Tales and Novels of J. De La Fontaine — Volume 18

Long before La Fontaine became the immortal fabulist we know, he wrote something darker, funnier, and far more risqué: the Tales. This volume gathers three comic masterpieces from 17th-century France, where confession becomes farce, devils have class consciousness, and jealous husbands get exactly what they deserve. In "The Case of Conscience," a young man's awkward encounter in a confessional spirals into delicious moral chaos. "The Devil of Pope-fig Island" pits a sharp-witted laborer against a haughty demon who won't stoop to carrying dung, and loses. "Feronde" strands a suspicious husband in purgatory, where he must bear children while his wife holds the purse. These are not children's fables. They are bawdy, sharp, and achingly modern in their satire of power, jealousy, and pride. La Fontaine wrote them to amuse Louis XIV's court, but they read like something lifted from a very clever party. If you think you know La Fontaine from school, these tales will surprise you.