Charles Perrault (1628–1703)
Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé (Stories or Tales from Times Past)
Paris: Chez Claude Barbin, 1697
Rare Book Division
Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé (Stories or Tales from Times Past)
The earliest printed versions of “Sleeping Beauty,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Puss in Boots,” “Cinderella,” and several other beloved fairy tales appeared in this volume, Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé, better known in English by its translated subtitle, Tales of Mother Goose. The work was written by Charles Perrault, a functionary and leading intellectual within the court of Louis XIV of France.
Though remembered today as the author of Mother Goose, Perrault hardly invented the tales found within his pages: his stories were based on traditional French folktales that had been handed down orally for generations. Nevertheless, the primacy and stylistic flair of his volume have assured Perrault’s standing as the forefather of the modern fairy tale.
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