About
Jean de La Fontaine, born July 8, 1621 in Château-Thierry and died April 13, 1695 in Paris, was a French poet best known for his Fables, a collection of 240 poems published between 1668 and 1694. Born into a bourgeois family, he succeeded his father as master of waters and forests, a position he held from 1652 to 1671. Patronized by Nicolas Fouquet, then by the Duchess of Orléans and Mme de La Sablière, he moved in literary circles and was elected to the Académie française in 1684. He also wrote risqué tales and prose works such as The Loves of Psyche and Cupid.
* 1621-07-08 — † 1695-04-13
Major works
- Les Fables (livres I à VI) (1668)collection of fables
- Les Fables (livres VII à XI) (1678-1679)collection of fables
- Les Fables (livre XII) (1694)collection of fables
- Contes et nouvelles en vers (1664)collection of tales
- Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon (1669)novel
Key milestones
- 1668Publication of the first six books of the Fables, dedicated to the Dauphin.
- 1684Election to the Académie française, succeeding Jean-Baptiste Colbert.
- 1692Serious illness and religious conversion; he publicly renounces his tales.
Themes
nature and animalsmorality and wisdomsocial satirelove and passionflattery and hypocrisy
Sources: britannica.com · en.chateauversailles.fr