To the countless - of all ages! - who demur from doing something with the excuse, "I'm too old," always remember the name Charles Perrault!
Wait - you've never heard of Monsieur Perrault? Check today's Google doodle! He was papa to Cinderella, Aurora & Puss, grand-pere of today's Belle, Ariel, & even Elsa. It was Charles Perrault - not the widely known Brothers Grimm - who was the first to write the fairy tales still cherished today (although what he would make of Once Upon A Time or Disney's Descendants is anyone's guess!).
Here's the hook, worthy of any good storytelling - Ms. Perrault was retired from a long career as a lawyer & in government service when he put pen to paper, at 67. Sixty-seven years old, in an age where the average life span topped at 40! Turns that "too old" excuse into dust!
Perrault's Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Tales of Mother Goose), written in 1695, is a series of morality tales that he designed to help readers reflect on the problem facing the tale's protagonist, whether it was a clever cat saving his own skin or the astonishing graciousness of an under-appreciated, over-worked Cinderella. He didn't claim to create the stories - they were already well-known within much of Europe, but he helped preserve them as storytelling's oral tradition was being brushed aside by print.
How charming that Perrault used his son's name - Pierre - as the nom de plume for his book!
Perrault's book wasn't an aberration, the fluke outpouring of a government hack. It was the culmination of all that went before. Yes, he was a lawyer by training & a government employee by choice. But what service he gave his country! And what a country & government ~ he wrote the tales after retiring from service as secretary to no less than Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister to the Sun King, Louis XIV!
Throughout his government service, Perrault lent a hand in creating the Académie royale des sciences de Paris (today's Institut de France), in addition to helping with restoring the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. He was appointed secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
In short, throughout his life, Perrault made the best of the opportunities at hand, had the good fortune to be alive at the time of French flowering & the family position to make the most of it. He did what he could with what he had where he was. Bravo!
Although he'd already done a bit of writing earlier, Perrault didn't start seriously penning stories until after his retirement. He didn't twiddle his thumbs & think, "Too old. Time to slow down & veg." Not Ms. Perrault! He took everything he'd gained over his lifetime & rolled it over into his greatest achievement.
Perrault's Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Tales of Mother Goose), written in 1695, is a series of morality tales that he designed to help readers reflect on the problem facing the tale's protagonist, whether it was a clever cat saving his own skin or the astonishing graciousness of an under-appreciated, over-worked Cinderella. He didn't claim to create the stories - they were already well-known within much of Europe, but he helped preserve them as storytelling's oral tradition was being brushed aside by print.
How charming that Perrault used his son's name - Pierre - as the nom de plume for his book!
Perrault's book wasn't an aberration, the fluke outpouring of a government hack. It was the culmination of all that went before. Yes, he was a lawyer by training & a government employee by choice. But what service he gave his country! And what a country & government ~ he wrote the tales after retiring from service as secretary to no less than Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister to the Sun King, Louis XIV!
Throughout his government service, Perrault lent a hand in creating the Académie royale des sciences de Paris (today's Institut de France), in addition to helping with restoring the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. He was appointed secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
In short, throughout his life, Perrault made the best of the opportunities at hand, had the good fortune to be alive at the time of French flowering & the family position to make the most of it. He did what he could with what he had where he was. Bravo!
Although he'd already done a bit of writing earlier, Perrault didn't start seriously penning stories until after his retirement. He didn't twiddle his thumbs & think, "Too old. Time to slow down & veg." Not Ms. Perrault! He took everything he'd gained over his lifetime & rolled it over into his greatest achievement.
An achievement, by the way, that was probably birthed in an argument, Perrault getting in the last word & a lasting dig after a disappointing defeat.
Charles Perrault was deeply involved in a raging literary & artistic debate that pitted traditional against modern styles, with Perrault in the latter camp. The
querelle des Anciens et des Modernes (quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns) pitted the Ancients (Anciens), who celebrated the merits of ancient authors & felt writers should imitate rather than originate, against the Moderns (Modernes), who advocated the new, the fresh, the previously untried. As often happens, the quarrel was over something far deeper - the idea of progress in opposition to established authority.
querelle des Anciens et des Modernes (quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns) pitted the Ancients (Anciens), who celebrated the merits of ancient authors & felt writers should imitate rather than originate, against the Moderns (Modernes), who advocated the new, the fresh, the previously untried. As often happens, the quarrel was over something far deeper - the idea of progress in opposition to established authority.
Classicists were feeling crowded out by the times. Improved printing methods made books - knowledge - available to all classes. Improved firearms revolutionized warfare. Science was upending old beliefs. Refined navigational tools made global exploration easier, cheaper & safer. The times, they were a'changin' & the Old Guard was NOT happy.
Were Perrault's "morality tales" just him giving the literary finger to the Ancients (whose side won when the king came out on their side)? Makes sense to me. What sweet revenge - worthy of his own tales - to take time-honored stories, steeped in "ancient" tradition, then gave them a modern twist. To any ancien - OUCH!
Thank you, Google, for today's doodle! Will always remember Charles Perrault & how the whole of his life culminated in such a glorious denouement, how he might have lost an argument but his last gesture continues to resound, from bedtime retellings of Bluebeard & Little Red Riding Hood to today's Monsters Inc & Toy Story!
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