Most of these tales have been retold in many different times and places. Several hundred versions of "Cinderella," for example, have been recorded. The earliest known version was written in China in the middle of the ninth century. Perrault set his version of the tales in his own time and place—France at the end of the seventeenth century. He presents a full panorama of French life, from the finery of the court where Cinderella attends a ball to the modest homes of peasants and tradesmen. The majority of the characters, however, come from the middle class.