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Selected Fables

Jean de la Fontaine author J J Grandville illustrator Geoffrey Grigson editor James Michie editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Published:30th Mar '06

Should be back in stock very soon

Selected Fables cover

Jean de la Fontaine (1621-95) freely plundered the works of Aesop, Phaedrus, Bidpai and others to transform the world's great fables into charming poems of astonishing originality, wit and verve. Here he depicts lions, frogs, donkeys, rats, insects, birds and wily foxes in situations that reveal the quirks, follies and frailties he observed in humankind. Sins of pride, greed and vanity come under humorous attack - a cunning fox tricks a crow out of his dinner, an arrogant hare loses a race to a steady tortoise, a merry cicada who sings all summer finds herself hungry in winter, and the goddess Juno scolds a peacock who covets a nightingale's song. But faith in human nature can also be found in poems such as those in which a wolf is saved from choking by a helpful stork, demonstrating an engaging belief in the possibilities of redemption.

ISBN: 9780140455243

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 17mm

Weight: 224g

304 pages