What do you think?
Rate this book
A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine
London, New York : J. Lane Publication 1900 This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.
202 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1900
11 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Jean de la Fontaine
2,260 books285 followersFrench writer Jean de la Fontaine collected the stories of Aesop and other persons in his
Fables
(1668-1694).
French literary figures, including Molière and Jean de la Fontaine, gathered at Auteuil, a favorite place.
People most widely read the famous poet Jean de la Fontaine of the 17th century.
According to Gustave Flaubert, only this poet understood and mastered the texture of the language before Victor Marie Hugo. A set of postage stamps, issued in 1995, celebrates la Fontaine. Jean de La Fontaine, le défi , a film, released in April 2007, starred Lorànt Deutsch of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de...
French literary figures, including Molière and Jean de la Fontaine, gathered at Auteuil, a favorite place.
People most widely read the famous poet Jean de la Fontaine of the 17th century.
According to Gustave Flaubert, only this poet understood and mastered the texture of the language before Victor Marie Hugo. A set of postage stamps, issued in 1995, celebrates la Fontaine. Jean de La Fontaine, le défi , a film, released in April 2007, starred Lorànt Deutsch of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 7, 2014
Charming verse translations of La Fontaine’s fables. Read in an electronic version with some guesswork due to hash caused by diacriticals, etc.
About two thirds of the way through I began to consider what a country’s ‘children’s literature’ tells its young. These fables warn readers to beware of everyone about them--your would-be friends are conniving and dissembling in order to trick you out of your life or your property. The wise man doesn’t trust anyone, and is happy to get the last laugh. Rousseau must have imbibed these with his childhood porridge. Compare to Grimm, Mother Goose, America’s tall tales, or Hans Christian Andersen, with interesting themes to ponder relative to our cultures.
Still, they are charming and full of fun, if one ignores the body count.
The moral of a tale about the owl who nibbled the legs off of the live, excess mice he brought back to the nest, to keep them for another day:
Now, let Cartesians, if they can,
Pronounce this owl a mere machine.
Could springs originate the plan
Of maiming mice when taken lean,
To fatten for his soup-turreen?
If reason did no service there
I do not know it anywhere.
Or, to teach the rewards of hard work, a father told his potentially lazy sons that there was treasure buried in the rich farmland he was leaving them in his will; they plowed every inch:
Though hidden money they found none
Yet had their father wisely done
To show by such a measure
That toil itself is treasure.
Politics pervades the morals drawn after each tale. When the lion proposes that all the animals confess a sin, the king of beasts starts by admitting he’s eaten sheep and even the odd shepherd. The other (courtier) animals brush it away as nothing. The ass finally confesses to eating a little grass in the monks’ field,
On this, a hue and cry arose,
As if the beasts were all his foes:
A wolf, haranguing lawyer-wise,
Denounced the ass for sacrifice--
The bald-pate, scabby, ragged lout,
By whom the plague had come, no doubt.
His fault was judged a hanging crime.
What? eat another’s grass? O shame!
The noose of rope and death sublime
For that offense, were all to tame!
And soon poor Grizzle felt the same.
Thus human courts acquit the strong
And doom the weak, as therefore wrong.
About two thirds of the way through I began to consider what a country’s ‘children’s literature’ tells its young. These fables warn readers to beware of everyone about them--your would-be friends are conniving and dissembling in order to trick you out of your life or your property. The wise man doesn’t trust anyone, and is happy to get the last laugh. Rousseau must have imbibed these with his childhood porridge. Compare to Grimm, Mother Goose, America’s tall tales, or Hans Christian Andersen, with interesting themes to ponder relative to our cultures.
Still, they are charming and full of fun, if one ignores the body count.
The moral of a tale about the owl who nibbled the legs off of the live, excess mice he brought back to the nest, to keep them for another day:
Now, let Cartesians, if they can,
Pronounce this owl a mere machine.
Could springs originate the plan
Of maiming mice when taken lean,
To fatten for his soup-turreen?
If reason did no service there
I do not know it anywhere.
Or, to teach the rewards of hard work, a father told his potentially lazy sons that there was treasure buried in the rich farmland he was leaving them in his will; they plowed every inch:
Though hidden money they found none
Yet had their father wisely done
To show by such a measure
That toil itself is treasure.
Politics pervades the morals drawn after each tale. When the lion proposes that all the animals confess a sin, the king of beasts starts by admitting he’s eaten sheep and even the odd shepherd. The other (courtier) animals brush it away as nothing. The ass finally confesses to eating a little grass in the monks’ field,
On this, a hue and cry arose,
As if the beasts were all his foes:
A wolf, haranguing lawyer-wise,
Denounced the ass for sacrifice--
The bald-pate, scabby, ragged lout,
By whom the plague had come, no doubt.
His fault was judged a hanging crime.
What? eat another’s grass? O shame!
The noose of rope and death sublime
For that offense, were all to tame!
And soon poor Grizzle felt the same.
Thus human courts acquit the strong
And doom the weak, as therefore wrong.
August 16, 2024
Animaux affabulateurs
Quelques fables plus mémorables que d'autres. Pour beaucoup reprises entre autres d'Ésope ou du Pañchatantra et publiées par livraisons successives, les fables rassemblées dans ces 12 livres forment dans l'ensemble un recueil très inégal, avec des redites, des fables au message plus efficace que d'autres. On en vient assez vite à se lasser de l'uniformité de ton et de sujets qui règne dans certains livres.
Un atout de cette édition : les anecdotes sur la vie et l'œuvre de l'auteur en bas de page. Je retiens tout particulièrement l'avis très mordant de Lamartine sur le fabuliste :
On dirait bien qu'il a pris très à cœur le sort de ces animaux qui ne sont là que pour illustrer une gaffe ou un manque de prudence et servir de motif à une moralité. Reste que, c'est sûr, ces animaux de fable ne sont pas fort solidaires !
Quelques fables plus mémorables que d'autres. Pour beaucoup reprises entre autres d'Ésope ou du Pañchatantra et publiées par livraisons successives, les fables rassemblées dans ces 12 livres forment dans l'ensemble un recueil très inégal, avec des redites, des fables au message plus efficace que d'autres. On en vient assez vite à se lasser de l'uniformité de ton et de sujets qui règne dans certains livres.
Un atout de cette édition : les anecdotes sur la vie et l'œuvre de l'auteur en bas de page. Je retiens tout particulièrement l'avis très mordant de Lamartine sur le fabuliste :
'On me faisait bien apprendre aussi par cœur quelques fables de La Fontaine; mais ces vers boiteux, disloqués, inégaux, sans symétrie ni dans l’oreille ni sur la page, me rebutaient. D’ailleurs, ces histoires d’animaux qui parlent, qui se font des leçons, qui se moquent les uns des autres, qui sont égoïstes, railleurs, avares, sans pitié, sans amitié, plus méchants que nous, me soulevaient le cœur. Les fables de La Fontaine sont plutôt la philosophie dure, froide et égoïste d’un vieillard, que la philosophie aimante, généreuse, naïve et bonne d’un enfant: c’est du fiel, ce n’est pas du lait pour les lèvres et pour les cœurs de cet âge. Ce livre me répugnait; je ne savais pas pourquoi. Je l’ai su depuis: c’est qu’il n’est pas bon. Comment le livre serait-il bon? l’homme ne l’était pas. On dirait qu’on lui a donné par dérision le nom du bon La Fontaine.'.
On dirait bien qu'il a pris très à cœur le sort de ces animaux qui ne sont là que pour illustrer une gaffe ou un manque de prudence et servir de motif à une moralité. Reste que, c'est sûr, ces animaux de fable ne sont pas fort solidaires !
December 31, 2022
This was a nice little collection of animal fables, that was told through poetry. This as a quick read for me and a birthday gift, so I thought this was a nice way to end the year. There wasn't one in particularly loved more than the others. I though they were all good stories in their own right and I liked this collection. Can't wait to see what stories 2023 will have in store for me to read. :)
April 2, 2023
It's fables involving animals and told in poem form. To me fables are supposed to be moral lessons in short form and poetry is supposed to be fluid. I'm at a complete loss as to what any of the stories meant as it was very choppy. As I am reading an ebook version, I will check out another copy and try again, just in case I got a bad edition.
Read
June 19, 2019My dad read me these stories. But usually I wasn’t paying much attention. There are lots of animals. And some of the stories are kind of scary or sad for little kids. But that’s life I guess. I know all the rhymes must be good for me, even when I’m pre-verbal.
October 22, 2020
I've been reading these to my young son over the last few months, a couple few at a time. Although they're translated from French, the stories have fantastic rhythm and grace.
It's probably good that our son (who was less than nine months old when we finished them) cannot understand the stories, as they tend to be fairly dark, or at least ruthlessly pragmatic or glass-half-empty. Weakness=bad.
Most fables tell human lessons through animal interactions. My favorite animal is the poor ass, which gets so unfairly treated throughout the hundred stories! Poor ass! (I may have to read The Golden Ass next to re-establish my respect for asses.)
It's probably good that our son (who was less than nine months old when we finished them) cannot understand the stories, as they tend to be fairly dark, or at least ruthlessly pragmatic or glass-half-empty. Weakness=bad.
Most fables tell human lessons through animal interactions. My favorite animal is the poor ass, which gets so unfairly treated throughout the hundred stories! Poor ass! (I may have to read The Golden Ass next to re-establish my respect for asses.)
June 5, 2012
This was a very good "read" of the old "animal" fables; the kind with morals to them. It was a lot of fun "finding" them again.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews