The Fables of La Fontaine

Jean De La Fontaine, Trans. C. J. Moore, Ill. Jean-Noel Rochut

Floris Books

0863155715

Sep 2006

A well developed literary palate has a taste not only for fiction and fact, but also for folk-tales, for poetry, for drama and for fables. French poet and fabulist Jean La Fontaine (1621-1695) took inspiration from Aesop, Horace and the Panchatantra for his own three collections of fables.
A selection of over one-hundred of these has been translated by author and linguaphile C. J. Moore. They are made available, illustrated in full-colour throughout, by Floris Books. Incisive, satirical and always insightful, this selection includes such classics as ‘The Two Mules’ one with his load of salt and the other of sponges and is told with lyrical, rhyming, poetic diction.
Perfect tales with bite at their beginnings and the characteristic sting of the moral at their ending, these translations of the fables are fresh, fun and filled with verve and vitality.