Fables de La Fontaine, livre 12

The twelfth and final collection from France's greatest fabulist represents the culmination of a literary lifetime. Here, La Fontaine abandons the brisk, jewel-like tales of his earlier books for longer, more ambitious verses that probe the depths of human folly, ambition, and political maneuvering. Animals still wear the masks of men: the wolf argues for mercy, the lion demands submission, the fox counts its cunning. But these are not children's stories. They are sophisticated entertainments directed at the salons of Louis XIV's court, where the powerful recognized themselves in the behaviors of beasts and learned, perhaps, to see their own reflections. The aging fabulist packs twenty-seven fables with accumulated wisdom about power, justice, reputation, and the delicate art of speaking truth to those who prefer flattery. This is La Fontaine unchained from brevity, allowing his verse to develop characters and situations with a richness impossible in his earlier, more compressed work. For readers who know the famous shorter fables, Book 12 reveals a darker, more complex mind at work.