Charles Perrault was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his 1697 book Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The best known of his tales include Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Cendrillon ("Cinderella"), Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté, La Belle au bois dormant, and Barbe Bleue ("Bluebeard").