Fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, with the first literary fairy tale believed to be Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche written around 100AD, which is very similar in nature to the base story of Beauty and the Beast. This is the first distinguishable fairytale as a subgenre of folklore, as it had been removed from the oral tradition of storytelling. As time progressed a similar style of tales emerged in Hindu civilisation and by 850AD the first literary version of Cinderella had been written in China. For the next eight centuries, writers in Europe (especially Italy) enjoyed the style, creating many popular tales. It was then in the salons of late seventeenth century France, that the style gained its title. The works of the salons' many female authors became widely acknowledged, and their dubbing as "contes de fees- was soon translated into English as "fairy tales-. It was in this time that a male French author, Charles Perrault, wrote his first collection of Mother Goose Tales. They experienced immediate success with the inclusion of such classics as The Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots and a Western version of Cinderella. Perrault's stories reached Britain, and became some of the best known fairy tales of all time. More writers chose to take up the challenge of writing in this style, and many simply developed different versions of pre existing fairy tales. So far, these stories had not been intended for children, with complex storylines, extensive length and adult subject matter.
In 1756 the best known version of Beauty and the Beast was published as the first literary fairy tale especially for children with educational messages and a simpler storyline. The success of texts written for a younger audience was realised, and soon German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published the collection of Childhood and Household Tales that included Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.