C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695)
La Fontaine, Jean de (lä-fo
-tān’). A celebrated French fabulist and poet; born at Château-Thierry, in Champagne, July 8, 1621; died in Paris, April 13, 1695. His first work was an adaptation of Terence’s ‘Eunuch’ (1654). His poem ‘Adonis’ was published in 1658. His principal works are ‘Stories and Novels’ (5 books, 1665–95), and the ‘Fables’ (12 books, 1668–95),—both in verse. The ‘Stories’ are mostly versions of stories like Boccaccio’s and Margaret of Navarre’s, and almost unrivaled in variety and vividness; but their licentiousness caused the suppression of one book in 1675 by the public censor. In this respect the ‘Fables’ are without blemish, while as works of literary art they stand in the foremost rank. He wrote some dramas of little worth; also a version in prose and verse of ‘The Loves of Psyche’ (1669). (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).