The illustrated Fables of Jean de La Fontaine

Portrait of Jean de La Fontaine.

        "Jean de La Fontaine was born on the 8th of July, 1621, at Chateau-Thierry, and his family held a respectable position there.

        His education was neglected, but he had received that genius which makes amends for all. While still young the tedium of society led him into retirement, from which a taste for independence afterwards withdrew him.

        He had reached the age of twenty-two, when a few sounds from the lyre of Malherbe, heard by accident, awoke in him the muse which slept.

        He soon became acquainted with the best models: Phoedrus, Virgil, Horace and Terence amongst the Latins; Plutarch, Homer and Plato, amongst the Greeks; Rabelais, Marot and d'Urfe, amongst the French; Tasso, Ariosto and Boccaccio, amongst the Italians.

        He married, in compliance with the wishes of his family, a beautiful, witty and chaste woman, who drove him to despair.

        He was sought after and cherished by all distinguished men of letters. But it was two Ladies who kept him from experiencing the pangs of poverty.

        La Fontaine, if there remain anything of thee, and if it be permitted to thee for a moment to soar above all time; see the names of La Sabliere and of Hervard pass with thine to the ages to come!

       The life of La Fontaine was, so to speak, only one of continual distraction. In the midst of society, he was absent from it. Regarded almost as an imbecile by the crowd, this clever author, this amiable man, only permitted himself to be seen at intervals and by friends.

        Amongst a large number of works that he has left, everyone knows his fables and his tales, and the circumstances of his life are written in a hundred places.

        He died on the 16th of March, 1695 and was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Joseph, by the side of Moliere."

       According to Flaubert, he was the only French poet to understand and master the texture of the French language before Victor Hugo. A set of postage stamps celebrating La Fontaine and the Fables was issued by France in 1995. Read more...

The Following Fables Were Illustrated by Percy J. Billinghurst and have been fully restored by Kathy Grimm:

1. The acorn and the pumpkin  
2. The carter in the mire
3. The countryman and the serpent 
4. The dog and his master's dinner 
5. The ears of the hare
6. The fool who sold wisdom
7. The fox, the wolf, and the horse
8. The grasshopper and the ant
9. The Lion and the Hunter
10. The rat and the oyster
11. The Shepherd and his Flock
12. The shepherd and the sea
13. The sun and the frogs
14. The swan and the cook
15. The thieves and the ass
16. The tortoise and the two ducks
17. The two asses
18. The Vultures and the Pigeons 
19. The weasel in the granary 
20. The wolf accusing the fox  
21. The wolf turned shepherd
22. The ass and the little dog