with the girl not wanting to marry the mole and live forever in the dank darkness. Perhaps some of the "entertainments" that the cats present to the Prince can be these fairy tales acted out for him, and he slowly realizes that they're a history of someone.
I'm excited about this one, although part of me wants to save my creative energy here and try to create it as a longer novel or story. I just want to see it become more common and appreciated.
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