Today's Google Doodle Celebrates Charles Perrault — A Writer Every Child Grew Up Reading

Tuesday's Google Doodles depict familiar scenes. One is a horse-drawn carriage in front of a majestical castle, flocked by a princess in a ballgown and a glass slipper. The imagery is straight out of the classic fairytale Cinderella. The other two doodles — Sleeping Beauty and Puss in Boots — are equally recognizable. The three doodles celebrate the author of that folklore and more to recognize Charles Perrault's 388th birthday.

Perrault was born on January 12, 1628 in Paris, according to the Telegraph. He began his life as a lawyer on the court for Louis XIV before penning Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Mother Goose, and essentially pioneering the genre of fairytales, the Guardian reported. 

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"The backbone of these fairy tales persist within contemporary novels and movies, making our reading or cinema-going a fundamentally optimistic venture: When we hear 'once upon a time,' we've come to expect — and anxiously await — a 'happily ever after,'" Google wrote, adding that Perrault created the "standard" for the fairytale as we know it.

Most people attribute the creation of fairytales to the Brothers Grimm, who wrote the long-haired Rapunzel, but Perrault had already written Cinderella many years before, in 1697, the Telegraph reported.

Using oral folklore, those classic opening lines and a humble moral, Perrault was able to develop the format of the modern fairytale, many of which would last his lifetime a few times over, according to Google. 

Many of Perrault's stories have been converted into children's movies, and also watered down. His versions were darker and more explicit, the Telegraph reported. For example, his Sleeping Beauty was to warn girls that being curious would lead to sin, the Independent reported.