The Charles Perrault reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault (January 12, 1628 - May 16, 1703) was a French author.

Charles Perrault was born in Paris, France to a wealthy bourgeois family. He attended the best schools and studied law before embarking on a career in government service. He took part in the creation of the Academy of Sciences as well as the restoration of the Academy of Painting. When the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres was founded in 1663, Perrault was made secretary for life.

At the age of 55 he tried his hand at children's literature and in 1697 he wrote Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals, with the subtitle: Tales of Mother Goose. Its publication made him very popular and marked the beginnings of a new literary genre, the fairytale. He used images from around him such as the Chateau Ussé for Sleeping Beauty and in Puss-in-Boots, the Marquis of the Chateau d'Oiron.

Perrault's most famous stories are still in print today and have been made into operas, plays, movies and animated motion pictures by Disney Studios. Some of Perrault's best known stories are:

• La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty)
• Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood)
• Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard)
• Le Chat botté (Puss-in-Boots)
• Les Fées (The Fairies)
• Cendrillon (Cinderella)
• Ricquet à la houppe (Ricky of the Tuft)
• Le Petit Poucet (Little Thumb)

He took part in the French Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns (querelle des Anciens et des Modernes), which pitted supporters of the literature of Antiquity (the "Ancients") against supporters of the literature from the century of Louis XIV (the "Moderns"). He was on the side of the Moderns and wrote Le Siècle de Louis le Grand (The Century of Louis the Great, 1687) and Parallèle des Anciens et des Modernes (Parallel between Ancients and Moderns, 1688-1692).

Charles Perrault died in Paris.

A collection was published after his death, in 1781, with the title Contes (Tales). It is made of les Contes de ma mère l'Oye and of three tales in verse:

• Grisédélis
• Les Souhaits ridicules
• Peau d'âne (Donkey Skin)

His brother, Claude Perrault, is remembered as the architect of the severe east range of the Louvre, built in 1665 - 1680.

This is the "Charles Perrault" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.