Charles Perrault
Birth Name:
Charles Perrault
Birth Place:
Paris, France
Profession
Writer
Fast Facts
- Started out as a government worker in charge of royal buildings and was responsible for the creation of the Academy of Sciences and the restoration of the Academy of Painting
- Worked as the secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres when it opened in 1663, serving under Jean Baptiste Colbert
- Although he didn't create the stories of "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty," he was one of the first to put these and other orally-transmitted folk tales on paper in his "Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose" in 1697
- Best known as the author of the original "Tales of Mother Goose" and is often credited as the creator of the fairy tale genre
- His original "Tales of Mother Goose" includes the stories of "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Puss in Boots," and "Bluebeard․"
- One of his last published works was a French translation of the Latin poet Gabriele Faerno's "100 Fables" in 1699
- Was a member of the Académie Française and was involved in the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns, a French literary controversy that took place in the 17th century
- Advised Louis XIV to add 39 fountains, one for each of Aesop's fables, to the labyrinth of Versailles in 1669, and later wrote a guidebook for the labyrinth in 1677
- Born on January 12, 1628
- Despite often being credited as the creator of the modern fairy tale, it was actually Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville who came up with the phrase "fairy tale" in 1690, seven years before his collection was published
- Died on May 16, 1703
- His "Critique de l'Opéra," written in defense of the opera "Alceste," which was then an entirely new musical genre, was one of the documents that marked the beginning of the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns
Awards
- 2001Retro Hugo - Best Dramatic Presentation:Nominated