Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. "Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots" (early French: Le Maistre Chat, ou Le Chat Botté, literally "The Booted Cat"), commonly known as "Puss in Boots", is a French literary fairy tale about a cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for his penniless and low-born master. The tale was written at the close of the seventeenth century by Charles Perrault (1628 1703), a retired civil servant and member of the Académie française. The tale appeared in a handwritten and illustrated manuscript two years before its 1697 publication by Barbin in a collection of eight fairy tales by Perrault called Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The book was an instant success and remains popular today.