Charles Perrault was an author and member of the Académie française. He is best known for being one of the first people to collect folk tales and write them down. His 'contes' or fairy tales quickly became popular with aristocratic French readers and have been well known ever since. Among the tales he authored are 'Little Red Riding Hood', 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Puss in Boots'. The Brothers Grimm rewrote many of his tales for their own book.

Gustave Doré was a prolific and very popular illustrator working in Paris and London in the nineteenth century. He illustrated many of the classics, including the works of Dante and Milton. His wildly imaginative and incredibly detailed engravings particularly suit fantastical subjects such as Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso and Perrault's fairy tales. This is the first edition of the stories with Doré's illustrations, which were produced in sumptuous folio size using the process of wood engraving, which was then transferred onto a lithographic plate for printing. Doré's illustrations have since been much reproduced, and are indeed still in print today.