French man of letters, born in Paris; bred to the bar; distinguished as the author of inimitable fairy tales, which have immortalised his name, as "Puss in Boots," "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," etc., as also "Parallel des Anciens et des Modernes," in which his aim was to show—an ill-informed attempt—that the ancients were inferior in everything to the moderns (1628-1703).