Old-Time Stories

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About this book

Old-Time Stories is a book of eleven fairy tales, told by Master Charles Perrault on its title page, translated from the French by A. E. Johnson and illustrated by W. Heath Robinson. This translation is dated 1921, and its prefatory note says the first eight tales are from Perrault's own hand.

In one tale a princess lies asleep in her castle after being put to sleep for a hundred years, and a good fairy arrives in a chariot of fire drawn by dragons, warned by a dwarf in seven-league boots. She touches everyone in the castle but the king and queen, down to the horses and the pet dog Puff, so that all will wake with their mistress. In another, a merchant meets a Beast who lets him fill a box with gold pieces. Another has the portrait of Rosette carried in front of the King of the Peacocks.

About the author

Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault (1628-1703) was a French lawyer and senior administrator under Louis XIV's minister Colbert, and a member of the Academie francaise who argued the case for modern writers against the ancients. Only after leaving office did he publish the fairy tales that outlived all his official work.