Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (28 November 1685 – 29 December 1755)[1] was a French author influenced by Madame d'Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, and various précieuse writers.

She belonged to a powerful Protestant family from La Rochelle and was a descendant of Amos Barbot, a Peer of France and a deputy in the Estates General in 1614.

Another relative, Jean Barbot (1655-1712), was an early explorer of West Africa and the Caribbean, and worked as an agent on slave ships.

He published his travel journals in French and English after he migrated to England to escape the persecution of Protestants after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Within six months of their marriage, she requested a separation of property from her husband, who had already squandered much of their substantial joint inheritance.

[2] After her death, Villeneuve's tale was abridged, rewritten, and published by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 in her Magasin des enfants to teach young English girls a moral lesson.

[4] In her widely popular publication, Leprince de Beaumont gave no credit to Villeneuve and thus she is often wrongly referred to as the author of the tale.