Fables (Everyman's Library CHILDREN'S CLASSICS) - Hardcover

Fontaine, Jean De La

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857155084 ISBN 13: 9781857155082

Publisher: Childrens Classics, 2001

Synopsis

Seventeenth-century Frenchman Jean de La Fontaine happily plundered Aesop and other classical writers as a source for his witty, elegant fables, as well as inventing a number of his own. Seeking to expose the weaknesses of human nature, he offered vivid perspectives on greed and flattery, envy and avarice, love and friendship, old age and death. The sixty fables collected here – from 'The Crow and the Fox' and 'The Cock and the Pearl' to 'The Grasshopper and the Ant' and 'The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse' – are illustrated with more than a hundred drawings by R. de La Nezière which which charmingly capture La Fontaine’s unforgettable cast of animal personalities.

About this title

About the Author

Je suis nee pres de Paris le 06/03/1958, mais j'ai vecu ma petite enfance pres de Chartres, bercee par les oeuvres de mon arriere grand-pere Raymond Isidore, dit Picassiette, artiste autodidacte. Comme lui, je n'ai jamais fait d'ecole d'art. A l'age de 18 ans, j'ai ete entrainee dans le monde de l'illustration par un de mes amis et j'ai ete subjuguee. Et puis le monde de l'enfance est un monde dans lequel je me sens bien. J'ai illustre mes premiers livres a l'age de 20 ans: Bordas, Nathan, Gallimard. Puis le monde de la mode m'a attire. J'ai dessine des bijoux et vendu des dessins a Cartier. J'ai beaucoup voyage, vecu dans plusieurs pays en Afrique, en Belgique, en Bosnie, en Italie, ce qui ouvre des horizons illimites. J'ai publie un livre en tant qu'auteur et illustrateur: l'Ours qui voulait manger la lune aux editions Sesame a Strasbourg. Mon dernier livre paru s'appelle Et si tout ca n'etait qu'un reve chez Nathan. L'auteur, Thierry Lenain avait souhaite que je l'illustre. En 2005 et en 2006, mes desins ont ete selectionnes et exposes a la foire internationale du livre d'enfant de Bologne, un reve que je caressais depuis longtemps. Et toujours en Italie, pres de Venise, j'ai imagine les decors pour la Boheme de Puccini.

Synopsis

The most famous fabulist after Aesop, the French poet Jean de la Fontaine published his three collections of fables in the second half of the seventeenth century, and found that not only had he an instant popular success on his hands; he happened to have written a literary masterpiece as well. Though not specifically composed for the young, these tales have a freshness and vividness which continue to appeal to children today, while the psychological astuteness of the author and the wit and elegance of his style will impress adults as well. La Fontaine happily ransacked a whole range of sources for his stories - from ancient Greek and Latin to contemporary French and Italian - adapting, interweaving, blending, inventing and transforming as he went. The result is a unique and imaginative tour de force which has delighted and entertained readers for over 300 years.

Edition details

• Publisher: Childrens Classics
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857155084
• ISBN 13: 9781857155082
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Nézière R. De La
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160