Charles Perrault

French Fairy Tales

Outline Introduction Part I. Part I. His life and work Part II. Le chat botté Part III. Cinderella Part IV. Little Red Conclusion References

Introduction Charles Perrault, a French writer during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715) A collection of tales from 1697 made him suddenly widely-known beyond his own circles and marked the beginnings of a new literary genre, the fairy tale Perrault's tales were mostly adapted from earlier folk tales in the milieu of stylish literary salons in the 1690s Perrault's most famous stories are still in print today and have been made into operas, plays, films and animated motion pictures

Part I. His life and work Charles Perrault, French writer born in Paris to a wealthy bourgeois family in 1628 He took part in the creation of the Academy of Sciences as well as the restoration of the Academy of Painting When the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres was founded in 1663, Perrault appointed its secretary for life He became a member of the Académie française in 1671 He took part in the French Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns; He was on the side of the Moderns and wrote The Century of Louis the Great, 1687 Perrault died in Paris in 1703

Part I. His life and work Histoires ou contes du temps passé [stories or tales of olden times], collection of tales subtitled Contes de ma mère L’Oye [tales of mother goose]. This name traced to Queen Goosefoot, Charlemagne’s mother (Bertrada), who was a patron of children. The collection includes 8 tales: La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty); Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood); Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard); Le Chat botté (Puss-in-Boots); Les Fées (The Fairies); Cendrillon (Cinderella); Ricquet à la houppe (Ricky of the Tuft); Le Petit Poucet (Tom Thumb) A collection was published after his death, in 1781, with the title Contes (Tales). It is made of les Contes de ma mère l'Oie and of three tales in verse: Grisédélis; Les Souhaits ridicules; Peau d'âne (Donkey Skin)

Part II. Le chat botté Perrault took Puss in Boots from a French edition of Straparola's Pleasant Nights. In 1551, the Venetian Gian Francesco Straparola (1480-1555) published Le Piacevoli Notti (The Pleasant Nights) The story of Costantino Fortunato, a poor boy, a princess, and a talking cat that cleverly brought about their marriage is included in this book Perrault: a cunning cat brings great fortune to its master, a poor young man. Through a series of deceptions managed by the cat, the young man becomes a lord and marries the king's daughter

Le Chat botté is a strange story: a cat, in order to help his master, cheats, lies, kills other animals, threatens people, kills the owner of a castle, and finally steals his property

Shrek 2 (2004) The cat is considered the obvious choice for assassinating Shrek, who is an ogre, because Puss has killed a notorious ogre before. He is Spanish instead of French—El Gato con Botas instead of Le Chat Botté. This is meant to strike a parallel with Zorro.

Part III. Cinderella Cinderella, a young girl, is forced by her stepmother and stepsisters to do heavy housework One evening, when the prince of the kingdom is holding a ball, Cinderella's fairy godmother visits her, magically dresses her for the ball, turns a pumpkin into a magnificent carriage for her, warns her not to stay past midnight, and sends her off Cinderella captivates the prince at the ball but leaves just as midnight is striking, and in her haste she drops a glass slipper The prince searches throughout the kingdom for the owner of the slipper. Cinderella is the only one whom it fits, and the prince marries her

Cendrillon The earliest version of the story in China around AD 860 in The Miscellaneous Record of You Yang (酉阳杂俎) by Tuan Ch'eng-Shih, from the Tang Dynasty. The best-known version was written by Perrault in 1697

Walt Disney’s Cinderella-1950

Ever After A 1998 film adaptation of the romantic fairy tale Cinderella, directed by Andy Tennant and starring Drew Barrymore in the title role

IV. Little Red Riding Hood The French story had as its subject an "attractive, well-bred young lady", a village girl of the country She is deceived into giving a wolf she encountered the information he needed to successfully find her grandmother's house and eat the old woman At the same time she avoids being noticed by woodcutters working in the nearby forest Then he proceeded to lay a trap for the Red Riding Hood. The latter ends up eaten by the wolf and there the story ends The wolf emerges the victor of the encounter and there is no happy ending

Little Red was told by French peasants in the 14th century Little Red was told by French peasants in the 14th century. For example in La finta nonna (The False Grandmother), an early Italian version, the young girl uses her own cunning to beat the wolf in the end

Little Red

Conclusion Charles Perrault is remembered today for a collection of tales he published in 1697 These stories were adapted from earlier folk tales (French folktales of the Middle Ages or Italian tales; for example by Giambattista Basile) The earliest of what came to be regarded as children's literature was first meant for adults In France, they were read in the stylish literary salons of the 1690s Most of these tales contain a moral, even if some of the stories, like Puss in Boots, sound very immoral

References http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/perrault.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perrault http://www.ucalgary.ca/%7Edkbrown/cinderella.html http://www.biblioweb.org/-PERRAULT-Charles-.html