The eight stories contained in this volume are first found in print in
French in a magazine entitled, _Receuil de pièces curieuses et nouvelles
tant en prose qu'en vers_, which was published by Adrian Moetjens at The
Hague in 1696-1697. They were immediately afterward published at Paris
in a volume entitled, _Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé, avec des
Moralites--Contes de ma mère l'Oie_.

The earliest translation into English has been found in a little book
containing both the English and French, entitled, "Tales of Passed
Times, by Mother Goose. With Morals. Written in French by M. (Charles)
Perrault, and Englished by R.S. Gent."

Who R.S. was and when he made his translation we can only conjecture.
Mr. Andrew Lang, in his "Perrault's Popular Tales" (p. xxxiv), writes:
"An English version translated by Mr. Samber, printed for J. Pote, was
advertised, Mr. Austin Dobson tells me, in the _Monthly Chronicle_,
March, 1729."

These stories which may be said to be as old as the race
itself--certainly their germs are to be found in the oldest literature
and among the oldest folk-tales in the world--were orally current in
France and the neighboring countries in nearly the form in which
Perrault wrote them for very many years; and an interesting account of
the various forms in which they are found in the literature and
folklore of other nations before Perrault's time is given in _Les Contes
de ma mère l'Oie avant Perrault_, by Charles Deulin, Paris, E. Dentu,
1878.