11 h 17 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A fox flatters, a wolf makes excuses, and the weak must watch every word.
In Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables, animals bring human habits into sharp focus. A fox flatters a crow. A grasshopper begs from an ant. In The Wolf and the Lamb, a hungry wolf meets a lamb drinking at a stream. These short verse tales turn small encounters into pointed questions about power, need, and the excuses the strong make.
Throughout the collection, La Fontaine gives old stories quick dialogue, sharp portraits, and a sly, friendly narrator. Many tales draw on Aesop and Phaedrus, but behind these animals stands the world of a royal court: flatterers, bullies, and cautious survivors. The Hare and the Tortoise brings haste and pride into view, while later books let the poet speak more often in his own voice.
What you’ll discover
- Small scenes, sharp portraits Meet animals whose words and choices bring familiar human habits into focus.
- The strong and the weak Watch a wolf seek an excuse, and consider what power does to an argument.
- A court of animals Enter a world where the lion rules and flatterers must choose their words.
- Patience against pride Follow the hare’s boasting and discover the collection’s interest in patience and prudence.
- Verse with quick voices Enjoy shifting line lengths, lively exchanges, and a narrator whose wit stays close.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy animal tales, short poems and sharp little lessons about vanity, greed and courage will feel at home here. It suits anyone who likes wit with a moral attached.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A poet who uses animals to teach
- Flattery and vanity are traps for the proud
- The strong dictate and the weak pay
- Fine plans fail without someone to act
- Freedom is worth more than comfort
- Kindness, friendship and unity bring strength
- Greed and restless ambition ruin contentment
- Courts, kings and flatterers are watched closely
- Longer tales, bigger questions and how to listen
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Fables de La Fontaine — Nouvelle édition, avec notes
by Jean de La Fontaine · 1668
A fox sweet-talks a raven out of its cheese, and a tortoise falls from the sky in a rhymed zoo of human faults.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Why does a clever fox praise a raven's voice, and what does it cost the bird? Jean de La Fontaine retells old animal tales in lively rhymed verse across twelve books.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A poet who uses animals to teach
He says his tales are not strictly true, yet they hold truths worth teaching. Every creature in his work speaks, even the fishes, and through them he talks to human beings.
The work has twelve books of poems. He draws on Aesop, on Phaedrus and on Indian tales passed down under the name of Pilpay. The lines vary in length, which gives each fable a quick, bouncing rhythm, like a story told by a friend who loves a good joke.
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What are the Fables of La Fontaine about?
They are short rhymed stories in which animals talk and act like people. Each tale shows a human fault or virtue, such as vanity, greed, cruelty or kindness, and usually closes with a brief moral.
Where did La Fontaine get his stories?
He borrowed from Aesop, the Roman poet Phaedrus and the Indian tales linked to Pilpay, then retold them in his own lively verse. Some fables also use his own observations of court and country life.
What is the moral of The Raven and the Fox?
The fox warns that a flatterer lives at the expense of the one who listens. The raven loses his cheese because he wanted to prove that his voice matched the fox's praise.
The author
Jean de La Fontaine
1621–1695 · French poet and fabulist
Jean de La Fontaine was a French poet and writer born in Château-Thierry in 1621. He later lived in Paris, where he died in 1695. He wrote fables, verse tales and plays. His Fables appeared in several collections between 1668 and 1694. He entered the French Academy in 1684.
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