Tales and Novels of J. De La Fontaine — Volume 02

While La Fontaine's Fables taught children gentle lessons about lions and foxes, these tales were written for sophisticated Parisian salons where the aristocracy came for something spicier. Volume 2 gathers the novelist's more risqué narratives: stories of cuckolded husbands, scheming wives, clever peasants outwitting their lords, and confessional secrets that explode marriages. The humor is knowing, the satire sharp, and the moral universe thoroughly amoral. In 'The Cudgelled and Contented Cuckold,' a young fool orchestrates his own humiliation with endearing incompetence. In 'The Cobbler,' a husband and wife team up to swindle a credulous creditor through theatrical devotion. These aren't Aesop's tidy lessons; they'rewicked portraits of French provincial life, where everyone deceives everyone, and the only sin is getting caught. La Fontaine writes with the elegance of a court poet and the eye of a comic dramatist, finding human absurdity wherever he looks.