PERRAULT, CHARLES (1628-1703), French author, was born in Paris on Jan. 12, 1628. His father, Pierre Perrault, was a barrister, whose four sons were all men of some distinction: Claude (1613-1688) was a physician and architect, and translated Vitruvius (1673). Charles was brought up at the College de Beauvais, and of ter quarrelling with his masters followed his own bent. He took his degree of licencie en droit at Orleans in 1651, and was called to the Paris bar, where he practised for a short time. In 1654 his brother became receiver-general of Paris, and made Charles his clerk. About ten years later he became Colbert's secretary. He was controller-general of the department of public works, member of the commission that afterwards developed into the Academie des inscriptions, and in 1671 he was admitted to the Academie francaise.
Colbert's death in 1683 put an end to Perrault's official career, and he then gave himself up to literature, beginning with Saint Paulin eveque de Nole, avec une epitre chretienne sur la penitence, et une ode aux nouveaux convertis. The dispute of the ancients and moderns arose from a poem on the Siecle de Louis le Grand (1687), read before the Academy by Perrault, on which Boileau commented in violent terms. Perrault had a will of his own, and he published (4 vols., 1688-1696) his Parallele des anciens et des modernes. The controversy that followed raged hotly both in France and England.
The first of Perrault's famous contes, Griselidis, in verse, appeared in 1691, and was reprinted with Peau d'ane and Les Souhaits ridicules, also in verse, in a Recueil de pieces curieuses (The Hague, 1694). But Perrault was no poet, and the
merit of these pieces is entirely obscured by that of the prose tales, La Belle au bois dormant, Petit chaperon rouge, La Barbe bleue, Le Chat botte, Les Fees, Cendrillon, Riquet a la houppe and Le Petit poucet, which appeared with the title of Histoires on contes du temps passe avec des moralites (c. 1697). The frontispiece con tained a placard with the inscription, Contes de ma mere l'oie. Perrault's other works include his Memoires, giving much informa tion on Colbert's ministry; an Eneide travestie written in collabora tion with his two brothers, and Les Hommes illustres qui ont paru en France pendant ce siecle (2 vols., 1696-1700). He died on May 16, 1703, in Paris. His son, Perrault d'Arma-Court, was the author of Contes des fees, containing the story of Cinderella, etc.
Except the tales, Perrault's works have not recently been reprinted. Of these there are many modern editions, e.g., by Paul Lacroix (1876), and by A. Lefebvre ("Nouvelle collection Jannet," 1875) ; also Per rault's Popular Tales (Oxford, 1888), which contains the French text edited by Andrew Lang, with an introduction, and an examination of the sources of each story. See also Hippolyte Rigault, Hist. de la querelle des anciens et des modernes (1856).