La Fontaine

Title

en_US La Fontaine

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US First edition

en_US Monica Sutherland

Creator

en_US Sutherland, Monica See all items with this value

Date

2016-01-25T20:15:37Z

en_US 1994-08

en_US 1953

Date Available

2016-01-25T20:15:37Z

Date Issued

en_US 1953

Abstract

en_US Here is an easily readable and engaging life of La Fontaine. Sutherland writes in her Foreword that she sought in vain for a book in English on La Fontaine and not just on his fables. How did she miss Frank Hamel's book from 1911? That book does not get mentioned here in her Select Bibliography (189). Her search for information on La Fontaine was all the stronger because she comes from a family named La Fontaine. I had been looking for an ancestor . . . And I found a friend (9). The book seems to show that kind of warmth throughout. My cursory overview taught me a great deal, e.g., that La Fontaine was not particularly enamored of children; that he got lots of detailed information about the specific lives of animals wrong (though he had a fine basic sense of what they might represent in humans); that he vigorously disputed the Cartesian view that animals are soulless automata; that the writing of the first six books of fables happened principally from 1660 to 1668; that the fables of Books Seven through Eleven may be better than those of the first six books; that he had one visit with the king after the publication of his first six books of fables and forgot the sack of money the king had given him under the cushion of the cab he took home! Though the fables themselves are not the focus of this book, those interested in the fables and comments on them will find information particularly in these chapters: The Gentleman Servant; A New Life; The Candid Soul; and The Inimitable Legacy. There are three photographic illustrations: of La Fontaine's portrait by Rigaud; of the title-page and an opening of a fable in the first edition of 1668; and a letter from Jean to his uncle in 1656.

Identifier

en_US 8168 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/83410

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Jonathan Cape

en_US London

Subject

en_US PQ1812 .S8 1953 See all items with this value

en_US Jean de La Fontaine See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole