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Jean de La Fontaine

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A French poet and the most widely read French fabulist of the seventeenth century, whose twelve books of Fables (1668-1694), adapting and expanding on Aesop, the Panchatantra and other traditional sources into polished, ironic French verse, became the model later European fabulists worked from. Unlike Aesop's traditional and disputed biography, La Fontaine's life and authorship are thoroughly documented; he held a royal pension and a seat among the Immortals of the Academie francaise.

Facts
Birth Year
1621 1
Death Year
1695 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

In Genre

Fable, Genres

Second author on Fable, alongside Aesop.

Source Wikipedia: Jean de La Fontaine
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Jean de La Fontaine
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Lead section, second sentence
Quote, Lead section, second sentence
He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France.
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1. Wikipedia: Jean de La Fontaine
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Lead section (birth date)
Quote, Lead section (birth date)
Jean de La Fontaine (8 July 1621 - 13 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia: Jean de La Fontaine
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Lead section (death date)
Quote, Lead section (death date)
Jean de La Fontaine (8 July 1621 - 13 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia: Jean de La Fontaine
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)In Genre: Fable, Lead section (fabulist model claim)
Quote, In Genre: Fable, Lead section (fabulist model claim)
He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France.
View the Source
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