The conte is in some ways the perfect literary form for the French eighteenth century. The tale is among the most ancient of genres, which endows it with a received if modest status within the French classical hierarchy inherited by the Enlightenment. It is also associated, though less specifically than the fable, with exemplarity and the conveying of wisdom. Its popular origins and its simplicity, transmuted by literary treatment, allow for a variety of registers; its openness will admit a variety of content. Its brevity too is admirably suited to the mode of the rococo and the age of wit. A tale can be included within a longer narrative, or appear freestanding in the elite monthly Mercure, or be collected with other pieces in a volume. But it may first circulate sociably through salon performance or manuscript transmission. It would tend to be published anonymously, and if a little improper then illegally or abroad. For these reasons, the literary folktale (conte gaulois, conte de fées, conte oriental) is often in this period less ‘itself’ than an ironic or double-voiced version of itself. Offered playfully, it can be enjoyed in the same way, authorising a sophisticated culture to take pleasure from its mock naïvety, while hinting perhaps at a certain scepticism towards grander narratives. Frivolity would increasingly serve as a cover for material which is indecent, vulgar or polemical (combined variously in the conte libertin, conte poissard, and conte philosophique).