Classic Fables

Classic Fables contains all 253 classic fables of Jean de La Fontaine interspersed with illustrations—many by famous artists such as Gustave Moreau and Gustave Doré—made over the course of the last two centuries to illustrate these enchanting tales. The illustrations include line drawings, gouaches, engravings, watercolors, lithographs, advertisements, and caricatures. These fables are masterpieces in any language. In his own time, La Fontaine was considered a vagabond, a dreamer, and a lover of pleasure for its own sake. Because of the universal nature of his fables, La Fontaine's poems about industrious ants, brave lions, and carefree grasshoppers are still widely read and quoted in English.