The book presents the first biography in Russian of the great French storyteller Charles Perrault (1628–1703), the author of “Cinderella” and “Puss in Boots”, “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Bluebeard” - fairy tales that are familiar to each of us since childhood. During his lifetime, he was known primarily as the author of bombastic poems and treatises, as well as as a dignitary in charge of the official celebration of the works of literature and art of King Louis XIV, and as an academician (and at one time even chairman) of the French Academy. However, true immortality over the centuries was brought to him by eight small fairy tales, published by him on behalf of his son Pierre in the collection “Tales of Mother Goose” in 1696.