Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine — Complete

La Fontaine, Jean de, 1621-1695Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.3
Word count
538K words
Chapters
54

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Human NatureComplex HumanityMoral AllegoryAllegorical NarrativeSatirical StylePoetic LanguageArt of LanguageAncient StyleFrench EleganceAdult Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine — Complete by Jean de La FontaineAuthor: La Fontaine, Jean de, 1621-1695,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Sep 21, 2004

Editor's review

This English edition of the complete tales and novels of La Fontaine gathers narrative works by the seventeenth-century French classic other than his Fables, spanning tales, short stories, and novels. La Fontaine is known for a concise, witty style; these works continue his observation of human nature, desire, and social manners, often drawing out satire and moral meaning through light narration. The English translation preserves the storytelling and dialogue of the original and serves as an entry point to French classical narrative literature. There is no need to read it all at once; read piece by piece and note the moral and historical context behind each story. For readers studying French literature, comparative literature, or the European classical narrative tradition, this is a valuable reference text; general readers can also dip into it as a collection of short stories.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read by piece, one or two at a time; after each, reflect on its moral before continuing.
  2. Note unfamiliar allusions or names as you go, then look up the relevant background together.
  3. Start with a few short tales to build a feel for the language, then move on to the longer narratives.
  4. After finishing, compare common themes with La Fontaine's Fables to see the consistency of his narrative method.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54

FAQ

Is this book La Fontaine's Fables? No. The Fables is La Fontaine's most famous work, while this book collects his tales and novels, closer in genre to narrative short stories and novels. Its content differs from the Fables, but it likewise shows his observation of human nature and society.
Is this edition in English or French? According to the information, this is an English edition released by Project Gutenberg. The original is in French; this version is an English translation suited to readers of English. For the French original, you will need to find a corresponding edition.
Can I understand it without a background in French literature? Yes, but it takes some patience. The works were written in the seventeenth century, and some allusions and social context are unfamiliar to modern readers. Start with the short pieces, look up background where needed, and do not expect to understand everything at once.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

La Fontaine, Jean de, 1621-1695 Author

Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695) was a French fabulist, best known for his Fables de La Fontaine. The library holds 36 of his works, including the first and new editions of the Fables, its first and second volumes, A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine, The Original Fables of La Fontaine, and the complete Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine. Drawing on Greek, Latin, and Eastern storytelling traditions, his fables feature personified animals, concise and lively verse, and gentle satire, using ordinary situations to reveal human nature and moral lessons. His works have circulated widely and are often used as children's reading and language-learning material; the library classifies them under inspirational growth. Public information on the details of his life is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.