Jean de La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695) was a French poet and fabulist whose reputation rests chiefly on his *Fables choisies, mises en vers* (“Selected Fables in Verse”). Born in Château-Thierry, he studied law and held minor administrative posts before turning increasingly to literature. The first series of the *Fables* appeared in 1668, with later books published over subsequent decades. Drawing on Aesop, Phaedrus, and other classical and modern sources, La Fontaine reshaped traditional animal tales into supple French verse marked by wit, narrative ease, and moral reflection. He was elected to the Académie française in 1684 and remained a major figure of seventeenth-century French letters.