Fifty Fables of La Fontaine

Front Cover
University of Illinois Press, 1988 - History - 119 pages
Fifty of La Fontaine's verse fables in the original French are found side by side with their English translations.

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Contents

LA GRENOUILLE QUI SE VEUT FAIRE
6
LE LOUP ET LAGNEAU
11
The Oak and the Reed
11
Copyright

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About the author (1988)

Although he had a degree to practice law, La Fontaine does not seem to have done so but, rather, spent his life in Paris dependent on aristocratic patrons. His principal contribution to literature was his 12 books of Fables, to which he devoted 30 years of his life. They were published from 1668 to 1694 and are universally appreciated in France by children and adults alike. In drawing on a tradition of the fable going back to Aesop, La Fontaine created a portrait of human life and French society through the representations of animals. His work is marked by great insight into human moral character, while it preaches the value of the middle road.

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