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 French
poet, whose fables rank among the masterpieces of world literature,
In his own time La Fontaine was considered a vagabond, dreamer,
and lover of pleasure, who drifted happily from one patron to another.
Because of the universal nature of his fables, La Fontaine's poems
about industrious ants, brave lions, and carefree grasshoppers are
still widely read.
"Beware, as long as you live, judging people by appearances."
La Fontaine was born in Château-Thierry, Champagne, in central
France, as the son of a government official. In his youth he read
such writers as François Rabelaisian (1494? -1553), François de
Mahler (1555-1628), and Honour duffel (1568-1625). He went to Paris
to study medicine and theology, but was drawn to the whirls of social
life. He was qualified as a lawyer but he returned to home in 1647
and assisted his father, a superintendent of forests. He held a
number of government posts, but they did not pay much money. In
1647 he married Marie Her cart, an heiress, but the marriage was
unhappy and they separated in 1658. La Fontaine had decided to become
a famous writer. La Fontanel spent his time in literary circles
with Moiré (1622-1673) and others. In 1658 he left his family and
moved to Paris, where he lived his most productive years, devoting
himself to writing.
La Fontaine had several patrons, among them Nicolas Bouquet (1615-1680),
an influential statesman and the superintendent of finance, who
was later, arrested in 1661 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
With the help of Bouquet, Fontaine received a small pension with
easy terms: he had to write only four poems in a year. When Bouquet
was imprisoned, La Fontaine wrote one of his most beautiful poems,
asking mercy for his former patron.
From 1664 to 1672 La Fontaine served as a gentleman-in-waiting
to the dowager duchess dolmans in Luxemburg, and from 1673 he was
a member of the household of Mme de La Saltier. In 1683 he was elected
to the Academia Françoise in recognition of his contribution to
French literature.
 Among
La Fontaine's major works are CONTES ET NOUVELLES EN VERS (1664),
a collection of tales borrowed from Italian sources, from the bawdy
tales of Boccaccio, Rabelais, and other medieval and renaissance
masters, and LES AMOURS DE PSYCHÉ ET DE CUPIDON (1669). In quite
a different key from the more innocent "Fables," the "Contes" often
threatened to get La Fontaine in trouble with both Church and Academie.
Marital misdemeanours and love affairs proved the inspiration for
some rich, inventive plotting in the stories that were not written
for all readers. They went through four editions during La Fontaine's
lifetime, but the authorities banned the last edition because it
was considered too obscene. Later La Fontaine regretted ever having
written them.
His FABLES CHOISIES MISES EN VERS, usually called 'La Fontaine
Fables', were published over the last 25 years of his life. The
first volume appeared when the author was 47. The book includes
some 240 poems and timeless stories of country folk, heroes from
Greek mythology, and familiar beasts from the fables of Aesop.The
last of his tales were published posthumously. Each tale has a moral
- an instruction how to behave correctly or how life should be lived.
In the second volume La Fontaine based his tales on stories from
Asia and other places.
La Fontaines fables were marked by his love of rural life and illuminated
his epicurean beliefs. They were widely translated and imitated
during the 17th and 18th centuries all over Europe, and beyond.
In America, the tradition of the verse fable continued in Joel Chadler
Harris' Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1880). At
the age of 71 La Fontaine became ill, and he started to think seriously
his life. He wrote some hymns, used a haircloth shirt, and again
embraced Catholicism. This new role did not convince his friends,
who saw La Fontaine as a light-hearted bon viveur. La Fontaine
died in Paris on April 13, 1695.
Help yourself, and heaven will help you. (Fables 'Le
Chartier Embourbe')
The reason of the strongest is always the best. (Fables
'Le Loup et l'Agneau')
A hungry stomach has no ears. (Fables 'Le Milan
et le Rossignol)
In all matters one must consider the end. (Fables
'Le Renard et le Bouc')
Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast.
(Fables 'L'Ours et les deux Compagnos')
Fables choisier, mises en vers (Selected Fables, Set in
Verse, 1668, 1678-16679, 1694) - La Fontaine viewed in these verse
fables ironically life and society. By means of animal symbols
and spirited dialogues, he examined a philosophy of sense and
moderation, giving practical lessons from the tribulation of crows,
mice, ants, and the like. However, La Fonaine's fables are not
primarily moralistic in intent, but stories are also told for
the pleasure of telling. Several of the fables were based on Decamerone,
Cent nouvelles nouvelles, and middle age and renaissance tales.
- See also: Ivan Krylov -
For further reading: La vie de La Fontaine by L. Roche
(1913); L'Art de La Fontaine by F. Gohin (1929); Les fables de
La Fontaine by R. Bray (1929); Les cinq tentations de La Fontaine
by J. Giraudoux (1938); Her Poems and Fables from La Fontaine
by Marianne Moore (1940); The Style of La Fontaine's Fables by
J.D. Biard (1966); Concordance to the Fables and Tales of Jean
De La Fontaine by J. Tyler (1974); La Fontaine and His Friends;
A Biography by Agnes Ethel MacKay (1976); The Fable as Literature
by H.P. Blackham (1985); Figures of the Text: Reading and Writing
in La Fontaine by Michael Vincent (1992); Lectures De La Fontaine
by Jules Brody (1994); Refiguring La Fontaine: Tercentenary Essays,
ed. by Anne L. Birberick (1996); Fables in Frames: La Fontaine
and Visual Culture in Nineteenth-Century France by Kirsten H.
Powell (1997)
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