COVE

D.J. Munro, “She met with Gaffer Wolf,” from The Tales of Mother Goose, by Charles Perrault, 1696, 1901 edition by D.C. Heath & Co, Project Gutenberg. The Tales of Mother Goose has a collection of eight folktales that were passed down before being published by French author, Charles Perrault, in 1696. After its first publication, the collection's popularity grew and then was translated into English in 1729. This collection includes incredibly well-known stories that have become a staple in children’s literature for their entertaining teaching of important morals. One classic in this collection is “Little Red Riding-Hood,” which follows a naïve, young girl who is sent into the woods to visit her sick grandmother. On her walk, she runs into the Wolf, and, not knowing any better, she stops to have a discussion with him. He tricks her into telling him where her grandmother lives and while Little Red Riding-Hood is easily distracted on her walk, the Wolf runs ahead to eat her grandmother. The Wolf dresses in the grandmother's clothes and eats Little Red Riding-Hood upon her arrival. This grim ending warns against the dangers of talking to strangers and the importance of obedience. Through this story children are meant to learn to obey their parent's advice and to be wary of trusting strangers. Other cautionary tales within this collection intend to teach children other important morals such as kindness, intelligence, resourcefulness, and many more important lessons. Overall, The Tales of Mother Goose provide children with an imaginative, fantastical way of learning, which is why it has remained a foundation to children’s literature for centuries.

Portrait of Charles Perrault (1628-1703) by Delpech, Francois-Seraphin. Château de Breteuil. Charles Perrault was born to a wealthy French bourgeois family in 1628. With access to many different opportunities, he attended university in Paris and explored different paths in philosophy, law, and with the French government under King Louis XIV. He was an avid writer and very dedicated to his four children which led to his legacy writing, Histoires ou contes du temps passé, which translates to Stories or Tales from Past Times. It then gained the unofficial title, Contes de ma Mère l’Oye, or the Tales of Mother Goose, and the published edition included an old woman on the cover weaving while telling stories to children. While incorporating Perrault’s own writing style, these stories were based on folk tales that had been passed down orally for generations, and Perrault was merely the first to write them down and officially publish them. Perrault’s version of these stories often included dramatized endings, which was a popular style within the French, like the story of “Little Red Riding-Hood” ending with the young girl being eaten by the wolf. These were intended to teach important morals often based in Christian teachings. With Perrault’s immediate success, he spurred the creation of the fairytale genre and influenced many authors to come such as the Grimm brothers or Hans Christian Anderson. Perrault’s stories have become classics within the fairytale genre with many being adapted by other authors or into different forms of media like plays, movies, and musicals.