Love and Folly: Selected Fables and Tales of La Fontaine

Universally admired for his fables and contes (tales), Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) epitomised France's Great Century with his elegant style, emotional profundity and ready wit. This selection by award-winning poet Marie Ponsot is arguably the finest translation ever achieved. La Fontaine's menagerie of foxes, lions, wolves, donkeys, rats and other animals are handled with a naturalness and unaffected elegance that have escaped almost every other translation.