page_title: Histoires ou contes du temps passé
section_title: Influence and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Histoires ou contes du temps passé / Influence and legacy
caption_attribution_description: illustration
context_page_description: Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités or Contes de ma mère l'Oye is a collection of literary fairy tales written by Charles Perrault, published in Paris in 1697. The work became popular because it was written at a time when fairy tales were fashionable amongst aristocrats in Parisian literary salons. Perrault wrote the work when he retired from court as secretary to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister to Louis XIV of France. Colbert's death may have forced Perrault's retirement, at which point he turned to writing. Scholars have debated as to the origin of his tales and whether they are original literary fairy tales modified from commonly known stories, or based on stories written by earlier medieval writers such as Boccaccio.
  Elaborate embellishments were a preferred style at the French court. The simple plots Perrault started with were modified, the language enhanced, and rewritten for an audience of aristocratic and noble courtiers.
context_section_description: In 1729, Robert Samber translated the volume into English, Histories, or Tales of Past Time, which popularized in England, and later in America, the term "Mother Goose Tales".
  In the 19th century, in part because of the rise of romanticism, interest in fairy tales revived. In Germany the Brothers Grimm, believing that tradition, folklore, and the common people were necessary to a national identity, collected and published fairy tales in the 1812 publication of Grimms' Fairy Tales, which they defined as traditionally German, although they included Perrault's tales in their collection. At that time a myth was created that Perrault's tales were an "exact reflection of folklore", as Jean describes it, although many of his tales had little basis in traditional folklore. Nonetheless, in the 19th century, Perrault's tales were reevaluated and considered to have been inspired by common people and based in folkloric tradition. At this time the tales became popular as examples of showing traditional folkloric values.
  Gustave Doré's edition of the tales, published with 36 engravings in 1864, caused a renewed interest in Perrault. Andrew Lang published an annotated exact translation of the original French text in 1888.
  In the 20th century, scholars discovered the tales originated in medieval texts; but that they had undergone frequent adaptations and modifications. Although the structure remained, Perrault's original tales are sometimes hard to distinguish from modified versions, but the tales are now considered to have become part of folkloric tradition. Today hundreds of editions in hundreds of languages have been published.
caption: Illustration of "Hop o' My Thumb" from Gustave Dore's 1864 edition of Perrault's tales
exif: {}