La Fontaine, Jean

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

la-fon-tan, Jean (1621-1695), a famous French writer. His father was a forest ranger in the duchy of Champagne. Jean was educated in the grammar school of his native town, and was designed for the priesthood, but took, instead, to his father's occupation. An account of his school days, the neglect of business, the waste of his wife's fortune, his duels, social misdeeds, divorce, early writings, government pension, and court intrigues, would be a long story. At sixty years of age he was one of the first men of letters in France, and was closely associated with Racine, Boileau and Moliere. His writings fill many volumes. He is remembered, however, for his Fables, of which a critic says: "They supply three several delights to three several ages: the child rejoices in the freshness and vividness of the story; the eager student of literature in the consummate art with which it is told; the experienced man of the world in the subtle reflections on character and life which it conveys." The Fables are written in verse. They have been for generations a standard reading book in French schools. "It is no small testimony that not even this use has interfered with their popularity among French men of letters, who with hardly an exception, speak as affectionately of them as if they had never been kept in on a summer's day to learn The Cricket and the Ant." The material of the fables is drawn from all literature, as well as from the author's own observation. See Aesop ; Lokman