Product Description

Generations of children have been brought up on La Fontaine's "Fables". Only an absent-minded or perversely liberal parent, however, would leave the same author's "Contes et nouvelles en vers" lying around the nursery. The first volume was published three years before the Fables started to appear. They were the fruit of his wicked delight in the tales he found in Boccacio's "Decameron", Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", Rabelais and elsewhere. Marital misdemeanours, resourceful females, addled males, proved the inspiration for some richly inventive plotting. He retold the stories in his own words, commenting on them wryly as he went along.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2194350 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-02
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 334 pages

About the Author
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE (1621-95) was born in the north-east of France. His passion for poetry made him late for prayers, which in combination with histaste for satirical verse about his masters, led to expulsion from his religious order. Years at court, where he sought approval and provoked outrage, secured patronage and security that lasted to his death. Guido Waldman, educated in Italy, France and Britain, is a translator by vocation and a publisher's editor by profession, currently Editorial Director of The Harvill Press, previously editor and rights manager with The Bodley Head.