Happy 388th Birthday Charles Perrault!

While the Brothers Grimm have been widely credited with all of our classic fairytales, such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood, Charles Perrault wrote the original stories over 200 years earlier.  The French writer wrote Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals, a series of stories with the intent of getting the reader to reflect on the problems faced by the protagonist.  Perrault's original fairytales were, also, much more direct and explicit than what they have become today.

Sleeping Beauty- Today's 1959 Disney version of Sleeping Beauty is actually a combination of Perrault's version and the Grimm Brothers's Briar Rose.  But, the Disney version did away with a lot of the darkness in the two stories, which were very dark.

Cinderella- Disney's 1950 version was pretty spot on to Perrault's original story as far as plot goes.

Little Red Riding Hood- This classic fairytale has become much more implicit than Perrault's orginal.  He had clearly showed that the wolf was a man preying on innocent girls in the woods, rather than an actual wolf.  

Happy Birthday Charles Perrault, father of fairytales!

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