Charles Perrault was the author of a fairy-tale collection that has become better known than virtually any other work of Western literature. His Histoires, ou Contes du temps passé, avec des moralitez (1697; translated as Histories or Tales of Past Times, 1729) includes "La Belle au bois dormant" (Sleeping Beauty in the Woods), "Cendrillon ou La Petite pantoufle de verre" (Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper), "Le Maître chat ou le chat botté" (The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots), and "Le Petit chaperon rouge" (Little Red Riding Hood), tales that, in many translations and adaptations, have been part of European folk culture for more than three hundred years.

Perrault was also an influential figure at the court of King Louis XIV, playing a key role in politics as the closest adviser to Louis's finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Perrault became a major figure in the Quarrel...