A literary fairy tale is a fairy tale that differs from an oral folktale in that it is written by "a single identifiable author", as defined by Jens Tismar's monograph.
[1] They also differ from oral folk tales, which can be characterized as "simple and anonymous", and exist in a mutable and difficult to define genre with a close relationship to oral tradition.
[2] One of the earliest stories of this type is that of Cupid and Psyche, a story originally from Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass), written in the 2nd century AD by Apuleius.
[3]