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," &c., 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).