Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine — Volume 13

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

Rating 3.6

Word count: 17K words
Chapters: 2

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 — Volume 13 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: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is Volume 13 of the English translation of La Fontaine's Tales and Novels, a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg. La Fontaine is best known for his Fables, but this collection of tales and novels reveals another side of his narrative art: drawing on Boccaccio, Ariosto, and other predecessors, he tells worldly stories in verse or prose, with a witty, ingenious tone that often carries satire and observations of social manners. This volume is an English translation and serves as useful supplementary reading for understanding seventeenth-century French narrative literature and the full range of La Fontaine's work. The electronic edition is easy to search and compare, but note that public-domain ebooks usually lack modern annotations and introductions, and version information is limited. It should be read in the context of La Fontaine's oeuvre and French classicism, not consumed in isolation as a collection of short stories. For readers studying narrative traditions, translated texts, or the history of public-domain ebook dissemination, this volume has documentary value; for general readers, it can serve as an introductory glimpse of La Fontaine's non-fable work.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying the full scope of La Fontaine's work and seventeenth-century French narrative literature
Those interested in Boccaccio-style worldly tales and the verse narrative tradition
Learners who need a public-domain English translation for textual comparison or translation studies
Self-learners accustomed to e-books who can supply background material on their own

Not a good fit for

General readers who only want La Fontaine's fables and have no interest in the tales
Beginners who need modern notes, introductions, and detailed textual apparatus
Collectors seeking a complete works rather than a single-volume selection

Reading tips

First learn about the sources and composition background of La Fontaine's tales, then move on to individual pieces.
Read alongside related tales from Boccaccio's Decameron to observe differences in adaptation and narrative.
After reading each piece, note character types and satirical devices to form your own thematic threads.
Use the e-book's search function to build an index of pieces and avoid losing sight of the overall structure within a single volume.

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.

FAQ

Is this volume La Fontaine's fables in verse?

No. This is Volume 13 of an English translation of La Fontaine's Tales and Novels, narrative works apart from his verse fables. They draw largely on earlier tales, with a humorous and satirical tone, and differ in genre from the fables.

Can I understand it without notes?

Public-domain e-books usually lack modern notes and introductions, so reading directly may pose background difficulties. It is advisable to first learn about seventeenth-century French literature and the tradition behind the tales' sources, or to read alongside reliable scholarly material for smoother comprehension.

Why is there only a single volume rather than a complete set?

Project Gutenberg releases public-domain texts volume by volume, and this item corresponds only to Volume 13. For complete reading, look for other volumes of the same edition, and check that the contents and edition information are consistent across volumes.

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.