Perrault, Charles (shärl pĕrō`), 1628–1703, French poet. His collections of eight fairy tales, Histoires ou contes du temps passé [stories or tales of olden times] (1697) gave classic form to the traditional stories of Bluebeard, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Little Red Ridinghood, and Hop-o'-My-Thumb. In the frontispiece of the collection appears the expression "Contes de ma mère Loye" [tales of Mother Goose]. Perrault also published three tales in verse (1694). He is also famous for the stormy literary quarrel that he aroused with a poem (1687) comparing ancient authors unfavorably with modern writers. Boileau, the chief defender of the ancients, bandied insults with Perrault until 1694. This "quarrel of the ancients and the moderns" is considered a harbinger of the 18th-century Enlightenment.

Perrault, Charles

(born Jan. 12, 1628, Paris, France—died May 15/16, 1703, Paris) French poet, prose writer, and storyteller. Perrault began to win a literary reputation c. 1660 with light verse and love poetry. He is best remembered for his collection of charming fairy stories written to amuse his children, Contes de ma mère l'oye, or Tales of Mother Goose (1697; see Mother Goose). He spent the rest of his life promoting the study of literature and the arts. A leading member of the Académie Française, he was involved in a famous controversy with Nicholas Boileau on the relative merits of ancient and modern literature; his support for the modern was of landmark significance in the revolt against the constraints of prevailing tradition.