Have you ever wondered where the story of Sleeping Beauty came from, or Little Red Riding Hood, or Puss in Boots? These stories we love today all sprang from the fertile imagination of Charles Perrault, an official in the court of King Louis XIV. And while today such fairy tales are thought of as children’s stories, their original audience was none other than the aristocracy of France.
From Lawyer to Writer
Charles Perrault was born in 1628 to a wealthy bourgeois family. He trained as a lawyer but loved to write, and his poems honoring King Louis XIV brought him to the attention of the monarch. He was hired as the secretary to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis’ powerful minister, and became a fixture at the court. But after 20 years of service, Perrault retired and dedicated himself to writing.
Thus in 1697 appeared Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités (Stories or tales of the past, with morals). This was a collection of eight fairy tales, most of which have become classics: Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Hop ‘o My Thumb, Diamonds and Toads, and Ricky of the Tuft. Perrault’s book was so popular that it went through multiple printings in his lifetime, and today the stories are beloved worldwide.
Was Perrault the Real Author?
One question that scholars ask is, how could one man have come up with so many great stories? Did Perrault base them on existing folk tales, or perhaps something else?
Folk tales were probably not the source. Clapbooks were common at the time—inexpensive books aimed at a popular audience. They told simple tales in simple language and often reflected the folk tales of the day. But Perrault’s stories are not found among them.
What seems most likely is that he based his stories on older tales by medieval authors, and sometimes even the ancient Greeks. For example, Little Red Riding Hood bears a striking resemblance to the 14th-century Italian fable The False Grandmother. And history has many Cinderella-type stories, the first known one going all the way back to ancient Egypt and recorded by the Greeks as Rhodopis.
A Talented Pen
What sets Perrault’s tales apart from these earlier ones is his talent as an author. While he may have based his stories on earlier works, his pen brought them brilliantly to life. The court of Louis XIV loved fairy tales, and prized stories that were told with préciosité—refined language and great embellishments. This is where Perrault shined, writing for the most sophisticated audience in Europe. His stories were a hit with Louis’ court and found their way throughout France, and eventually Europe.
Part of the tales’ popularity, especially among the elite, is because they reinforced the morality of the day. The aristocracy was presented as superior to the sometimes-doltish peasants. Women had to be reminded of their place: Sleeping Beauty was punished for her curiosity with a century-long sleep. And in case anyone missed the lesson of “don’t talk to strangers,” in Perrault’s version of Little Red Riding Hood, when the wolf eats the little girl, the story ends!
Mother Goose
Perrault is also the father, so to speak, of Mother Goose. His book of fairy tales was subtitled Contes de ma mère l’Oye (Tales of my mother Goose) and the name of Mother Goose caught on. It became popular in Britain after Perrault’s book was translated there, then crossed the Atlantic to the United States. Mother Goose has been associated with children’s stories in the English-speaking world ever since.
So the next time you read Puss in Boots to your kids, or watch Disney’s Sleeping Beauty together, you can tell them that the story first entertained the most glittering court in Europe.
