Charles Perrault

(1628 - 1703)

Born on January 12. Perrault's great merit is that he chose from the masses folk tales several stories and recorded their plot, which has not yet become final. He gave them a tone, a climate, a style that was characteristic of the 17th century, and yet very personal.

Among the storytellers who “legalized” the fairy tale in serious literature, the very first and honorable place is given to the French writer Charles Perrault. Few of our contemporaries know that Perrault was a venerable poet of his time, an academician of the French Academy, the author of famous scientific works. But it was not his thick, serious books that brought him worldwide fame and recognition from his descendants, but wonderful tales"Cinderella", "Puss in Boots", "Bluebeard".

Charles Perrault was born in 1628. The boy's family was concerned about the education of their children, and at the age of eight, Charles was sent to college. As historian Philippe Ariès notes, school biography Perrault is a biography of a typical excellent student. During their training, neither he nor his brothers were ever beaten with rods - an exceptional case at that time.

After college, Charles takes private law lessons for three years and eventually receives a law degree.

At twenty-three he returns to Paris and begins his career as a lawyer. Perrault's literary activity occurred at a time when high society a fashion for fairy tales appears. Reading and listening to fairy tales is becoming one of the most common hobbies secular society, comparable only to the reading of detective stories by our contemporaries. Some prefer to listen philosophical tales, others pay tribute to ancient fairy tales, passed down in the retellings of grandmothers and nannies. Writers, trying to satisfy these demands, write down fairy tales, processing plots familiar to them from childhood, and the oral fairy tale tradition gradually begins to turn into a written one.

However, Perrault did not dare to publish the fairy tales under his own name, and the book he published bore the name of his eighteen-year-old son, P. Darmancourt. He feared that, with all the love for “fairy-tale” entertainment, writing fairy tales would be perceived as a frivolous activity, casting a shadow with its frivolity on the authority of a serious writer.

Perrault's fairy tales are based on famous folklore plot, which he presented with his characteristic talent and humor, omitting some details and adding new ones, “ennobling” the language. Most of all, these tales were suitable for children. And it is Perrault who can be considered the founder of world children's literature and literary pedagogy.

Charles Perrault: childhood of a storyteller.

The boys sat down on a bench and began to discuss the current situation - what to do next. They knew one thing for sure: they would never return to the boring college. But you need to study. Charles heard this from his childhood from his father, who was a lawyer at the Paris Parliament. And his mother was an educated woman; she herself taught her sons to read and write. When Charles entered college at the age of eight and a half, his father checked his lessons every day; he had great respect for books, learning, and literature. But only at home, with your father and brothers, you could argue, defend your point of view, but in college you had to cram, you just had to repeat after the teacher, and God forbid you argue with him. For these arguments, Charles was kicked out of class.

No, never set foot in the disgusting college again! What about education? The boys racked their brains and decided: we’ll learn on our own. Right there in the Luxembourg Gardens they drew up a schedule and began implementing it the next day.

Borin came to Charles at 8 in the morning, they studied together until 11, then had lunch, rested and studied again from 3 to 5. The boys read ancient authors together, studied the history of France, learned Greek and Latin, in a word, those subjects that they would take and in college.

“If I know anything,” Charles wrote many years later, “I owe it solely to these three or four years of study.”

We don’t know what happened to the second boy named Boren, but the name of his friend is now known to everyone - his name was Charles Perrault. And the story you just learned took place in 1641, under Louis XIV, the “Sun King” in the days of curled wigs and musketeers. It was then that the one we know as a great storyteller lived. True, he himself did not consider himself a storyteller, and sitting with a friend in the Luxembourg Gardens, he did not even think about such trifles.

The essence of this dispute was this. In the 17th century, the opinion still reigned that ancient writers, poets and scientists created the most perfect, most best works. The “new” ones, that is, Perrault’s contemporaries, can only imitate the ancients; they are still not capable of creating anything better. The main thing for a poet, playwright, scientist is the desire to be like the ancients. Perrault’s main opponent, the poet Nicolas Boileau, even wrote a treatise “The Art of Poetry,” in which he established “laws” for how to write each work, so that everything would be exactly like the ancient writers. This is what the desperate debater Charles Perrault began to object to.

Why should we imitate the ancients? - he was surprised. Are modern authors: Corneille, Moliere, Cervantes worse? Why quote Aristotle in every scientific work? Are Galileo, Pascal, Copernicus inferior to him? After all, Aristotle’s views were long outdated; he did not know, for example, about blood circulation in humans and animals, and did not know about the movement of planets around the Sun.

Creation

Charles Perrault, now we call him a storyteller, but in general during his lifetime (he was born in 1628, died in 1703). Charles Perrault was known as a poet and publicist, dignitary and academician. He was a lawyer, the first clerk of the French Minister of Finance Colbert.

When Colbert founded the Académie de France in 1666, one of its first members was Charles's brother, Claude Perrault, whom Charles had recently helped win a competition to design the façade of the Louvre. A few years later, Char Perrault was also accepted into the Academy, and he was assigned to head the work on the “General Dictionary of the French Language”.

The story of his life is both personal and social, and politics mixed with literature, and literature, as if divided into what glorified Charles Perrault over the centuries - fairy tales, and what remained transient. For example, Perrault became the author of the poem “The Age of Louis the Great,” in which he glorified his king, but also the work “Great Men of France,” the voluminous “Memoirs,” and so on and so forth. In 1695, a collection of poetic tales by Charles Perrault was published.

But the collection “Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings” was published under the name of Charles Perrault’s son Pierre de Armancourt - Perrault. It was the son who, in 1694, on the advice of his father, began to write down folk tales. Pierre Perrault died in 1699. In his memoirs, written a few months before his death (he died in 1703), Charles Perrault does not write anything about who was the author of the fairy tales or, more precisely, the literary record.

These memoirs, however, were published only in 1909, and twenty years after the death of the writer, academician and storyteller, in the 1724 edition of the book “Tales of Mother Goose” (which, by the way, immediately became a bestseller), authorship was first attributed to Charles Perrault alone . In a word, there are many “blank spots” in this biography. The fate of the storyteller himself and his fairy tales, written in collaboration with his son Pierre, is described in such detail for the first time in Russia in Sergei Boyko's book "Charles Perrault" ".

Charles Perrault (1628-1703) was the first writer in Europe to introduce folk tales into children's literature. Unusual for French writer In the “age of classicism,” interest in oral folk art is associated with the progressive position that Perrault took in the literary polemics of his time. In France in the 17th century, classicism was the dominant, officially recognized movement in literature and art. Followers of classicism considered the works of ancient (ancient Greek and especially Roman) classics to be exemplary in all respects and worthy of imitation. At the court of Louis XIV, a real cult of antiquity flourished. Court painters and poets, using mythological subjects or images of heroes ancient history, glorified the victory of royal power over feudal disunity, the triumph of reason and moral duty over passions and feelings individual, glorified the noble monarchical state, which united the nation under its auspices.

Later, when the absolute power of the monarch began to come into increasing conflict with the interests of the third estate, opposition sentiments intensified in all areas of public life. Attempts were made to revise the principles of classicism with its unshakable “rules”, which had already turned into a dead dogma and hampered the further development of literature and art. At the end of the 17th century, a dispute broke out among French writers about the superiority of ancient and modern authors. Opponents of classicism stated that new and recent authors are superior to the ancients, if only because they have a broader outlook and knowledge. You can learn to write well without imitating the ancients.

One of the instigators of this historical dispute was Charles Perrault, a prominent royal official and poet, elected in 1671 to a member of the French Academy. Coming from a bourgeois-bureaucratic family, a lawyer by training, he successfully combined his official career with literary work. In the four-volume series of dialogues “Parallels between the ancient and the modern in matters of art and science” (1688-1697), Perrault urged writers to turn to the depiction of modern life and modern morals, and advised them to draw plots and images not from ancient authors, but from the surrounding reality.

To prove he was right, Perpo decided to start processing folk tales, seeing in them a source of interesting, lively plots, “good morals” and “characteristic features folk life" Thus, the writer showed great courage and innovation, since fairy tales did not appear at all in the system of literary genres recognized by the poetics of classicism.

In 1697, Charles Perrault, under the name of his son Pierre Perrault d'Armancourt, published a small collection entitled "Tales of My Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Instructions." The collection consisted of eight fairy tales: “Sleeping Beauty”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Bluebeard”, “Puss in Boots”, “Fairies”, “Cinderella”, “Rike with the Tuft” and “Tom Thumb”. In subsequent editions, the collection was replenished with three more fairy tales: “Donkey Skin”, “Funny Desires” and “Griselda”. Since the last work is typical for that time literary story in verse (the plot is borrowed from Boccaccio’s “Decameron”), we can consider that Perrault’s collection consists of ten fairy tales 3. Perrault adhered quite closely to folklore plots. It was possible to trace each of his tales to a primary source existing among the people. At the same time, by presenting folk tales in his own way, the writer clothed them in a new artistic form and largely changed their original meaning. Therefore, Perrault’s fairy tales, although they retain a folklore basis, are works of independent creativity, that is, literary fairy tales.

In the preface, Perrault argues that fairy tales are “not trifles at all.” The main thing in them is morality. “All of them are intended to show what are the advantages of honesty, patience, foresight, diligence and obedience, and what misfortunes befall those who deviate from these virtues.”

Each of Perrault's fairy tales ends with a moral lesson in verse, artificially bringing the fairy tale closer to the fable - a genre accepted with some reservations by the poetics of classicism. Thus, the author wanted to “legitimize” the fairy tale in the system of recognized literary genres. At the same time, ironic moral teaching, not related to the folklore plot, introduces a certain critical tendency into the literary fairy tale - with a view to sophisticated readers.

Little Red Riding Hood was unreasonable and paid dearly for it. Hence the moral: young girls should not trust “wolves.”

For small children, not without reason (And especially for girls, beauties and spoiled girls), Meeting all kinds of men on the way, You cannot listen to insidious speeches, - Otherwise, the wolf may eat them...

Bluebeard's wife almost became a victim of her excessive curiosity. This gives rise to the maxim:

A woman’s passion for immodest secrets is funny: It is known that what was dearly acquired will instantly lose both taste and sweetness.

Fairy-tale heroes are surrounded by a bizarre mixture of folk and aristocratic life. Simplicity and artlessness are combined with secular courtesy, gallantry, and wit. Healthy practicality, a sober mind, dexterity, and resourcefulness of a plebeian prevail over aristocratic prejudices and conventions, which the author never tires of making fun of. With the help of a clever rascal, Puss in Boots, a village boy marries a princess. The brave and resourceful Little Thumb defeats the cannibal giant and becomes one of the people. The patient, hard-working Cinderella marries the prince. Many fairy tales end in “unequal” marriages. Patience and hard work, meekness and obedience receive the highest reward from Perrault. At the right moment, the good fairy comes to the aid of the heroine, who copes with her duties excellently: punishes vice and rewards virtue.

Magical transformations and happy endings have always been characteristic of folk tales. Perrault expresses his thoughts with the help of traditional motifs, colors the fairy-tale fabric with psychological patterns, introduces new images and realistic everyday scenes that are absent in folklore prototypes. Cinderella's sisters, having received an invitation to the ball, dress up and preen themselves. “I,” said the eldest, “I’ll wear a red velvet dress with lace trim.” “And I,” said the younger one, “I’ll be in a simple skirt, but I’ll wear a mantilla with gold flowers and a diamond headdress, and such a headdress is not everywhere.” there will be." They sent for a skilled craftswoman to fit them into double-flounced caps, and bought flies. The sisters called Cinderella to ask her opinion: after all, she had good taste.” Even more everyday details in “Sleeping Beauty”. Along with a description of various details of palace life, housekeepers, ladies-in-waiting, chambermaids, gentlemen, butlers, gatekeepers, pages, footmen, etc. are mentioned here. Sometimes Perrault reveals the darker sides of his contemporary reality. At the same time, his own moods are guessed. The woodcutter and his large family live in poverty and starve. Only once did they manage to have a hearty dinner, when “the lord who owned the village sent them ten crowns, which he owed them for a long time and which they no longer hoped to receive” (“The Boy With Thumb”). Puss in Boots intimidates the peasants with the loud name of the imaginary feudal lord: “Good people, reapers! If you don’t say that all these fields belong to Monsieur Marquis de Caraba, you will all be finely minced, like pie meat.”

Perrault's fairy-tale world, for all its apparent naivety, is complex and deep enough to not only captivate a child's imagination, but also influence an adult reader. The author put a rich supply of life observations into his fairy tales. If a fairy tale like “Little Red Riding Hood” is extremely simple in content and style, then, for example, “Rike with the Tuft” is distinguished by its psychologically subtle and serious concept. The witty small talk between the ugly Rike and the beautiful princess allows the author to reveal in a casually entertaining way moral idea: love ennobles a person’s heroic traits.”

Perrault's subtle irony, elegant style, and cheerful moral teachings helped his fairy tales take a place in “high” literature. Borrowed from the treasury of French folklore, “Tales of My Mother Goose” returned to the people, polished and faceted. When processed by the master, they glowed with bright colors and took on a new life.

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Tales of Charles Perrault list represents full meeting all works of the author. Charles Perrault's fairy tales are very instructive to read to children, as they teach goodness and immerse them in the world of magic and fantasy. We have collected all the fairy tales of Charles Perrault on this page.

In Russian, Charles Perrault's fairy tales were first published in Moscow in 1768 under the title “Tales of Sorceresses with Moral Teachings.”

Tales of Charles Perrault list, titles

• Cinderella, or the glass slipper
• Donkey skin
• Thumb Boy
• Bluebeard

Biography of Charles Perrault

Born into the family of the judge of the Parisian Parliament, Pierre Perrault, he was the youngest of his seven children (his twin brother Francois was born with him, who died 6 months later). Of his brothers, Claude Perrault was a famous architect, author east facade Louvre (1665-1680).

Charles Perrault studied at the Beauvais University College, which, however, he left before finishing his studies. He bought a lawyer's license, but soon, bored with the judicial position, he became a clerk to his brother, the architect Claude Perrault, and gained the confidence of Jean Colbert, so that in the 1660s he largely determined the policy of the court of Louis XIV in the field of arts. Thanks to Colbert, in 1663 he was appointed secretary of the newly formed Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Letters; he was also the Surintendent's general controller of the royal buildings. After the death of Colbert (1683), Charles Perrault fell out of favor and lost the pension paid to him as a writer, and in 1695 he also lost his position as secretary.

Tales of Charles Perrault

In 1697, Charles Perrault published the collection “Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Instructions.” The collection contained 9 fairy tales, which were literary adaptations of folk tales (believed to have been heard from the nurse of Perrault’s son) - except for one (“Riquet the Tuft”), composed by Perrault himself. This book widely glorified Charles Perrault outside the literary circle. In fact, Charles Perrault introduced the folk tale into the system of genres of “high” literature.

“Fairy tales” contributed to the democratization of literature and influenced the development of the world fairy tale tradition (brothers W. and J. Grimm, L. Tieck, G. H. Andersen). It is interesting that Charles Perrault published his fairy tales not under own name, and under the name of his 19-year-old son Perrault d’Armancourt, trying to protect his already established reputation from accusations of working with a “low” genre. Perrault’s son, who added to his surname the name of the Armancourt castle purchased by his father, tried to get a job as a secretary for “Mademoiselle” (the king’s niece, Princess of Orleans), to whom the book was dedicated.

The operas “Cinderella” by G. Rossini, “The Castle of Duke Bluebeard” by B. Bartok, the ballets “The Sleeping Beauty” by P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Cinderella” by S. S. Prokofiev and others were created based on the plots of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales.

It is also known that Charles Perrault collected folk tales in an attempt to “protect” and preserve them. The sources, unfortunately, are little known. Perhaps the well-known problem of similarities between different fairy tales is solved this way: different fairy tale collectors became interested in one fairy tale and took it into their collection. This is how the similarity between the fairy tales came about. For example: “The Sleeping Beauty” by Charles Perrault and “Rose Hip” by the Brothers Grimm. These writers were collectors of fairy tales and took one folk tale for the collection. This is how these similarities came out.

Reading time: 5 min

Charles Perrault is not only a storyteller! And his biography is full of intrigues, secrets and tragedies - late marriage, death of his wife, criminal sentence of his son. And worldwide fame.

What else should I read?"Asteroid" Lindgren and the great Carlson

For almost forty years, Charles Perrault compiled the “Universal Dictionary French" In the book " Famous people France XVII century"described more than a hundred biographies of famous scientists, poets, doctors, artists - Descartes, Moliere, Richelieu. Oversaw the construction of Versailles and the Louvre and the production of tapestries. But the whole world knows him from fairy tales. We know the stories of Puss in Boots and Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard and Thumb in his presentation. January 12 is the 390th anniversary of the birth of the great writer, who initially wrote his fairy tales in secret.

Fairy tale "Mr. Cat, or Puss in Boots." The first handwritten and illustrated edition of the collection “Tales of Mother Goose”, 1695

Charles Perrault the child prodigy

Charles Perrault was the youngest of six children of the judge of the Parisian Parliament, Pierre Perrault. His twin brother Francois died at 6 months. And there were already five of them. Due to a conflict with teachers, Charles left the Faculty of Arts, and in a couple of years he himself learned the entire college curriculum, which included Greek and Latin, the history of France, and ancient literature.

Portrait of a young Charles Perrault

Family connections

At 22, Charles Perrault received a law degree. But jurisprudence quickly became boring. And then the elder brother Claude, one of the first members of the French Academy of Sciences, a famous architect, the author of the eastern facade of the Louvre and the Paris Observatory, took Charles to his place.

In 1654, their brother Pierre acquired the position of tax collector. And Charles went to work for him as a clerk, staying for 10 years. All his free time he studied books from the library purchased from the heirs of the Abbé de Cerisy, a member of the French Academy.

What else should I read? How Tolkien made a fairy tale come true

Charles Perrault in the service of His Majesty

Then he was noticed by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the future powerful minister of Louis XIV. Colbert made Charles his secretary and adviser. Introduced writers into the Committee. Perrault was appointed Secretary General of the Intendance of Royal Buildings. At the age of 43 he was elected a member of the French Academy, and in 1678 he became its chairman. But after the death of his patron, both the writer’s pension and the position of secretary were taken away from him.

10 francs with a portrait of Colbert

Belated personal life

Busy with his career, Charles Perrault married late, at 44. His wife, Marie, was 25 years younger. They had three sons and a daughter. After 6 years, his wife died suddenly of smallpox, and he began to write religious works: “Adam and the Creation of the World”, “St. Paul”. He raised children and never married again.

Charles Perrault tried to regain the monarch's favor by dedicating odes to him. For example, like this:

It is decent to honor glorious antiquity, without a doubt!

But she doesn't inspire me with awe,

I am not inclined to belittle the greatness of the ancients,

But there is no need to deify the great ones either.

And the age of Louis, without arrogance,

I dare to compare now with the age of Augustus...

Charles Perrault writes his main fundamental book, “Parallels between the ancient and the modern in matters of art and science.” That the ancient heritage is no better than modern French literature. That the king's legacy can outshine the works of bygone antique, dust-covered times. But the overlord ignored his literary criticisms and his career did not progress.

What else should I read? David Cherkassky and the history of masterpieces - Vrungel, Treasure Island and Aibolit

A fairytale career triumphed over a political one

As a single father, Charles Perrault was passionate about fairy tales. He read them to his children at night, often inventing stories based on folk adventures already known to them. Why not publish these wonderful things? And so the respected academician, trying to protect himself from accusations of working with a “low” genre, publishes the collection “Tales of Mother Goose” under the name of his 19-year-old son Pierre d’Armancourt.

This surname appeared with his father’s acquisition of the Armancourt castle, so that his son’s dream would come true and he could become the secretary of “Mademoiselle” (the king’s niece, the Princess of Orleans). For career purposes, they dedicated this book of fairy tales to her.

Elizabeth Charlotte de Bourbon-Orleans, Mademoiselle de Chartres, to whom the first book of Perrault's fairy tales was dedicated

Seven of the published fairy tales were literary adaptations of folk tales, allegedly heard by Charles from his son’s nurse, and he invented the 8th, “Rike the Tuft,” himself. It was about a gnome-like prince with tufted bangs who gives intelligence to the one he loves. And the chosen one gave him beauty in return.

An early edition of "Tales of Mother Goose" with a portrait of Charles Perrault

In Little Red Riding Hood, contemporaries recognized Perrault's daughter, the kind, pure and innocent Françoise, who passed away at the age of 13.

By the way, the ending of this fairy tale was initially tragic - both Riding Hood and Grandma died:

For small children, not without reason

(And especially for girls,

Beauties and pampered girls),

On the way, meeting all kinds of men,

You can’t listen to insidious speeches -

Otherwise the wolf might eat them.

But people “reworked” the fairy tale, throwing out the morality written by Charles and adding a hippie ending.

The prototype of Bluebeard was Marshal Gilles de Rais, who was executed in 1440 in Nantes. And the Sleeping Beauty Castle is the Chateau d'Usset on the Loire. Today, wax figures are exhibited there, immersing tourists in the atmosphere of a fairy tale.

The Castle of Usset on the Loire became the prototype of the Sleeping Beauty Castle

Fairy-tale characters of Charles Perrault, speaking in language ordinary people, taught to overcome difficulties and show ingenuity. From folklore he made literary masterpieces that instantly gained fans in palaces. Fairy tales became a hobby of secular society along with balls and hunting.

Instead of prison - to war

Perrault's life was derailed by the tragedy of his son, who went to prison for murder. In a fight, he mortally wounded a neighbor with a sword. Using all his connections and money, his father bought him the rank of lieutenant in the royal troops. And instead of prison, Pierre went to one of the wars that Louis XIV was then waging. And he died. Charles Perrault died 4 years later, in 1703, according to some sources - in his castle of Rosier, according to others - in Paris. He quoted his patron Colbert: “The state enriches only trade and industry, but war, even a victorious one, ruins”...

Charles Perrault: biography and fairy tales for children

Charles Perrault: biography of the writer for adults and children, entertaining stories about the creation of fairy tales by Charles Perrault, audio fairy tales for children. Cognitive interesting video for children about the biography of the storyteller.

Who wrote the fairy tales of Charles Perrault? How do Charles Perrault's fairy tales differ from the modern children's versions we know? How did Charles Perrault become a children's writer?

Biography of Charles Perrault (1628-1703)

In this article you will find:

— biography Charles Perrault - short, understandable, accessible and interesting for adults and children,
- entertaining and amazing facts And the history of the creation of fairy tales by Charles Perrault,

— educational video for children about the biography of Charles Perrault,
— original texts by the author and how they differ from modern children’s texts known to us,
— bibliography about the life and work of Charles Perrault for adults and children,
— list of fairy tales Charles Perrault alphabetical order,
— filmstrips for children based on the tales of Charles Perrault .

A story about Charles Perrault... You are probably expecting at the beginning of this article a story about how Charles Perrault dreamed of becoming a storyteller since childhood and how he consciously came to the decision to write fairy tales for children that have been known for more than 300 years? But everything in his life was completely different.

And Charles Perrault was not a storyteller at all, a.. an eloquent lawyer, scientist and poet, architect at the king’s court in the department of royal buildings, member of the French Academy. He was a courtier, accustomed to shining in high society, and not at all a children's writer.

How did he write his still beloved children's fairy tales? What family did you grow up in? What kind of education did you receive? Did he even write fairy tales? Yes, we still don’t know for sure whether Charles Perrault really wrote the fairy tales we know about Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood or if it wasn’t him at all. And if someone else wrote them, then who is the unknown author? More on this in the article below.

Portrait of Charles Perrault

Biography of Charles Perrault: childhood and youth

Charles Perrault, now known to all adults and children as the author of “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Puss in Boots”, “Rike with the Tuft”, “Tom Thumb” and other fairy tales, born more than 350 years ago - in the city of Tournai on January 12, 1628. They say that at birth the baby screamed so that it could be heard at the other end of the block, announcing to the whole world about his birth.

Charles Perrault grew up in a wealthy, educated family. Charles Pierrot's grandfather was a wealthy merchant in Turin. Charles's father, Pierre Pierrot, received an excellent education and was a lawyer in the Parisian parliament. Charles Perrault's mother came from a noble family. As a child, Charles Perrault lived for a long time on his mother’s estate - in the village of Viry, from where the images of his “village” fairy tales may have originated.

The family had many children. Charles had five brothers. One brother, François, Charles’s twin, died before he was a year old. Researchers in the biography of Charles Perrault claim that his shadow haunted Charles throughout his life and greatly disturbed him in childhood. That was until Charles made friends in college with the boy Borin, who helped “lift Francois’s spell” and became his true friend, about whom they say “you can’t spill water” and actually replaced his departed twin brother. After this, Charles became more confident and more successful in his studies.

The four Pierrot brothers, like Charles Pierrot, will become worthy people in the future and occupy important positions
- Jean will become a lawyer,
- Pierre - tax collector in Paris,
- Claude was admitted to the Academy of Sciences, became an architect, built the Paris Observatory and the Louvre Colonnade, created decorations for the Versailles Cathedral, practiced medicine,
— Nicolas wanted to become a professor at the Sorbonne, but did not have time, since he lived only 38 years. He taught theology.

All Pierrot brothers, including Charles, graduated from Beauvais College. Charles Perrault entered this college at the age of 8 and graduated from the Faculty of Arts. There are different opinions about how young Charles studied. And all these opinions are very contradictory. Some say that he studied very poorly, others that he was a brilliant student. Are there any facts? Yes, I have. It is known that in the early years Charles Perrault did not shine with success in his studies, but then everything changed dramatically when he became friends with a boy named Borain. This friendship had a very positive influence on Charles, he became one of the best students and, together with his friend, developed his own system of classes - such that he even surpassed the program in history, Latin and French.

In those years, literature was just a hobby for a young college student, Charles Perrault. During his first year at college, he began composing his first poems, poems and comedies. Composed literary works his brothers. The Perrault brothers communicated with the leading writers of the time (Chanlin, Moliere, Corneille, Boileau) in the then fashionable salons and introduced him to the best writers of that time.

Biography of Charles Perrault: adult years

Charles Perrault, at the insistence of his father, first worked as a lawyer, and then went to work for his brother, in his department as a tax collector. He diligently pursued his career, and did not even think about literature as a serious occupation. He became rich, strong, influential. He became an adviser to the king and the chief inspector of buildings, headed the Committee of Writers and the department of the Glory of the King (there was such a department, now it would probably be called the “king’s PR department” at that time :)).

At the age of 44, Charles married young Marie Pichon, she was 18 years old at the time. They had 4 children. There are different opinions about Charles’s family life, and again contradictory ones. Some biographers of Charles write about his tender love for his wife and family, others have the opposite opinion. They lived family life not for long - only six years. Charles Pierrot's wife died quite early - at the age of 24 - from smallpox. At that time it was impossible to cure this disease. After this, Charles Perrault raised his children himself - three sons - and never married again.

The literary life of Charles Perrault

What kind of era was this - the era of the life of Charles Perrault– in development French literature and cultural life of this country? She is well known to us from Dumas' novels. At this time there was a war between England and France. And at the same time there was a flourishing of classicism in French literature. Let's compare the dates: around the same time, Jean-Baptiste Moliere (1622), Jacques La Fontaine (1621), Jean Racine (1639), Pierre Corneille, the father of French tragedy (1606), were born. Around Pierrot the heyday of literature flourishes - the “golden age” French classicism. There is no interest in the fairy tale yet and will appear only in a hundred years; the fairy tale is considered a “low” genre, “serious” writers do not pay attention to it at all.

At the end of the 17th century, there was a dispute in literature between the “ancients” and the “new”. The “Ancients” argued that literature had already reached perfection in ancient times. The “new” ones said that modern writers They are already discovering and will continue to discover to humanity something completely new in art, previously unknown. Pierrot became the “leader” of the new ones. In 1697 he wrote a four-volume study, The Parallel between the Ancients and the Moderns. What can be contrasted with ancient antiquity? The same ancient folk tale!

Perrault said in his work: “Look around! And you will see that it is possible to enrich the content and form of art without imitating ancient models.” Here are his words about ancient and modern times:

Antiquity, no doubt, is venerable and beautiful,
But we got used to falling on our faces before her in vain:
After all, even the ancient great minds -
Not inhabitants of heaven, but people like us.
And the century of Louis and the century of Augustus
Let me compare without being a boastful person. […]
If only someone in our age would dare to
Remove the veil of prejudice from your eyes
And look into the past calmly, with a sober look,
That with perfections he would see next to
There are many weaknesses, - and I finally realized
That antiquity is not a model for us in everything,
And no matter how much they tell us about it in schools,
In many ways, we have long been ahead of the ancients.
(Charles Perrault, translation by I. Shafarenko)

Charles Perrault as the author of famous children's fairy tales

A mysterious story about the authorship of fairy tales we know

Who wrote “the tales of Charles Perrault”?

“... My stories are even more worthy of being retold than most of the ancient legends... Virtue in them is always rewarded, and vice is punished... All of these are seeds thrown into the soil, which at first give rise only to outbursts of joy or attacks of sadness, but later certainly brings to life good inclinations.”Charles Perrault. Introduction to a collection of fairy tales.

Charles Perrault's fairy tales were written as "moral" tales and teaching life lessons. And they were... in verse! How??? You will be surprised... why in verse, since we read Charles Perrault’s fairy tales to children in prose, and not in verse? Let's look into this very mysterious story about what kind of fairy tales Charles Perrault wrote and who wrote them in general.

The history of the creation of Perrault's fairy tales is similar to a detective puzzle, which still does not have a single answer. Since the publication of Charles Perrault's fairy tales in prose (1697), there has still been debate about their authorship.

The only known and generally accepted fact is that the basis of all the plots of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales are well-known folk tales, and not his author’s intention. Perrault created his own literary fairy tale based on them.

There are very different versions about the writing of Charles Perrault's fairy tales

Version 1. Charles Perrault wrote only fairy tales in verse, and the children's fairy tales in prose that we all know were written by his son Pierre.

This is how it was - one of the versions.

The fairy tales of Charles Perrault known to us were part of his collection “Tales of Mother Goose”, which was reprinted several times with changes and additions.

In the fourth edition of the collection there were fairy tales in verse (1691 - fairy tales “Griselda”, “Donkey Skin”, “Amusing Desires”). And it was published under the name of Charles Perrault himself.

In the fifth edition of the same collection and "Tales of Mother Goose" (1697) there were five fairy tales in prose: "Sleeping Beauty", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Bluebeard", "Mr. Cat, or Puss in Boots" and "The Witches". But... there is one very important “but”. All these fairy tales were signed not by Charles Perrault, but by the name of his youngest son as the author of the fairy tales! The author of the fairy tales known to us was stated to be “Pierre d’Armancourt”. He was dedicated to his name in the collection (it was dedicated to the young nephew of Louis XIV, Elizabeth Charlotte of Orleans).

The manuscript of "Tales of Mother Goose" has been preserved. signed with the initials P.P (Pierre Perrault - son of Charles Perrault). The father knew what he was doing. Pierre presented the manuscript of fairy tales to the princess. And.. very soon Pierre received noble title. When the collection was published, instead of P.P. it already included the authorship of “Pierre d’Armancourt”.

A year later, “Tales of Mother Goose” was republished again and three more new fairy tales appeared in them: “Cinderella, or a shoe trimmed with fur”, “Rike with a tuft” and “A boy as big as a finger”. The stories were selling out. And their author, Pierre Perrault, became famous.

But the situation changed dramatically in a tragic direction. Pierre, the son of Charles Perrault, killed a man, a neighbor's guy, with a sword in a fight. For this he was arrested. Charles Perrault managed to buy his son out of prison and send him as a lieutenant to the army, where he died in battle. And three years later, Charles Perrault himself died.

For another twenty years the book was published under the name of Perrault’s son - the author on the cover was Pierre Perrault d’Armancourt . And after that, another name appeared on the cover of fairy tales in prose - Charles Perrault, since he was a much more significant figure in the life of the state and French literature. After this, fairy tales in prose and fairy tales in verse were combined into one collection, “Tales of Mother Goose,” and began to be published under the same name of the author - Charles Perrault.

Thus, fairy tales about Cinderella, Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood are still published in collections called “Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings” by Charles Perrault.

During his lifetime, Charles Perrault never claimed to be the author of fairy tales. Oze, his son was considered their author. And even in his autobiography, he did not mention a word about the authorship of fairy tales in prose and never once in his life did he put his signature on them.

Version 2. Traditional version. Charles Perrault deliberately hid his authorship and presented his son as the author of fairy tales, since fairy tales were not then considered a serious activity for a “real writer.”

In 1697 Charles Perrault publishes the collection “Tales of Mother Goose” under the name of his son and on the cover of the collection the author is listed as Pierre Perrault d’Armancourt. The collection includes eight fairy tales: “Sleeping Beauty”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Bluebeard”, “Puss in Boots”, “Fairies”, “Cinderella”, “Rike with the Tuft”, “Tom Thumb”. In subsequent editions, the collection was replenished with three more fairy tales: “Funny Desires” (in other translations – “Funny Desires”), “Donkey Skin”, “Griselda”.

Dedication in the book was like this (written on behalf of the son of Charles Perrault as the author of fairy tales): “Your Highness. Probably no one will find it strange that a child would come up with the idea of ​​composing the fairy tales that make up this collection; however, everyone will be surprised that he had the courage to offer them to you.” Indeed, what is prohibited for an adult is forgivable for a child or youth.

The proof of this point of view is that, in particular, the fairy tales reflect the life impressions of Charles Perrault, and not his son. Counts known fact that the Sleeping Beauty Castle is the famous Castle of Usset on the Loire. Now it houses the Charles Perrault Museum with wax figures his fairy tale characters. Charles Perrault first saw this castle when he was intendant of royal buildings. At that time, the castle was already in disrepair, in dense thickets, above which towered crenellated towers - exactly as it was described in the fairy tale by Charles Perrault.

And also as proof is the fact that fairy tales end with poems - moral teachings that a child or young man would hardly write.

Charles Perrault was the first European writer who took it upon himself to introduce classical literature"low genre" fairy tale." And that is why Charles had to hide his name in the authorship of the collection with the popular title “Tales of Mother Goose.” After all, at that time he became an innovator, and innovation was not always safe and was not always encouraged.

The traditional version is convincingly proven by French literary scholars of the 20th and 21st centuries, in particular Marc Soriano. And also in literature textbooks.

Version 3. Young Pierre Perrault wrote down folk tales, and his father Charles Perrault seriously edited them. Or perhaps Charles Perrault composed these tales for his son when he was little and later simply wrote them down in his name.

According to this version, every evening Charles Perrault told his children fairy tales that he remembered from childhood. Then there were not enough stories, and he began to collect them from servants, cooks, and maids, which greatly amused them, because fairy tales were not considered something serious then. His passion for fairy tales was inherited by youngest son Pierre. The boy started a notebook in which he wrote down all the magical stories he heard from his father and other people. It was this notebook that became the basis for our favorite fairy tales in prose, created in the co-creation of father Charles Perrault and his youngest son.

Whatever the case and whoever wrote the tales, it is generally accepted that It was Charles Perrault who first introduced the folk tale into noble society. And he became the founder of a whole trend - literary fairy tales for children.

And who was the true author of “Cinderella” or “Puss in Boots” - Charles Perrault himself or his youngest son - will probably remain a mystery. I adhere to the traditional point of view (version 2) and therefore call the author of the fairy tales in this article - the name already familiar to all of us - Charles Perrault.

Did Charles Perrault write fairy tales for children?

Very interesting facts of fairy tale history

The collection “Mother Goose Tales” was not intended for children at all; it was written primarily for adults and had adult overtones. Each fairy tale by Charles Perrault ended with a moral lesson in verse. Let's look at what lessons were embedded in some fairy tales.

Little Red Riding Hood

For example, now many fairy tale therapists are arguing about the fairy tale about Little Red Riding Hood and the meanings inherent in it. But Charles Perrault himself revealed the meaning in his poetic afterword to the fairy tale. Here it is:

For small children, not without reason
(And especially for girls,
Beauties and pampered girls),
On the way, meeting all kinds of men,
You can’t listen to insidious speeches, -
Otherwise the wolf might eat them.
I said: wolf! There are countless wolves
But between them there are others
Rogues, so blown away,
That, sweetly exuding flattery,
The maiden's honor is protected,
Accompany their walks home,
They are escorted bye-bye through dark corners...
But the wolf, alas, is more modest than it seems,
The more cunning and terrible he is!

In Charles Perrault's fairy tale, the hunters do not come and save Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother! There are no hunters at all in the plot of his tale. And in the folk tale and in the same story from the Brothers Grimm, hunters exist and save Little Riding Hood and her grandmother.

Why is there such a difference in the plot of the fairy tale? It is explained very simply. Charles Perrault wrote a fairy tale for frivolous adult girls, wanting to warn them, and not for children at all! The fairy tale was intended for ladies of secular salons - “especially slender and beautiful girls” and was supposed to warn naive girls from insidious seducers.

Charles Perrault was convinced that tragedies in a fairy tale are necessary for teaching life (a fairy tale is a lesson in life) and therefore he would be so merciless towards our beloved Little Red Riding Hood. After all, life can also be merciless to the “girl”.

Bluebeard

Another fairy tale by Charles Perrault known to all of us is the fairy tale “Bluebeard”. What do you think was the moral of this tale? Did Perrault condemn an ​​evil husband named Bluebeard? Not at all! It is interesting that in the moral to this tale, the author does not talk about the villain - Bluebeard's husband, but about ... the harmfulness of female curiosity!

Here's the moral of the story:

A woman's passion for immodest secrets is funny;
It is known that it came at a price,
It will instantly lose both taste and sweetness.

Puss in Boots

And the moral of the fairy tale “Puss in Boots” in the words of Charles Perrault sounded like this:

And if the miller's son can
The princess's heart is disturbed,
And she looks at him, barely alive,
It means youth and joy
And without an inheritance they will be in sweetness,
And the heart loves, and the head is spinning .

This means that neither life nor a fairy tale is possible without love! If there is love, there will be youth and joy even without an inheritance! Here is such an interesting testament from Charles Perrault.

sleeping Beauty

The afterword with a moral lesson to the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” sounded like this:

Wait a little so that my husband turns up,
Handsome and rich, too
Quite possible and understandable.
But a hundred many years, lying in bed, waiting
It's so unpleasant for ladies
That no one will be able to sleep.
Let's take a second lesson:
Often the links of the bonds that Hymen knits,
While scattered, and sweeter and more tender,
Waiting like this is luck, not torment.
But a tender floor with such fire
Confirms his symbol of faith in marriage,
To sow a hell of doubt in him
We don't have enough gloomy anger.

Patience, female patience as a female virtue that will be rewarded - it turns out that this is what is important in this fairy tale!

How Charles Perrault's fairy tales came to Russia

Translated into Russian, Charles Perrault's fairy tales were first published in 1768 in a collection entitled "Tales of Wizards with Moral Teachings". Later, the fairy tale “Puss in Boots” was translated into verse by V. A. Zhukovsky. He also wrote The Sleeping Princess.

And in 1867, a collection of fairy tales by Charles Perrault was published with a foreword by I. S. Turgenev and without poetic moral teachings at the end of the tales, with illustrations by G. Doré. Translation by I.S. Turgenev helped fairy tales gain popularity in Russia. But then fairy tales were called differently. For example, instead of “Cinderella” the title of the fairy tale was “Zamarashka”.

“Despite their somewhat scrupulous Old French grace, Perrault's fairy tales deserve an honorable place in children's literature. They are cheerful, entertaining, relaxed..., they still feel the influence of folk poetry that once created them; they contain exactly that mixture of the incomprehensibly miraculous and the ordinary, the simple, the sublime and the funny, which makes up hallmark a true fairy tale." I.S. Turgenev. From the preface to the collection of fairy tales

After the publication of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales based on them, the lyrical-comic opera “Cinderella” by Rossini, and the ballet “Cinderella” by Sergei Prokofiev, and the play for children “Cinderella” by Evgeniy Schwartz (the famous film for children “Cinderella” was based on the script of the play) appeared in Russia. .

Adaptation of Charles Perrault's fairy tales for children

This is important to know: now we read to children not the original texts of C. Perrault in translation, but adapted texts of fairy tales, specially created for children's perception by Russian translators. They were retold for children by M. Bulatov, A. Lyubarskaya, N. Kasatkina, L. Uspensky, A. Fedorov, S. Bobrov. There are no poetic moralizing in them, many of the plots have been changed. Fairy tales have become truly children's, with “adult” texts and incidents removed from them.

Examples of changing the plots of Charles Perrault's fairy tales and adapting them for children:

— Charles Perrault has a mother-in-law Sleeping Beauty was a cannibal. Russian translators removed these fragments.

- Little Red Riding Hood is certainly saved by the hunters and appears again in the Light of God. In Charles Perrault's case, she was destroyed by a wolf once and for all.

— In the fairy tale “Donkey Skin” by Charles Perrault, the king, having become a widower, falls in love with his own daughter and wants to marry her! That's why the princess runs away from him in horror and wants to disguise herself under a donkey's skin. In the Russian translation for children there is no attempted incest. Here the princess is not a daughter, but a pupil, the daughter of a close friend of the king, who was taken into care. And she just doesn’t want to become the wife of her old husband.

— Boy - with - finger in Charles's tale, Perrault confiscates the ogre's wealth and/or seven-league boots and becomes rich by delivering letters to lovers. We don’t have this in our fairy tales for children. The woodcutter simply lived richly and no longer took his children into the forest.

Brief biography of Charles Perrault for children of senior preschool age

What can you tell 5-6 year old children about Charles Perrault? The most important and unusual thing in the biography. For example, short biography The life of Charles Perrault for kids can be told before a quiz based on his fairy tales like this:

A story for children about Charles Perrault

Tell me, please, what fairy tales of Charles Perrault do you know? (Children's answers.) Wonderful! Who can name their favorite fairy tale by this author? (Children's answers) Yes, I also really love the fairy tale about Cinderella, and about Puss in Boots, and about Little Red Riding Hood. What do we know about their author, Charles Perrault? I'll tell you a little about him.

Charles Perrault was born in France more than three hundred years ago. At that time, the state was ruled by a very strong and glorious king, Louis XIV. He was called the Sun King. The king loved pomp and gold, loved to build palaces and castles. He loved balls and danced at them with pleasure. The ladies at these dance evenings were dressed in long dresses and sparkled with jewelry, looking like fairy fairies. And their gentlemen were distinguished by lush curly wigs. And Perrault also wore a wig. (Showing a portrait of Charles Perrault.)

Charles Perrault served at the court of the Sun King, was involved in political affairs, the construction of royal buildings, and wrote poetry, plays and fairy tales. His fairy tales, which he released so long ago under the title “Mother Goose Tales,” are loved by all children. And you included. Maybe we can try to take a trip through our favorite fairy tales? So, go ahead! (Next there is a quiz - a meeting with the fairy tales of Charles Perrault. The author of the text is K. Zurabova. See: K. Zurabova. The Tale of the Storyteller. In the Year of France in Russia. // Preschool education, 2010. No. 8. P. 70-79).

Educational video for children about the biography of Charles Perrault

Fairy tales are “not at all trifles ... They all have the purpose of showing what are the advantages of honesty, patience, forethought, diligence and obedience and what troubles befall those who deviate from these virtues.” Charles Perrault.

Charles Perrault: bibliography

List of fairy tales by Charles Perrault in alphabetical order

Griselda
Cinderella, or the glass slipper
Puss in Boots
Little Red Riding Hood
Thumb Boy
Donkey skin
Fairy gifts
Amusing wishes
Rike with a tuft
Bluebeard
sleeping Beauty

List of literature and methodological developments on the biography and work of Charles Perrault

Aleshina G. N. At Cinderella’s ball: [matinee based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale “Cinderella”] / G. N. Aleshina // Books, sheet music and toys for Katyushka and Andryushka. -2011.-No.5.-S. 11-12.

Ardan, I. N. Literary game based on the works of Charles Perrault / I. N. Ardan // Teachers’ Council. - 2010. - No. 5. - P. 3-10.

B. Begak. Academician-storyteller: [about the work of the French writer C. Perrault] // Preschool education, 1981, No. 10, p. 53-55.

B. Begak. The fairy tale lives on!: To the 350th anniversary of the birth of C. Perrault. // Teacher's newspaper, 1978, January 12.

Boyko S.P. The magical country of Charles Perrault. - Stavropol: Book. publishing house, 1992. – 317 p. (The second part of the book describes an imaginary dialogue between our contemporary visiting Charles Perrault with an entertaining retelling of the biography through the mouth of Charles himself)

Boyko S.P. Charles Perrault (from the ZhZL series - The Life of Remarkable People). M.: Young Guard, 2005. 291 p.

Brandis E.P. Tales of Charles Perrault. Book: From Aesop to Gianni Rodari. – M.: Det.lit., 1980. P.28-32.

Zurabova K. Tale of the storyteller // Preschool education, 2010. No. 8. P. 70-79.

Competition on fairy tales by C. Perrault for the attentive and well-read: for students in grades 5-6 / ed.-ed. L. I. Zhuk // In a fairyland. - Minsk, 2007. - P. 120-125. - (Holiday at school).

Kuzmin F. Storyteller of Mother Goose. To the 350th anniversary of the birth of C. Perrault. // Family and school, 1978. No. 1. pp. 46-47.

Sharov A. The beautiful and tragic world of Perrault // In the book: Sharov A. Wizards come to people. – M.: Children's literature, 1979. – P. 251-263

Tales of Charles Perrault: filmstrips and audio tales for children

And at the end of the article - voiced filmstrips based on the fairy tales of Charles Perrault for children

Charles Perrault. Little Red Riding Hood

Charles Perrault. Cinderella

Charles Perrault. Puss in Boots

Charles Perrault. Thumb Boy

Modern high-quality editions of Charles Perrault's fairy tales for children

While preparing this article, I looked through a lot of editions of Charles Perrault's fairy tales. Alas, not all of them are of high quality. Therefore, at the end of the article, I have compiled for you, dear readers of “Native Path”, those who collect not just books for your children’s library, but also books that cultivate a child’s artistic taste, those books that I can recommend. Both in terms of the quality of the translation and the quality of the illustrations. In the list I provide not just a link to the book, but also a brief annotation to it. Pay attention to her.

Collections of fairy tales:

Charles Perrault. Fairy tales. Translation by I.S. Turgenev. — Meshcheryakov Publishing House, 2016. Series “Book with History”. The book is aged, with wonderful illustrations. The texts of the fairy tales are unusual for us; they are from the first translation of the publication and were intended for adults (see audio fairy tales above). Therefore, I would not read them to very young children.

Charles Perrault. Fairy tales. The fairy tales are translated for preschoolers by M. A. Bulatov. A book specially created for children, cultivating artistic taste. There are 9 fairy tales in it. Amazing illustrations by Traugott.

Small thin books for children with individual fairy tales by C. Perrault:

Charles Perrault. Cinderella. In the classic translation by T. Gabbe. Beautiful illustrations by Reipolsky. My favorite series is “Mom’s Book” - books from our childhood published by Rech publishing house.

Another favorite book from childhood. Charles Perrault. Cinderella. Classic illustrations by V.M. Konashevich Translation by N. Kasatkina. Publisher: Melik - Pashayev. Series “Subtle masterpieces for the little ones.” Printed on thick coated paper.

Charles Perrault. Little Red Riding Hood. Publishing house "Rech". Series “Small Pages”. Also a book from childhood. Very bright illustrations by G. Bedarev, loved by children

Publishing house Astrel. The book is thin and has a non-standard format. Lots of beautiful illustrations, excellent quality paper and printing.

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And also wonderful fairy tales, etc. For more than three hundred years, all the children of the world love and know these fairy tales.

Tales of Charles Perrault

View full list fairy tales

Biography of Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault- famous French writer-storyteller, poet and critic of the era of classicism, member of the French Academy since 1671, now known mainly as the author of " Tales of Mother Goose».

Name Charles Perrault is one of the most popular names of storytellers in Russia, along with the names of Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, and Hoffmann. Perrault’s marvelous fairy tales from Mother Goose’s collection of fairy tales: “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Puss in Boots”, “Tom Thumb”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Bluebeard” are glorified in Russian music, ballets, films, theater performances, in painting and graphics dozens and hundreds of times.

Charles Perrault born January 12, 1628 in Paris, in the wealthy family of the judge of the Parisian Parliament, Pierre Perrault, and was the youngest of his seven children (his twin brother Francois was born with him, who died 6 months later). Of his brothers, Claude Perrault was a famous architect, author of the eastern façade of the Louvre (1665-1680).

The boy's family was concerned about the education of their children, and at the age of eight, Charles was sent to Beauvais College. As historian Philippe Ariès notes, the school biography of Charles Perrault is the biography of a typical excellent student. During their training, neither he nor his brothers were ever beaten with rods - an exceptional case at that time. Charles Perrault dropped out of college without finishing his studies.

After college Charles Perrault takes private law lessons for three years and eventually receives a law degree. He bought a lawyer's license, but soon left this position and became a clerk for his brother, the architect Claude Perrault.

He enjoyed the confidence of Jean Colbert; in the 1660s, he largely determined the policy of the court of Louis XIV in the field of arts. Thanks to Colbert, Charles Perrault was appointed secretary of the newly formed Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Letters in 1663. Perrault was also the controller general of the Surinentate of the royal buildings. After the death of his patron (1683), he fell out of favor and lost the pension paid to him as a writer, and in 1695 he also lost his position as secretary.

1653 – first work Charles Perrault- parody poem “The Wall of Troy, or the Origin of Burlesque” (Les murs de Troue ou l’Origine du burlesque).

1687 - Charles Perrault reads his didactic poem “The Age of Louis the Great” (Le Siecle de Louis le Grand) at the French Academy, which marked the beginning of a long-term “dispute about the ancients and the modern”, in which Nicolas Boileau became Perrault’s most fierce opponent. Perrault opposes imitation and the long-established worship of antiquity, arguing that contemporaries, the “new” ones, surpassed the “ancients” in literature and in the sciences and that this is proven literary history France and recent scientific discoveries.

1691 – Charles Perrault addresses the genre for the first time fairy tales and writes "Griselde". This is a poetic adaptation of Boccaccio’s short story that concludes the Decameron (10th short story of the X day). In it, Perrault does not break with the principle of verisimilitude; there is no magical fantasy here, just as there is no national coloring. folklore tradition. The tale has a salon-aristocratic character.

1694 – satire “Apology for Women” (Apologie des femmes) and a poetic story in the form of medieval fabliaux “Amusing Desires”. At the same time, the fairy tale “Donkey Skin” (Peau d’ane) was written. It is still written in verse, in the spirit of poetic short stories, but its plot is already taken from a folk tale that was then widespread in France. Although there is nothing fantastic in the fairy tale, fairies appear in it, which violates the classic principle of verisimilitude.

1695 – releasing his fairy tales, Charles Perrault in the preface he writes that his tales are higher than the ancient ones, because, unlike the latter, they contain moral instructions.

1696 – the fairy tale “The Sleeping Beauty” was anonymously published in the magazine “Gallant Mercury”, which for the first time fully embodied the features of a new type of fairy tale. It is written in prose, with a poetic moral teaching attached to it. The prose part can be addressed to children, the poetic part - only to adults, and the moral lessons are not without playfulness and irony. In the fairy tale, fantasy turns from a secondary element into a leading one, which is already noted in the title (La Bella au bois dormant, exact translation - “The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest”).

Perrault's literary activity occurred at a time when a fashion for fairy tales appeared in high society. Reading and listening to fairy tales is becoming one of the common hobbies of secular society, comparable only to reading detective stories by our contemporaries. Some prefer to listen to philosophical fairy tales, others pay tribute to ancient fairy tales, passed down in the retellings of grandmothers and nannies. Writers, trying to satisfy these demands, write down fairy tales, processing plots familiar to them from childhood, and the oral fairy tale tradition gradually begins to turn into a written one.

1697 – a collection of fairy tales is published Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and tales of bygone times with moral teachings" (Contes de ma mere Oye, ou Histores et contesdu temps passe avec des moralites). The collection contained 9 fairy tales, which were literary adaptations of folk tales (believed to have been heard from the nurse of Perrault’s son) - except for one (“Riquet the Tuft”), composed by Charles Perrault himself. This book made Perrault widely famous outside the literary circle. Actually Charles Perrault entered folk tale into the system of genres of “high” literature.

However, Perrault did not dare to publish the fairy tales under his own name, and the book he published bore the name of his eighteen-year-old son, P. Darmancourt. He feared that, with all the love for “fairy-tale” entertainment, writing fairy tales would be perceived as a frivolous activity, casting a shadow with its frivolity on the authority of a serious writer.

It turns out that philological science still does not have an exact answer to the elementary question: who wrote the famous fairy tales?

The fact is that when the book of Mother Goose's fairy tales was first published, and it happened in Paris on October 28, 1696, the author of the book was identified in the dedication as a certain Pierre D Armancourt.

However, in Paris they quickly learned the truth. Under the magnificent pseudonym D Armancourt was hiding none other than the youngest and beloved son of Charles Perrault, nineteen-year-old Pierre. For a long time it was believed that the writer’s father resorted to this trick only to introduce the young man into high society, specifically in the circle of the young Princess of Orleans, niece of King Louis the Sun. After all, the book was dedicated to her. But later it turned out that young Perrault, on the advice of his father, wrote down some folk tales, and there are documentary references to this fact.

In the end, he completely confused the situation himself Charles Perrault.

Shortly before his death, the writer wrote memoirs in which he described in detail all the more or less important affairs of his life: service with Minister Colbert, editing the first General Dictionary of the French Language, poetic odes in honor of the king, translations of the fables of the Italian Faerno, a three-volume book of research on the comparison of ancient authors with new ones creators. But nowhere in his own biography did Perrault say a word about the authorship of the phenomenal tales of Mother Goose, a unique masterpiece of world culture.

Meanwhile, he had every reason to include this book in the register of victories. The book of fairy tales was an unprecedented success among the Parisians in 1696; every day 20-30, and sometimes 50 books a day were sold in Claude Barbin's shop! This, on the scale of one store, was probably not even dreamed of today by the bestseller about Harry Potter.

The publisher repeated the print run three times during the year. This was unheard of. First France, then the whole of Europe fell in love with magical stories about Cinderella, her evil sisters and the glass slipper, and reread them a scary fairy tale about the knight Bluebeard, who killed his wives, was rooting for the polite Little Red Riding Hood, who was swallowed by an evil wolf. (Only in Russia did the translators correct the ending of the fairy tale; here the wolf is killed by woodcutters, and in the French original the wolf ate both the grandmother and granddaughter).

In fact, Mother Goose's tales became the world's first book written for children. Before this, no one had specifically written books for children. But then children's books came in an avalanche. From Perrault's masterpiece the phenomenon of children's literature itself was born!

Huge merit Perrault in that he chose from the mass of folk fairy tales several stories and recorded their plot, which has not yet become final. He gave them a tone, a climate, a style that was characteristic of the 17th century, and yet very personal.

At the core fairy tales by Perrault- well-known folklore plots, which he presented with his usual talent and humor, omitting some details and adding new ones, “ennobling” the language. Most of all these fairy tales suitable for children. And it is Perrault who can be considered the founder of world children's literature and literary pedagogy.

“Fairy tales” contributed to the democratization of literature and influenced the development of the world fairy tale tradition (brothers W. and J. Grimm, L. Tieck, G. H. Andersen). Perrault's fairy tales were first published in Russian in Moscow in 1768 under the title “Tales of Sorceresses with Moral Teachings.” Based on the plots of Perrault's fairy tales, the operas “Cinderella” by G. Rossini, “The Castle of Duke Bluebeard” by B. Bartok, the ballets “The Sleeping Beauty” by P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Cinderella” by S. S. Prokofiev and others were created.