<P> The earliest known printed version was known as Le Petit Chaperon Rouge and may have had its origins in 17th - century French folklore . It was included in the collection Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals . Tales of Mother Goose ( Histoires et contes du temps passé , avec des moralités . Contes de ma mère l'Oye ) , in 1697 , by Charles Perrault . As the title implies , this version is both more sinister and more overtly moralized than the later ones . The redness of the hood , which has been given symbolic significance in many interpretations of the tale , was a detail introduced by Perrault . </P>
who wrote the original little red riding hood story
Charles Perrault