Charles Perrault was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, and whose best known tales include Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Hop o' My Thumb, Diamonds and Toads, Patient Griselda,The Ridiculous Wishes, Donkeyskin and Ricky of the Tuft. Perrault's most famous stories are still in print today and have been made into operas, ballets ( e.g., Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty), plays, musicals, and films, including the highly-successful animated features Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Perrault's tales were mostly adapted from earlier folk tales in the milieu of stylish literary salons in the 1690s, as a diversion from the more strenuous energy expended in the Battle of the Ancients and Moderns or the struggles of Jansenism. For amusement, someone would take a simple traditional tale, such as an old peasant woman might tell in the kitchens, and remake into in a "moralized," succinct, witty story purged of all coarseness. The salon audience, whose favorite literature was full of high-flown sentiment, could appreciate such well-turned, short sermons.