Charles Perrault – The Fairy tales writer

    Charles Perrault – The Fairy tales writer

Charles Perrault

   Charles Perrault was a French fairy tales writer in the second half of XVII century. He was one of the first writers in European literature, who turned his eyes to folklore. Charles Perrault was considered a leading intellectual of his time. He is now mostly remembered for his fairy-tale stories.

   Charles Perrault was born in Paris in 1628, in a wealthy bourgeois family. His parents were Pierre Perrault and Paquette Le Clerc. He was the seventh child of this family. The Perrault-family was wealthy and bourgeois which made it possible for Charles Perrault and his brother to attend the best schools. Charles Perrault attended good schools and studied law before embarking on a career in government service, following in the footsteps of his father and older brother Jean Perrault.

   When Charles Perrault was in school in Paris, he was always at the head of his class.  He enjoyed exercises in verse.  In the class of Philosophy, he was deeply interested to wrangling with his teacher and maintaining characteristically, that his arguments were better than other students.

   Charles Perrault and one of his friend soon planed a course of study for themselves, reading together as chance or taste directed.  In 1651, Charles Perrault took his licenses at Orleans, where degrees were granted with indecent readiness.  Charles Perrault and his friends wakened the learned doctors in the night, returned ridiculous answers to their questions, chinked their money in their bags,--and passed.  The same month they were all admitted to the Bar.  His legal reading was rough, and he proposed the idea of codifying the various customs; but the task waited for Napoleon.  Wearying of the Bar he accepted a place under his brother, Receiver-General (of taxes) of Paris. 

   Charles Perrault took part in the creation of the Academy of Sciences as well as the restoration of the Academy of Painting. And when the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Letters was founded in 1663, Perrault was appointed its secretary.

   In 1672 he got married to Marie Guichon, who died in 1678 after giving birth to a daughter and three sons.

   In 1691, Charles Perrault published anonymously his earliest attempt at storytelling, "La Marquise de Salusses, ou la Patience e Griselidis," the first of his many renditions of traditional fairy tales, which would enter into the classical literature of France, achieving popularity with both aristocratic and non-aristocratic audiences. 

   In 1695 he lost his post as secretary at the Academy. At the age of 67, after a twenty year career, he devoted himself to the education of his children.

   In 1697 Charles Perrault published a collection of tales and stories of the past with morals, named “Tales of Mothers Goose”, which contained eight well-chosen stories. The Tales of Mothers Goose was his best collection of his fairy tales. His stories often have morals, dealing with issues of achieving grace and beauty. They seem to idealize these characteristics as some of the most important a young woman could possess. Although he didn't invent any tales, he gave existing folk-tales fictional authenticity.

   Charles Perrault was died in Paris in 1703 at age 75.

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