Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault ( born January 12, 1628 Paris, † night of 15 May to 16 May 1703, Paris) was a French writer and senior officials. It was popularized mainly by its fairy tale collection Contes de fées ( Fr. " fairy tale" ) famous and has the genre in France and thus in Europe. Also German authors such as the Brothers Grimm, Ludwig Bechstein and Franz Xaver von Schönwerth from the Upper Palatinate have taken Tale of him.

Life and work

The Early Years

Perrault ( whose twin brother died even as an infant ) grew up as the youngest of four brothers in a wealthy family, which belonged to the Parisian lawyers and senior officials milieu and, as there often, Jansenism was close. He urged law studies and was admitted to the bar in 1651.

He had already begun to write, in the currently fashionable genre of burlesque. He had 1648 Virgil Parody ( L' Enéide burlesque ) written and 1649 also parodic verse satire Les murs de Troie ou L' Origine du burlesque, where he mocks the rebellious people of Paris, with the revolt of the Fronde uprising had begun, but the Cardinal - Minister Mazarin does not spare, which was initially unsuccessful. Even in these texts reveals a certain lack of respect for the ancient world.

1653, after the end of the Fronde, he joined his older brother Pierre, who held a high post in the financial management of the crown services, and was introduced by him in the court. There and especially in Parisian salons, he excelled as a good conversationalist and versatile man of letters (eg with his Odes au Roi et autres poèmes ).

Here he fell to the older writers colleague Jean Chapelain to positive, the recommended him to the new all-powerful minister Colbert. This made ​​Perrault in 1662 secretary of the so-called Petite Academy, a sort auditor for all artistic and literary works, which King Louis XIV were offered for purchase or should be appropriated to him. A little later Perrault was something like a top cultural official. As such, he woke eg about the artistic quality of the royal buildings, which he rebuilds at the Louvre, and ( along with his brother Claude, a naturalist and architects ) was instrumental in the planning and building of the palace at Versailles. 1670 he took over the leadership of Chapelain the list of writers, Colbert and Louis XIV were agreeable and an annual bonus ( " board " ) from the royal box appeared worthy.

In 1671 he was elected with the help of Colbert to the French Academy and appointed shortly afterwards to their secretary, ie chairman, and librarian. At the same time ( 1672) he married, soon became the father of four, but soon ( 1678) widower. In 1680 he gave up his post at the Académie in favor of the son of Colbert.

The " Querelle des Anciens et Modernes"

1683 Perrault's career was halted by the death of Colbert, and he turned back to writing more about. So he wrote among other things the Christian epic Saint Paulin de Nole Évêque (1686).

Beginning in 1687, in a special meeting of the Academy, which was the homage of the king, he read as a Le Siècle de Louis le Grand -titled poem, in which he postulated the superiority of his time with the ancient world. Because until then was classical antiquity as an unattainable artistic and civilizational model, Perrault broke with his poem from an unexpectedly fierce controversy that became known as the Querelle des Anciens et Modernes in history.

At the side of the traditionalists, the "Old ", included almost all arrivierten authors of the time, especially Bossuet, Fénelon, La Bruyère, La Fontaine, Racine and Boileau. On the side of the "modern " based, inter alia, Saint- Evremond, Bayle and Fontenelle position. Especially Boileau was a dogged opponent Perrault. He had 1674 in his Verspoetik L'Art poétique still, of course, the ancient literature granted precedence.

1688 Perrault began to prove its case, to write individual comparisons in dialogue form, which he edited until 1697 collected in four volumes under the title Parallèles des Anciens et des Modernes. The same purpose is served the portrait series Les Hommes qui ont paru en France illustrious pendant ce Siècle, which also grew to four volumes (1696-1700 published ).

Meantime, however, also worked the time for him. Boileau reconciled itself publicly with him in 1694, and in 1700 was the idea of ​​the equivalence, if not superiority of modernity become practically commonplace.

The Tales

However, Perrault was to become famous primarily for his fairy tales. Already from 1691 to 1694 he had published three fairy tale -like narrative poems: La Marquise de Saluces ou La Patience de Grisélidis, Les Souhaits ridicules and Peau d' Âne, which he published in 1694 and again in 1695 as ribbons. After the success of which he published in 1697 with no indication of the author Histoires ou contes du temps eight passé, avec des moralites: Contes de ma Mère l' Oye. Dedicated to the collection was Élisabeth Charlotte of Orléans, niece of Louis XIV As a signatory to the dedication and alleged author figured " P. Darmancour ", ie third Perrault, 1678 born son Pierre. A claim that the stories came from " Mother Goose", appears to relate to Bertha, the legendary mother of Charlemagne, who is said to have had a lot of spiders deformed " goose foot ".

The tale itself stemmed both from oral tradition as well as by other authors ( eg, Giovanni Francesco Giambattista Basile and Straparola ). Perrault fitted them to the taste of the then literary audience, especially the Parisian salons. So he leaves the individual texts that he wrote aesthetically sleek, easy archaic prose, follow one it funny and ironic commentary, morals in verse and sometimes even mutually relativistic two.

Perrault's collection in France meant the breakthrough for the genre tale.

Also in 1697, the same year as the fairy tale, Perrault published a religious epic, Adam ou La Création de l' Homme, which he dedicated to Bishop Bossuet. Perhaps he had, therefore, the tale does not want to draw his own name.

In 1701 he began with the drafting of memoirs, but were posthumously printed in 1755.

List of fairy tales

• Le Petit Chaperon rouge ( Little Red Riding Hood / Grimm)
• La Barbe bleue ( Bluebeard / Bechstein )
• Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté ( Puss in Boots / Grimm)
• Les fées ( Frau Holle and the three little men in the wood / Grimm)
• Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de verre ( Cinderella / Grimm)
• (Found Riquet with the tuft, in any of the traditional German collections ) Riquet à la houppe
• Le Petit Poucet ( Tom Thumb / Bechstein )
• La Belle au Bois dormant ( Sleeping Beauty / Grimm) ( A first version has already been printed in 1696 )

Posthumously were often published together with the three Versmärchen Perrault's in a band, the eight Contes de ma Mère l' Oye. Ludwig Tieck, translated the tale into German and here about them found their way into the collections of the Brothers Grimm and Ludwig Bechstein.

Reception

Many of the tales of Perrault were adapted to the European common property and for the theater, ballet or film.

One of the most popular ballets, Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky, based on an adaptation of La belle au bois dormant by Perrault. Maurice Ravel composed a piano suite for four hands Ma Mère l' Oye, which in 1910 was orchestrated and performed later than ballet.

The most common Perrault adaptations of Walt Disney (although based on the English versions ) are the cartoons Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty ( 1959).

Works

• Poème sur le siècle de Louis le Grand. 1687th
• Parallèles the anciens et des modern en ce qui regarde les arts et les sciences. 1688-97 ( four volumes ).
• Le cabinet des beaux arts d' ou recueil estampes Gravees d'après les tableaux d'un plafond où sont les beaux arts representes: avec l' explication of ces mêmes tableaux. Edelinck, Paris 1690 ( digitized ).
• Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralites: Contes de ma mère l' Oye. 1697 (German fairy tale for youth, 1822. Modern translation by Doris Maier thistle -Haas under the title All fairy tales Reclam, Stuttgart, 2001, 141 pp., ISBN 3-15-008355-9, English Mother Goose ).
• Mémoires de C. Perrault. 1755.
• Mazes de Versailles. / Author of the prose: Charles Perrault. Author of the verses: Isaac de Benserade. Engraver: W. Swidde. - Amsteldam. Visscher, 1682 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf.