Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault (1628-1703), French writer, born in Paris. He practised law for a time but after 1683 devoted himself to a literary career. His poem Siècle de Louis le Grand (The Age of Louis XIV, 1687), in which he argued that the arts and sciences had come to their full flowering in 17th-century France, sparked off a literary controversy; his point of view was opposed by those who upheld the superiority of ancient Greek and Roman culture. Perrault is best remembered, however, for the fairy tales, including such favourites as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, that he set down, from oral tradition, in Histories or Tales of Past Times (1697; trans. 1729). Based on the frontispiece to the original edition, which bore the inscription “Contes de ma mère l'oye”, these are also known as Tales of Mother Goose.