LA FONTAINE: FABLES (ENGLISH / FRENCH – ILLUSTRATED BY GRANDVILLE)

LA FONTAINE: FABLES (ENGLISH / FRENCH – ILLUSTRATED BY GRANDVILLE)

Complete: Vol. I to XII
Translated from the French by Elizur Wright.
With Notes by J. W. M. Gibbs.

The Fables
From the 1882 English Edition

Les Fables
From the 1841 French Edition
With
Grandville‘s Illustrations

Divided into 12 books, there are 239 of the Fables, varying in length from a few lines to some hundred, those written later being as a rule longer than the earlier.

The most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. According to Flaubert, he was the only French poet to understand and master the texture of the French language before Hugo.

The numerous works of La Fontaine fall into three traditional divisions: the Fables, the Contes and the miscellaneous works. Of these the first may be said to be known universally, the second to be known to all lovers of French literature, the third to be with a few exceptions practically forgotten.