Were the original Mother Goose tales actually written for sophisticated adults, not children?
In short: Charles Perrault’s 1697 collection, Histoires ou contes du temps passé, is synonymous with childhood folklore today. Yet, these tales were crafted for the elite of Parisian literary salons, designed to showcase wit and modern sensibilities rather than entertain children. The myth of the humble nursery origin is a later invention.
Published in 1697, Perrault’s collection emerged from the fashionable world of the French court and the literary style known as préciosité. Perrault, a former secretary to Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, wrote these stories during a period when fairy tales were a popular pastime among aristocrats. Rather than recording peasant folklore, he took existing literary plots and embellished them with sophisticated language to appeal to his peers. Scholars like Ruth Bottigheimer have explicitly discounted the popular myth that Perrault simply transcribed stories he heard from a household nurse.
The tales served specific social and political functions. Perrault, a proponent of the 'Moderns' in the famous literary quarrel of the 1690s, used the stories to modernize ancient themes. His work reinforced royal absolutism and Catholic values, often portraying female characters as sinful figures who must undergo purification or repentance. For instance, the character of Griselidis is depicted as achieving worthiness through obedience, while Sleeping Beauty’s century of sleep is framed as penance for the sin of curiosity. These narratives were deeply moralistic, reflecting the rigid class and gender hierarchies of the 17th-century French elite.
It was not until the 19th century that these stories were rebranded as traditional folklore. The Brothers Grimm, seeking to define a national identity, included Perrault’s tales in their 1812 collection, inadvertently fueling the misconception that they were an exact reflection of common folk tradition. In reality, Perrault’s work was a deliberate literary project. While the stories have since become part of global folklore, their origins lie in the intellectual ambitions of a courtier trying to impress the most demanding, sophisticated audience of his time.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Histoires ou contes du temps passé
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