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Charles PerraultFrench poet, critic, storyteller, creator of the images of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Thumb, Puss in Boots... He was a lawyer in Paris, served in the fiscal (tax) department.
Date of Birth: 12.01.1628
Country:  France |
Content:
Biography of Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault (January 12, 1628, Paris - May 16, 1703, ibid) was a French poet, critic, and storyteller. He is known for creating characters such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, and Puss in Boots.
Early Life and Career
Perrault was born into a bourgeois-civil servant family and studied law before working at the court. His first literary attempts were love poems, followed by his parody poem "Les Murs de Troie ou l'Origine de la Burlesque" (1653). He wrote allegorical poems, odes, and epistles in the style of gallant court poetry.
As a member of the "Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes" (Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns), Perrault defended the superiority of contemporary writers over the ancients in his poem "Le Siècle de Louis le Grand" (The Century of Louis the Great, 1687) and his dialogues "Parallèles des Anciens et des Modernes en ce qui regarde les Arts et les Sciences" (Parallels of the Ancients and the Moderns in Regard to Arts and Sciences).
The Fairy Tales
Perrault gained fame with his collection "Histoires ou contes de temps passé, avec des moralités" (Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals, 1697), which included his well-known fairy tales. These magical tales drew from folk traditions and were often passed down orally. Different versions of the same story exist in various countries, influenced by the inspiration, cultural, and social context of the storyteller.
Perrault's great contribution was selecting several stories from the mass of folk tales and fixing their plots, which were not yet finalized. He gave them a tone, climate, and style characteristic of the 17th century, yet very personal. Perrault contrasted the classical tradition with folk tales ("Little Red Riding Hood," "Tom Thumb," etc.) and integrated them into the literary genres.
Legacy
The first Russian translation of Perrault's tales dates back to 1768 ("Tales of Enchantresses with Morals"). The tale "Puss in Boots" was translated by V.A. Zhukovsky in 1845. Perrault's tales have inspired numerous adaptations, including Gioachino Rossini's opera "Cinderella," Béla Bartók's opera "Duke Bluebeard's Castle," Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "Sleeping Beauty," Sergei Prokofiev's ballet "Cinderella," and more.
