Charles Perrault was a French poet and writer. He is remembered
mainly for his collection of fairytales published in 1697 under the
title Histoires, ou contes du temps passe, avec des Moralitez.
His book became famous as Contes De ma Mere L'Oye, or Tales of Mother Goose. It contained eight tales - The Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Diamonds and Toads, Cinderella, Riquet a la Houppe, and Tom Thumb - probably retold based on cruder folk versions.
Perrault's elegant and simple style made these tales extremely
popular, and they quickly became the accepted version of the stories.
These tales as we have them today owe their form and beauty to
Perrault's magical retelling.
The German brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm spent years collecting
and researching folk tales early in the 19th century. They published Children's and Household Tales in 1812, a collection which became known as Grimm's Fairy Tales. The collection included what are now some of the world's most famous stories, including Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin.
Wilhelm married in 1825, but Jacob never wed and for most of his life
lived in his brother's home. The brothers also began a German
historical dictionary, the enormous Deutsches Worterbook, which ran to 16 volumes when it was finally completed by others in 1954.
