“I was born on January 12, 1628, together with my twin brother, who was born a few hours before me and died six months later,” recalled in his declining years Charles Perrault. Psychoanalysts attach great importance to the longing for the dead brother among the twins. Perhaps compensating for this loss, the younger brother stood at the head of the family clan, which united the three Perrault brothers. They were at the top of the social ladder in the era Louis XIV.

great era

To understand how influential the brothers were, one must look at this brilliant period in the history of the country. The Sun King is the brightest ruler of that time, his light eclipsed other monarchs. The whole of Europe was guided by France. Art, science, industry and the army were the best in the world. The system of government is the same. And its creator (almost from scratch) is considered Jean-Baptiste Colbert. The successful policy pursued by him went down in history as mercantilism. De jure, he did not have an official position as head of government, but he can be considered one of the best prime ministers in world history. De facto, he was the right hand of Louis XIV. And Colbert's right hand became Charles Perrot.

A skillful storyteller: classic illustrations for the fairy tales of Charles Perrault

Achievement list

Huge power was concentrated in the hands of Perrault. Here are some positions of the future storyteller:

—General Secretary at the Commissariat of Royal Buildings. This is a very serious occupation, because at that time the Louvre was being rebuilt and the most grandiose construction of the century was being carried out: Versailles was being built for Louis XIV. Charles Perrault controlled her in many ways.

—The actual head of the "King's Bureau of Glory". Later it became known as the Small Academy. Before its creation in 1664, Louis XIV personally met with Perrault and other "PR people". Emphasizing the importance of the new institution, the king declared: "Gentlemen, you can judge my respect for you simply because I trust you with the most valuable thing for me: my glory." As a result, Charles got access to the court.

— Secretary of State for Culture. Charles Perrault oversaw literature and made sure that writers worked for the glory of the king.

—Inspector of the work of the tapestry workshop. This position may seem small compared to the rest, but in the conditions of the 17th century it was not at all the case. The production of tapestries then required the highest technology of its time. French tapestries became a global brand, and their exports brought the country a huge income. At the same time they played, of course, an ideological role. They usually captured the moments of glory of the king. Even plots on ancient themes - and they sang of the monarch, albeit in allegorical form.

—Colbert's personal secretary. This is perhaps one of the main positions of Perrault. He carried out any orders of the boss, including the most sensitive ones and even those related to finances. For example, in 1666, Colbert created a fund of 100 thousand livres (at that time a huge amount) to support writers working for the authority of Louis XIV. It was the future storyteller who managed the fund. Moreover, money was allocated not only to French, but also to foreign writers. The same fund supported and at the same time "attracted" scientists: many were invited to work in Paris, accepting them to the French Academy.

brothers in the academy

Later, Charles Perrault also became a member of the Academy of Sciences. True, the elder brother was the first academician in their family: Claude Perrault. Of course, this did not happen without the support of Charles. Claude was a physician, but did not have any major scientific achievements. By that time, he had become more famous in the field of architecture (at that level of development of science, a scientist could afford to work in several areas). According to his project, a new colonnade of the Louvre was erected, which to this day bears his name. It is hard to imagine that this project also did without the patronage of the younger brother: do you remember who was the Secretary General in the Commissariat of Royal Buildings? It is known that Charles personally initiated the participation of his elder brother in the competition for the project of a new colonnade. Having become an academician, Claude successfully engaged in various projects and even led the natural department of the academy. Talented and friendly brothers had great acquaintances and, as they say now, were good communicators.

Was part of this "trio" and brother Pierre, but he worked mainly on a voluntary basis: he did not have an influential official position. Although at first Pierre was generally the head of the Perrault clan. Successfully married, he bought (then it was in the order of things) the position of chief collector of finances in Paris. And young Charles, who had recently received a law degree, worked for him as a clerk. Even then, the three brothers actively made useful contacts, inviting "the right people" to their estate in Viry near Paris. Israeli historian Oded Rabinovich, a student of the subject, calls the brothers "an assertive Parisian family".

The Irony of Fate

But overnight, Pierre went bankrupt. He narrowly escaped prison and was forced to sell his business. The reason is the collapse of his patron: the superintendent of finance of France Nicholas Fouquet. He led such a luxurious life that with his spending he overshadowed the young Louis XIV, who had not yet become the “Sun King”. So much government money "stuck" to Fouquet's hands that it was not difficult to dump him. This was done by Colbert, who had taken office. The trial of Fouquet and his financiers was indicative, and it seemed that not only Pierre Perrault, but also his partner and brother Charles, should have suffered.

The paradoxes of history

The muse of history made, as always, a paradoxical move: the brother and first assistant of the disgraced financier soared through the ranks, immediately becoming an assistant to Colbert himself, the culprit of the crash and Fouquet, and Pierre Perrot. At the same time, the brothers continued to support each other. True, when Charles (and this happened more than once) asked for some position for his older brother, Colbert always adamantly replied: "Either you, or he." Remaining in the shadows, Pierre honestly worked for the glory of the monarch of France, helping his brothers in their work.

But what kind of social lift helped Charles avoid disgrace and take off in the service? The same passion for writing that glorified him for centuries. The future storyteller in 1660 wrote an ode to the marriage of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa and passed it through a chain of timely wound up "useful people" Cardinal Mazarin. The last link in this chain was Colbert, then an assistant to the all-powerful, but aging cardinal. Before his death in 1661, Mazarin recommended a talented manager to the king. The monarch liked Colbert, taking office, he remembered the talented young writer and invited him. The great Mazarin was not mistaken, Charles Perrault turned out to be a faithful assistant. For 20 years of service, he wrote many odes, mottos and other "slogans" that glorify the sun king and his policies.

And what about fairy tales?

He began to write them in retirement. The first came out in 1691, and a collection of the most famous (it's called "The Tales of Mother Goose") appeared in 1697. Academician Charles Perrault did not consider this great literature and did not even indicate his name. He attributed the authorship of the book to his son, Pierre de Armancourt-Perrot. This was the great intent of the aging politician: with the help of a collection of fairy tales, he wanted to strengthen the position of his offspring at the royal court, for this the book was dedicated to the beloved niece of the king, Princess of Orleans. And he seems to have succeeded in "promoting" his son.

But everything ended badly. Under unclear circumstances (whether in a fight, or in a duel), the son of Charles Perrault stabbed a neighbor with a sword. To avoid punishment, his father buys him a position as a lieutenant in the army, where he soon dies.

But the fairy tales originally signed with his name are still alive, some of them are among the most famous in the whole world. The name of Academician Charles Perrault first appeared on the cover of this collection of frivolous tales only in 1724, 21 years after his death.

French literature

Charles Perrault

Biography

The great merit of Perrault is that he chose several stories from the mass of folk tales and fixed their plot, which has not yet become final. He gave them a tone, a climate, a style characteristic of the 17th century, and yet very personal.

Among the storytellers who "legalized" the fairy tale in serious literature, the very first and honorable place is given to the French writer Charles Perrault. Few of our contemporaries know that Perrault was a venerable poet of his time, an academician of the French Academy, and the author of famous scientific works. But world-wide fame and recognition from his descendants were brought to him not by his thick, serious books, but by the wonderful fairy tales Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and Bluebeard.

Charles Perrault was born in 1628. The boy's family was concerned about the education of their children, and at the age of eight, Charles was sent to college. As historian Philippe Aries notes, Perrault's school biography is that of a typical straight-A student. During the training, neither he nor his brothers were ever beaten with rods - an exceptional case at that time.

After college, Charles took private law lessons for three years and eventually received a law degree.

At twenty-three, he returns to Paris and begins his career as a lawyer. Perrault's literary activity comes at a time when a fashion for fairy tales appears in high society. Reading and listening to fairy tales is becoming one of the common hobbies of secular society, comparable only to the reading of detective stories by our contemporaries. Some prefer to listen to philosophical tales, others pay tribute to the old tales, which have come down in the retelling of grandmothers and nannies. Writers, trying to satisfy these requests, write down fairy tales, processing the plots familiar to them from childhood, and the oral fairy tale tradition gradually begins to turn into a written one.

However, Perrault did not dare to publish the tales under his own name, and the book he published contained the name of his eighteen-year-old son, P. Darmancourt. He was afraid that with all the love for "fabulous" entertainment, writing fairy tales would be perceived as a frivolous occupation, casting a shadow on the authority of a serious writer with its frivolity.

Perrault's tales are based on well-known folklore plots, which he outlined with his usual talent and humor, omitting some details and adding new ones, "ennobling" the language. Most of all, these fairy tales were suitable for children. And it is Perrault that can be considered the founder of children's world literature and literary pedagogy.

Charles Perrault now we call him a storyteller, but in general during his lifetime (he was born in 1628, died in 1703). Charles Perrault was known as a poet and publicist, dignitary and academician. He was a lawyer, the first clerk of the French Minister of Finance Colbert.

When the Academy of France was created by Colbert in 1666, among its first members was Charles's brother, Claude Perrault, who shortly before this Charles had helped win the competition for the design of the facade of the Louvre. A few years later, Chars Perrault was also admitted to the Academy, and he was assigned to lead the work on the "General Dictionary of the French Language".

The history of his life is both personal and public, and politics mixed with literature, and literature, as it were, divided into what glorified Charles Perrault through the ages - fairy tales, and what remained transient. For example, Perrault became the author of the poem "The Age of Louis the Great", in which he glorified his king, but also - the work "Great People of France", voluminous "Memoirs" and so on and so forth. In 1695, a collection of poetic tales by Charles Perrault was published.

But the collection "Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings" was released under the name of Charles Perrault's son Pierre de Armancourt-Perrot. It was the son who in 1694, on the advice of his father, began to write down folk tales. Pierre Perrault died in 1699. In his memoirs, written a few months before his death (he died in 1703), Charles Perrault does not say anything about who was the author of the tales or, to be more precise, of the literary record.

These memoirs, however, were published only in 1909, and already twenty years after the death of literature, academician and storyteller, in the 1724 edition of the book “Tales of Mother Goose” (which, by the way, immediately became a bestseller), authorship was first attributed to one Charles Perrault . In a word, there are many “blank spots” in this biography. The fate of the storyteller himself and his fairy tales, written in collaboration with his son Pierre, is for the first time in Russia described in such detail in Sergei Boyko's book Charles Perrault.

Perrault Charles (1628-1703) - poet, children's writer, academician of the French Academy, author of famous scientific works.

Born in 1628. At the age of 8, young Charles was sent to college, where he studied perfectly with his brothers. For 3 years after graduation, she takes private lessons in law and becomes a certified lawyer.

At the age of 23, he comes to Paris, where he gets a job as a lawyer. At this time, in the secular society of France, it became fashionable to read fairy tales and write them down. But Perrault's first tales were published under the name of P. Darmancourt, his 18-year-old son, in order to avoid spoiling the reputation of a serious writer with tales. Popularity during the life of Perrault came for his poetry and journalistic activities. He was a famous lawyer and the first manager of the finance minister Colbert.

In 1666, the Academy of France was established, of which Claude Perrault, brother of Charles, became one of the first members, for winning the competition for the design of the facade of the Louvre. Brother Charles Perrault helped win. A few years later, the writer also ended up at the Academy, where he led the process of creating the "General Dictionary of the French Language". Perrault glorified the person of the king in the poem "The Age of Louis the Great", wrote the works "Great People of France", "Memoirs", etc., but he gained world popularity for creating children's fairy tales. In 1695, a collection of fairy tales in verse, Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Instructions, was published, which was signed by Pierre de Armancourt-Perrot. The poems for children were based on folklore stories in the author's processing, where the common language was transformed into a literary form. Only 20 years after the death of the writer, the collection was republished in 1724 under the name of the real author and became a bestseller of those times. Following the recommendation of Charles Perrault in 1694, his son began to write down the tales of the French people. In 1699, Pierre Perrault died.

The Rare Books Department of the Scientific Library of the Moscow State Pedagogical University stores domestic editions of the 19th - 20th centuries. fairy tales of Charles Perrault, whose name is known in Russia no less (and sometimes more) than the names of the storytellers Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm and Wilhelm Hauff.

Biography of the writer.

On January 12, 1628, in the French city of Paris, in the family of Pierre Perrault (where there were already four sons - Jean, Pierre, Claude and Nicolas), twins were born, who were named Francois and Charles. Francois lived only a few months, and Charles was destined for a long life and immortal glory.

Teachings were highly respected in the Perrault family, and the parents strove to give all their sons a good education: the mother of the family, an educated woman, herself taught her sons to read and write; and when the youngest, Charles, began studying at Beauvais College at the age of eight, his father, a lawyer by profession, himself checked the lessons of his sons. According to the French historian Philippe Ariès (1914 - 1984; mainly engaged in the history of everyday life, family and childhood), Perrault's school biography is a biography of a typical excellent student; during their training, none of the Perrot brothers had ever been beaten with rods, which at that time was considered an exception.

But still, in 1641, for disputes with teachers, Charles and his school friend Borin were expelled from classes, and they decided to engage in self-education: the boys studied from 8 to 11 in the morning, then dined, rested and studied again from 3 to 5 in the afternoon; they read ancient authors together, studied the history of France, studied Greek and Latin - that is, what they would take in a college. As Charles Perrault later wrote, “if I know anything, I owe it solely to these three or four years of study”. After Charles Perrault, he takes private law lessons for three years, receives a law degree and buys a lawyer's license; but Perrault Jr. did not work in his specialty for long, and soon became a clerk to his brother, the architect Claude Perrault (1665 - 1680).

The desperate debater subsequently found use for his talent during the dispute between the “ancient” and the “new”. In the 17th century, the point of view prevailed that ancient writers, poets and scientists created the most perfect, best works, while the “new”, that is, contemporaries, can only imitate the “ancient”, since they are not able to create anything better, in In connection with this, the main thing for the poet, playwright, scientist was the desire to be like antique samples.

With the poet, critic and theoretician of classicism Nicolas Boileau (Nicolas Boileau-Depreo; 11/01/1636 - 03/13/1711), author of the treatise "Poetic Art", in which he established the "laws" of writing works, so that everything was exactly like the ancient writers, Perrault strongly disagreed (“why so respect the ancients? Only for antiquity? We ourselves are ancient, because in our time the world has become older, we have more experience”). His treatise "Comparison of ancient and modern" caused a storm of indignation among the adherents of the "ancients": they began to accuse Perrault of the fact that he, self-taught, criticizes the ancients only because, not knowing Greek and Latin, he is not familiar with their works.

In order to prove that his contemporaries were no worse and to give him the opportunity to be suitable for his contemporaries, Perrault published a huge volume "Famous(or, in some translations, the Great Ones) French people of the 17th century, where he collected more than a hundred biographies of famous scientists, poets, historians, surgeons, artists.

Also Charles Perrault is an academician of the French Academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres, who led the work on the "General Dictionary of the French Language", a lawyer and clerk of the Minister of Finance of France under Louis XIV Jean-Baptiste Colbert (08/29/1619 - 09/06/1683), for his services Charles Perrault received the title of nobleman. He was also a famous poet of his time, the author of several scientific works, as well as a number of works of art:

1653 - a parody poem in verse " The Wall of Troy, or the Origin of Burlesque"(Les murs de Troue ou l'Origine du burlesque)

1687 didactic poem "Age of Louis the Great"(Le Siecle de Louis le Grand), read at the French Academy, which marked the beginning of the "controversy about the ancient and the new." and opposes the imitation and long-established worship of antiquity, arguing that the contemporaries, the "new", surpassed the "ancients" in literature and in the sciences, and that this is proved by the literary history of France and recent scientific discoveries

1691 - a fairy tale in verse "Griselda"(Griselde) (poetic adaptation of the 10th short story of the 10th day, the short story "Decameron" by Boccaccio).

1694 - satire "Apology of Women"(Apologie des femmes) and a poetic story in the form of medieval fablios "Funny Wishes".

In the same year, a poetic tale was written "Donkey Skin"(Peau d'ane)

1696 - anonymously published fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", for the first time embodying the features of a new type fairy tales: it is written in prose and attached to it is a poetic moralizing addressed to adults, but not devoid of irony (Perro wrote about his fairy tales that they are higher than the ancient ones, because they contain moral instructions). Gradually, in a fairy tale, the fantastic beginning turns into a paramount element, which is reflected in the title (the exact translation of La Bella au bois dormant - "Beauty in the Sleeping Forest").

1697 - a collection is published "Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Moral Instructions", containing 9 works, which were literary adaptations of folk tales

1703 - "Memoirs" Perrault, written a few months before his death, in which he covers all the most important events of his life and work, but does not mention fairy tales.

In 1683, Perrault quit his job and was assigned a good pension, on which he could live comfortably until the end of his days. And, having received a large amount of free time, Perrault began to write. And one day the idea occurred to him to present some folk tales in literary language, so that they would attract the interest of both adults and children. This author succeeded in presenting serious reflections in simple language. Almost all of Perrault's tales are a literary record of folk tales and fairy tales that he often heard in his childhood in the kitchen, except for one: "Riquet with a Tuft" Perrault composed himself.

In 1696, when Perrault was 68 years old, a fairy tale was published anonymously in the magazine Gallant Mercury (Amsterdam). "Sleeping Beauty", and the following year, in 1897, a small book with plain pictures was published in Paris and The Hague under the title "Tales of Mother Goose, or Stories and Tales of Bygone Times with Teachings" soon became an incredible success.

But at first, Perrault did not dare to sign the tales with his own name and published under the name of his son Pierre d'Harmancourt (at one time in literary criticism there were even disputes that the tales really belonged to the son's pen, but during the investigation these assumptions were not confirmed; despite the fact that that Pierre, on the advice of his father, began to write down folk tales and Charles Perot himself in his memoirs, published only in 1909, does not mention the true author of the literary record of fairy tales), since Charles Perrault considered himself a serious writer, and writing fairy tales could ruin his reputation .

However, folklore stories, presented by Perrault in a “ennobled” language with inherent talent and humor, omitting some details and adding new ones, began to enjoy high popularity and the demand for fairy tales only increased, in connection with which they began to be considered real art and subsequently had a considerable influence on development of the world fairy tale tradition: in particular, "Tales of Mother Goose" were the first book written specifically for children(in those days children were taught to read from books for adults).

Perrault's merit lies in the fact that he selected several stories from the mass of folk tales and fixed their plot, which at that time was not yet final, and gave them a personal style, at the same time characteristic of the 17th century. They are magical and realistic at the same time: if you want to know what fashion was in 1697, read "Cinderella"(after all, the sisters, going to the ball, dress in the latest fashion); If you want to hear how a woodcutter's family used to say in the 17th century, contact "Thumb boy", and you can hear the princess in "Sleeping Beauty"; Puss in Boots is a clever guy from the people who, thanks to his own cunning and resourcefulness, not only suits the fate of his master, but also becomes "important person"- after all “he no longer catches mice, except sometimes for fun”, and the Thumb Boy practically does not forget at the last moment to pull out a bag of gold from the Ogre's pocket, which saves his family from starvation.

Tales of Charles Perrault.

Despite their scientific and literary merits, fairy tales brought worldwide fame to Charles Perrault. "Puss in Boots", "Cinderella", "Red Riding Hood", "Thumb boy", "Blue Beard" like not only children, but also adults, and are reflected in world culture in operas (The Castle of the Duke of Bluebeard by the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok; the Italian opera buffa Cinderella, or the Triumph of Virtue by Gioacchino Rossini), ballets (The Sleeping Beauty) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; "Cinderella" by Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev), dramatic performances, animated films and films.

The fairy tales of Charles Perrault were often illustrated by great artists, for example, the French engraver, illustrator and painter Gustave (Gustave) Dore (1832 - 1883).

The Department of Rare Books of the Scientific Library of the Moscow State Pedagogical University has editions with engravings by Doré:

Fairy tales of Perrault. / Translated from French by Ivan Turgenev. Drawings by Gustav Dore. - St. Petersburg, Moscow: Publishing house of the bookseller and printer M. O. Wolf, 1867.

Perrot. Puss in Boots: A fairy tale for young children. Illustrations by Gustav Dore. Colored drawings by the artist V. Mel (Book publishing house "Odespoligraf").

Perrot. Boy with a finger: A fairy tale for young children. Illustrations by Gustav Dore. Colored drawings by the artist S. Goldman (Odespoligraph Publishing House).

Tales of Charles Perrault in Russia.

For the first time in Russian, the fairy tales of Charles Perrault were published in Moscow in 1768 under the title "Tales of Sorceresses with Morales". They were titled somewhat unusually for the modern ear: "The Tale of the Girl with the Little Red Riding Hood", "The Tale of a Man with a Blue Beard", "The Tale of Father Cat in Spurs and Boots", "The Tale of the Beauty Sleeping in the Forest" …

Later, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the fairy tales of Charles Perrault were published under more familiar names for the modern reader:

Perrot. Red Riding Hood. Puss in Boots. Sleeping Beauty. Blue Beard. / Per. from French by B. D. Prozorovskaya. - St. Petersburg: Type. T-va "Public Benefit", 1897. - (Illustrated Fairytale Library of F. Pavlenkov; No. 81).

Puss in Boots: Fairy Tale: With six colored pictures. -

[Moscow]: Edition of T-va I. D. Sytin,

Despite the love of readers, for Charles Perrault the road to high society turned out to be closed: for writing fairy tales, scholarly colleagues did not like Professor Perrault, and the nobility closed the doors of their houses in front of him.

But the reason was not only this. Once, during a street fight, the writer's son, Pierre, a nobleman by status, stabbed to death the commoner Guillaume Coll, the son of the carpenter's widow, which at that time was considered an extremely immoral act. As a result, the young man ended up in prison.

Thanks to his money and connections, Charles Perrault rescued his son from prison and bought him the rank of lieutenant in the king's regiment, but this seriously ruined the family's reputation.

During the next battle, the young man died.

Charles Perrault died in 1703, tired and shaky, hating his fairy tales and taking the secret of their authorship to the grave.

The fairy tales of Charles Perrault are still loved by both children and adults, and in the 21st century they are published in various combinations with new illustrations (for example, on the subscription of fiction in the building of the humanities faculties of the Scientific Library of the Moscow State Pedagogical University, you can find "Tales of Mother Goose" with illustrations by Yu. Boyarsky;

and the book Tales of Charles Perrault with illustrations by Anna Vlasova).

Could a poet and scientist think at one time that his name would be glorified through the ages not by poems and scientific treatises, but by a thin book of fairy tales?...

Fablio, fablio (from Latin fabula - fable, story. Old French fableaux, fabliaux - plural of fablel - "fable"; the form fabliaux is a dialectism) - one of the genres of French urban literature of the XII - early XIV centuries, which is a small poetic novella, the purpose of which is to entertain and educate listeners.

When writing the article, the materials of the sites were used:

Interesting illustrations for the tales of Charles Perrault and other famous storytellers can be found at the link:

(1628-1703) French writer, literary critic and statesman

When a small book of fairy tales was published in Paris in 1697, almost no one paid attention to the name of its author, Pierre Darmancourt. Few knew that Charles Perrault was hiding under this name. He was a famous statesman, so he had to use the name of his youngest son for publication.

Charles Perrault came from an humble, but very wealthy family, was the eldest son of a famous French lawyer. At that time, the eldest son had to inherit his father's profession in order to continue the family business.

Charles received his initial education at a Jesuit school, where he studied with his brother Pierre, who later became a famous poet and translator. At school, Charles was the first student in philosophy and literature.

In the senior class, the Perrault brothers released a playful parody of Virgil's poem "Aeneid". However, at the insistence of his father, Charles had to graduate from the law faculty of the Sorbonne and enter one of the law firms.

Charles Perrault felt no interest in the legal profession. He participated in only two processes and at the first opportunity left the lawyer's field. In his free time, he composed poetry and performed with them in various houses. Soon they started talking about him as a gifted poet. An acquaintance of the family, the famous French writer Jean Chaplin, recommended Charles Perrault to the then famous minister J. B. Colbert. Perrault becomes a member of the Minor Academy founded by Colbert - a kind of council on problems of literature and art.

Colbert appointed a talented young man as his secretary. Having won the trust of the minister, Charles Perrault takes the next step in his career - he becomes the head of the "department of royal buildings." His duties included overseeing all the construction work that was carried out at the Louvre, the Tuileries and Versailles. Then a new image of Paris began to take shape, and Charles Perrault takes an indirect part in this. Together with his brother Claude, he draws up a project for the reconstruction of French parks. He invites from Italy the famous sculptor L. Bernini, who becomes the author of the sculptural decoration of the Louvre.

Charles Perrault also introduces some innovations: in particular, in order to reduce costs, he seeks a decision to open the Tuileries Garden to the public.

In 1671, for services to the fatherland, Perrault was elected a member of the French Academy. Around the same time, he marries the daughter of a wealthy merchant-farmer M. Guichon. But their marriage lasted only six years: Marie died in childbirth, leaving Charles Perrault the father of six children.

Over time, his house becomes a famous literary salon, it is visited by the largest writers, artists, architects. However, in 1683 the life of the writer changed dramatically. Unexpectedly, Colbert, who patronized him, dies, and Perrault has to leave public service. Since that time, he devotes all his strength and time to raising children and literary creativity.

True, Charles Perrault continues to actively participate in the work of the French Academy and even becomes its secretary. On January 27, 1687, he read his poem "The Age of Louis the Great" at a meeting of the Academy. It evokes fierce criticism from supporters of the imitation of antiquity, and above all N. Boileau, who demanded that the purity of genres be observed. Over the next almost twenty years, Perrault and Boileau lead a fierce debate, defending each in his own way the criteria for analyzing a literary work.

It was probably during a period of intense literary activity that Charles Perrault turned to folklore. Part of his interest can be explained by the general fascination with folk art.

Initially, it processes existing plots used by other authors. In 1691, Charles Perrault published anonymously the tale in verse "Griselda". The plot was borrowed from Boccaccio's short story. The appearance of the fairy tale passed completely unnoticed, the reading public did not see anything new and original in it. However, Perrault soon released another fairy tale in verse - "Funny Desires", borrowing a plot from a medieval fablio. She suffered the same fate.

Charles Perrault understands that it is necessary to look for an original genre, a new form that could captivate the reader. He abruptly changes the poetic form traditional for a fairy tale and turns to prose. In 1694, the fairy tale "Donkey Skin" appears, where poetry is interspersed with prose. The fairy tale was finally noticed, even N. Boileau speaks kindly of it.

In subsequent years, Perrault regularly published his prose tales in the Gallant Mercury magazine. He skillfully handles folklore stories, including in them allusions to contemporary events.

In 1694, a year and a half after the publication of The Donkey Skin, his little book of eight tales was published. He titles it "The Tales of My Mother Goose". The popularity of the collection was truly incredible.

Almost immediately after the Paris edition comes the Dutch edition. In addition, there have been several reprints. The tales of Charles Perrault are read in aristocratic living rooms and in the homes of educated citizens.

The secret of the popularity of fairy tales was that they were written in beautiful language, each sentence is stylistically perfected. Perrault ruthlessly discards all irrelevant details, everything that interferes with the ease of reading. In accordance with the views of his time, he also excludes everything terrible that can frighten the reader. Even the cannibal in the tale "The Boy with a Thumb" is an excellent family man, and Puss in Boots behaves like a gallant gentleman. But behind the external unpretentiousness of the plot lies painstaking work. In the preface to the collection, Charles Perrault directly stated that the main thing in his fairy tales is not the plot, but the way the material is processed. The reader was also able to appreciate the author's subtle irony that accompanies the elegant plot twists and turns.

But Charles Perrault was most concerned with literary controversy. At that time, almost simultaneously with this collection, Countess D "Olnoy released a four-volume collection of her fairy tales. However, it was Perrault's work that determined the development of the literary fairy tale genre. A. Gallan, the author of a retelling of fairy tales for children from the Thousand and One Nights, published in 1701, He wrote directly that he considers him his teacher.

The system of processing folklore plots applied by Charles Perrault allowed future writers to use the motifs of magical, everyday and satirical tales as the basis for their works. At the same time, the fantastic beginning of the tale, its external structure, and the static interpretation of the images of the characters were preserved.

Only over time, more complex plot twists began to be introduced into the narrative, and the characters received a detailed psychological description. In 1768, the fairy tales of Charles Perrault were first translated into Russian, since then they have repeatedly appeared in various editions and translations. G. Dore and the Traugot brothers are considered their best illustrators. It can be said that the plots of Perrault's fairy tales have now replaced their folklore predecessors. A lot of their alterations and options appeared both in Russia and in other countries. Millions of children begin their acquaintance with a fairy tale, with the writings of Charles Perrault.

The boys sat down on the bench and began to discuss the current situation - what to do next. They knew one thing for sure: they would not return to the boring college for anything. But you have to study. Charles heard this from childhood from his father, who was a lawyer for the Paris Parliament. And his mother was an educated woman, she herself taught her sons to read and write. When Charles entered college at the age of eight and a half, his father checked his lessons every day, he had great respect for books, teaching, and literature. But only at home, with his father and brothers, it was possible to argue, to defend his point of view, and in college it was required to cram, it was only necessary to repeat after the teacher, and God forbid, argue with him. For these disputes, Charles was expelled from the lesson.

No, no more to the disgusting college with a foot! But what about education? The boys racked their brains and decided: we will study on our own. Right there in the Luxembourg Gardens, they drew up a routine and from the next day began to implement it.

Borin came to Charles at 8 in the morning, they studied together until 11, then dined, rested and studied again from 3 to 5. The boys read ancient authors together, studied the history of France, learned Greek and Latin, in a word, those subjects that they would pass and in college.

“If I know anything,” Charles wrote many years later, “I owe it solely to these three or four years of study.”

What happened to the second boy named Borin, we do not know, but the name of his friend is now known to everyone - his name was Charles Perrault. And the story you've just learned took place in 1641, under Louis XIV, the Sun King, in the days of curled wigs and musketeers. It was then that the one whom we know as the great storyteller lived. True, he himself did not consider himself a storyteller, and sitting with a friend in the Luxembourg Gardens, he did not even think about such trifles.

Charles Perrault was born on January 12, 1628. He was not a nobleman, but his father, as we know, sought to give all his sons (he had four of them) a good education. Two of the four have become truly famous: firstly, the eldest is Claude Perrault, who became famous as an architect (by the way, he is the author of the East facade of the Louvre). The second celebrity in the Perrault family was the youngest - Charles. He wrote poetry: odes, poems, very numerous, solemn and long. Now few people remember them. But later he became especially famous as the head of the "new" party during the sensational dispute of the "ancient" and "new" in its time.

The essence of this dispute was this. In the 17th century, the opinion still prevailed that the ancient writers, poets and scientists created the most perfect, the best works. The "new", that is, Perrault's contemporaries, can only imitate the ancients, all the same they are not able to create anything better. The main thing for a poet, playwright, scientist is the desire to be like the ancients. Perrault's main opponent, the poet Nicolas Boileau, even wrote a treatise "Poetic Art", in which he established "laws" on how to write each work, so that everything was exactly like the ancient writers. It was against this that the desperate debater Charles Perrault began to object.

Why should we imitate the ancients? he wondered. Are modern authors: Corneille, Moliere, Cervantes worse? Why quote Aristotle in every scholarly writing? Is Galileo, Pascal, Copernicus below him? After all, Aristotle's views were outdated long ago, he did not know, for example, about blood circulation in humans and animals, did not know about the movement of the planets around the Sun.

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"Why so respect the ancients? - wrote Perrault. - Only for antiquity? We ourselves are ancient, because in our time the world has become older, we have more experience." About all this Perrault wrote a treatise "Comparison of ancient and modern". This caused a storm of indignation among those who believed that the authority of the Greeks and Romans was unshakable. It was then that Perrault was reminded that he was self-taught, they began to accuse him of criticizing the ancients only because he did not know them, did not read, did not know either Greek or Latin. This, however, was not at all the case.

To prove that his contemporaries are no worse, Perrault published a huge volume "Famous People of France of the 17th century", here he collected more than a hundred biographies of famous scientists, poets, historians, surgeons, artists. He wanted people not to sigh - oh, the golden times of antiquity have passed - but, on the contrary, to be proud of their century, their contemporaries. So Perrault would have remained in history only as the head of the "new" party, but ...

But then the year 1696 came, and the tale "Sleeping Beauty" appeared without a signature in the magazine "Gallant Mercury". And the following year, in Paris and at the same time in The Hague, the capital of Holland, the book "Tales of Mother Goose" was published. The book was small, with simple pictures. And suddenly - an incredible success!

Charles Perrault, of course, did not invent fairy tales himself, he remembered some from childhood, others he learned during his life, because when he sat down for fairy tales, he was already 65 years old. But he not only wrote them down, but he himself turned out to be an excellent storyteller. Like a real storyteller, he made them terribly modern. If you want to know what fashion was in 1697, read Cinderella: the sisters, going to the ball, dress in the latest fashion. And the palace where Sleeping Beauty fell asleep. - according to the description exactly Versailles!

The language is the same - all people in fairy tales speak the way they would speak in life: the woodcutter and his wife, the parents of the Boy with a finger speak like ordinary people, and princesses, as befits princesses. Remember, Sleeping Beauty exclaims when she sees the prince who woke her up:

"Ah, is that you, prince? You kept yourself waiting!"

They are magical and realistic at the same time, these fairy tales. And their heroes act like quite living people. Puss in Boots is a real smart guy from the people, who, thanks to his own cunning and resourcefulness, not only suits the fate of his master, but also becomes an "important person" himself. "He doesn't catch mice anymore, except occasionally for fun." The boy with a finger also quite practically does not forget at the last moment to pull out a bag of gold from the Ogre's pocket, and thus saves his brothers and parents from starvation.

Perrault tells a fascinating story - from a fairy tale, from any, be it "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty" or "Little Red Riding Hood", it is impossible to tear yourself away until you finish reading or listening to the very end. Still, the action develops rapidly, all the time you want to know - what will happen next? Here Bluebeard demands his wife to be punished, the unfortunate woman shouts to her sister: "Anna, my sister Anna, can't you see anything?" The cruel, vengeful husband had already grabbed her by the hair, raised his terrible saber over her. "Ah," the sister exclaims, "these are our brothers. I'm giving them a sign to hurry!" Rather, sooner, we are worried. At the very last moment, everything ends well.

And so each fairy tale, none of them leaves the reader indifferent. This, perhaps, is the secret of the amazing tales of Perrault. After they appeared, numerous imitations began to appear, they were written by everyone, even secular ladies, but none of these books survived to this day. And "Tales of Mother Goose" live, they are translated into all languages ​​of the world, they are familiar in every corner of the earth.

In Russian, Perrault's fairy tales were first published in Moscow in 1768 under the title "Tales of Sorceresses with Morals", and they were titled like this: "The Tale of a Girl with a Little Red Riding Hood", "The Tale of a Man with a Blue Beard", "Fairy Tale about the father cat in spurs and boots", "The Tale of the Beauty Sleeping in the Forest" and so on. Then new translations appeared, they came out in 1805 and 1825. Soon Russian children, as well as their peers in others. countries, learned about the adventures of the Boy with a finger, Cinderella and Puss in Boots. And now there is no person in our country who would not have heard of Little Red Riding Hood or Sleeping Beauty.

Could the poet, academician, famous in his time, think that his name would be immortalized not by long poems, solemn odes and learned treatises, but by a thin book of fairy tales. Everything will be forgotten, and she will live for centuries. Because her characters have become friends of all children - the favorite heroes of the wonderful fairy tales of Charles Perrault.