Charles Perrault biography

Charles Perrault (January 12, 1628 – May 16, 1703) writer. He was born in Paris, France. He grew up in a bourgeois family, his father was a lawyer in Parliament, which allowed Charles to have the privilege of developing in a cultured environment and studying in the best schools of the moment. In 1637, he entered the college of Beauvais, being in this place is discovered its facility for dead languages. After graduating from high school he decides to study law. His performance was very noticeable, while he was studying he was under the protection of his older brother Pierre, a general collector. In 1654, after completing his studies, he was appointed an official to work in the government service.

Perrault’s passion was writing, so sometimes he spent more time writing than practicing his profession. He actively participated in the creation of the Academy of Sciences and in the restoration of the Painting Academy. He was an artist who managed to overcome the system and the political situation in France, for that reason, he easily survived this period and his literary production was not affected. In his first book entitled The Walls of Troy (1661), his works never gave rise to the imagination. This is due to the fact that his role as a privileged civil servant led him to live a bureaucratic and boring life, his writings focused on odes, speeches, dialogues, poems and works that exalted the king and the princes, for this reason, his life was filled with honors, that took advantage very well.

As secretary of the French Academy, he was the protege of Colbert, the famous counselor of Louis XIV. For 1665 Perrault rises to the position of real official, which allowed him great privileges. They are in this position that his brother, Claude, was in charge of drawing up the plans of the Observatory of the King. After being appointed academic in 1671, he married Marie Guichon. Two years later he was elected Chancellor of the Academy and was also a Librarian of it. Of the union with his wife, four children were born, but unfortunately, his wife died after the birth of the latter.

In 1680, Perrault ceded his privileged position of the first official to Colbert’s son. For this time, wrote the poem The century of Luis the Great was immersed in a controversy of scholarly character by this writing that distanced him from Nicolas Boileau and Jean Racine, who ridiculed his position. Because of this divergence of opinions and as responses to criticism, his critical work was born: Paralelo de los Ancianos y de las Modernos, in which the Arts and Sciences are contemplated, a plea that demonstrated his support for “modern” writers and against the traditionalists.

This quarrel of enlightened character continued. The theory according to which the arts never cease to be perfected through a scientific revolution defended by Perrault encourages Digression on the ancients and moderns (1688) written by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle. This controversy was considered the polemic of the century. Then, Perrault published illustrious men who have emerged in France during this century, with his portraits in natural (1696-1700), biographical work in two volumes, of little value, but illustrated with beautiful prints.

He was a very productive author, throughout his life he published 46 works, eight of them published posthumously. The most popular posthumous work is Memoirs of my life. Now, except for children’s stories, all his work is composed mostly of loas to the King of France. Most of his most famous accounts are found in Tales of the Past, better known as The Tales of Mother Goose (1697). This book has managed to reach us, regardless of the time, with the same freshness and spontaneity with which they were written. Something admirable about Perrault is that he managed to use oral tradition, as well as the legends of his country.

His stories are also full of moral teachings, full of a charm that lasts and that has become the favorite readings of children. The most used characters in these stories range from fairies, ogres, talking animals, witches, princesses to enchanted princes. At the end of each story, the author includes a moral. Skillfully, the writer recorded the customs of an unhappy time with his situation and, to give hope to people, usually included happy endings in his writings.

For his stories, Perrault resorted to landscapes that were known, such as the Castle of Ussé, which inspired the story of Sleeping Beauty. Other of his best known and popular works are: Ass Skin, Tom Thumb, Blue Beard, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood and The Cat in Boots, managed to soften in many cases the rawness of the oral versions. The life of this famous writer ended on May 16, 1703.