Jean de La Fontaine is best known for his Fables, but his Tales and Contes en vers are a quite different proposition: witty, often bawdy verse narratives drawn from Boccaccio, Ariosto, and French medieval fabliaux, full of cuckolds, clever servants, and amorous monks. Written in the latter half of the seventeenth century, they show another, earthier side of the classical French literary temperament.
Long overshadowed by his more respectable Fables, the Contes reward rediscovery. Download this complete public-domain English translation as a free EPUB.