Tales of Passed Times - Illustrated by Charles Robinson. Charles Perrault

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      Biography

      of

      Charles Perrault

      Charles Perrault was born on 12th January 1628. He was a French author and member of the Académie française, who laid the foundations for a new literary genre; the fairy tale. The best known of Perrault’s tales include Le Petit Chaperon (Little Red Riding Hood), Cendrillon (Cinderella), Le Chat Botté (Puss in Boots), La Belle au bois dormant (The Sleeping Beauty) and La Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard). Many of Perrault’s stories, which were re-written by the brothers Grimm, continue to be printed and have been adapted to opera, ballet (such as Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty), theatre and film (Walt Disney). Perrault was a highly influential figure in the seventeenth century French literary scene and was also the leader of the ‘Modern faction’ during the ‘Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.’

      Perrault was born into a wealthy bourgeois Parisian family, the seventh child of Pierre Perrault and Paquette Le Clerc. He attended good schools in the city and studied law before embarking on a career in government service (following in the footsteps of his father and older brother Jean). Perrault also took part in the creation of the Academy of Sciences as well as the restoration of the Academy of Painting. In 1654 he moved in with his brother Pierre, who had purchased a post as the principal tax collector of the city of Paris. ‘Buying’ official government roles was a common practice in seventeenth century France, as chances for self-aggrandizement were rife! Following on from this, when the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres was founded in 1663, Perrault was appointed as its secretary, and served under Jean Baptiste Colbert (finance minister to Louis XIV).

      In 1668 Perrault wrote La Peinture (Painting) to honour the King’s first painter, Charles Le Brun. He also wrote Courses de testes et de Bague (Head and Ring Races, 1670) to commemorate the 1662 celebrations staged by Louis for his mistress, Louise-Françoise de La Baume le Blanc, duchesse de La Vallière. Perrault himself got married in 1672, to СКАЧАТЬ