Contents
😉 Greetings to regular and new readers! In the article “Charles Perrault: biography, curious facts, video” – information about the life of the genius storyteller and poet.
These fabulous bestsellers are: Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Bluebeard, Cinderella. After 320 years, they continue to be read and retellable!
Friends, let’s fast forward to France, at a time when this Kingdom was ruled by Louis XIV.
Charles Perrault biography
The future storyteller was born in 1628 (zodiac sign – Capricorn). The father is a lawyer in the Parliament of Paris, and Charles is the youngest son of six children. According to the laws of those times, the eldest son had to inherit the profession of his father.
From the age of eight, Charles studied at the University College Beauvais, near the Sorbonne. The Faculty of Arts was chosen from four faculties. But he dropped out of college before finishing his studies. The young man acquired a lawyer’s license.
Portrait of Charles Perrault
And after two trials, he left the law office and went to work as a clerk in the architectural department of his older brother Claude. Charles began to do what he loved – writing poetry. Soon they started talking about him as a gifted poet.
Favorite of the king
A few years later, fate smiled at young Perrault! The minister of Louis XIV himself, Jean Colbert (1619-1683), drew attention to him.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, 1666
Jean-Baptiste Colbert introduced the talented poet to the royal court and made him his adviser in matters of culture, literature and theater. Career was rapidly going uphill! In 1663 Charles received the high position of secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Fine Literature.
And in 1671 the king’s favorite was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. In a short time he became a wealthy and influential nobleman. Along with his main activity, he continued to write wonderful poems and engage in literary criticism. Charles’ luxurious house became a literary salon.
The fame of Perrault was brought by his solemn odes in honor of the king. But in 1683 the almighty patron Colbert died. Soon, the former favorite became unmerciful at court, then he was deprived of his literary pension, which he was paid during the life of his patron.
How Charles Perrault became a storyteller
Soon, the fashion for reading and listening to fairy tales came to secular society. Therefore, in 1697, the collection “Tales of Mother Goose” appeared. This book consisted of seven folk tales, which were reworked by the author and from the fairy tale “Rike-Khokholok”, which was composed by the genius storyteller himself.
“Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings”
The collection has become a bestseller! The rich and the poor fell in love with wonderful fairy tales. The collection was accessible to people of all walks of life.
The writer did not dare to publish his tales under his own name. The author of the tales was his 19-year-old son Pierre. By this, Charles Perrault tried to preserve his authority as a serious writer.
Charles Perrault was the first to introduce the genre of folk tales into world literature. Following Perrault, the tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Andersen appeared.
Father of the family
The only and beloved wife of the 44-year-old writer was Marie Guchon, who at that time was 19 years old. From this love four children were born. The couple were happy, but, unfortunately, not for long. At the age of 25, Marie fell ill with smallpox and left for another world. The widower never married again and raised a daughter and three sons himself.
The great storyteller died at the age of 75 in 1703, in Paris.
Charles Perrault: biography (briefly) → video ↓
Friends, share the article “Charles Perrault: biography, curious facts, video” on social networks. 😉 Check back for new stories!