Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables, published in twelve books between 1668 and 1694, are the crowning achievement of French classical literature’s shorter forms. Drawing on Aesop, Phaedrus, and Oriental sources, La Fontaine reimagined ancient animal tales with such linguistic grace, wit, and psychological depth that they became the foundation of French literary education for centuries.
This selection of one hundred fables gives readers the finest of them in English verse translation. Download this public-domain collection as a free EPUB and meet the fox, the crow, and the grasshopper in their most elegant form.