The Fables of La Fontaine Jean de la Fontaine - The Fables by Jean de La Fontaine are considered classics of French literature. Collecting fables from a variety of sources, La Fontaine then adapted them into verse. Consisting of twelve books and 239 fables in all, these were originally aimed at adults, but have since been taught to children as a way to educate them in morals. At times they have been mixed in with the fables of Aesop. The sources for the fables are wide-ranging, from Aesop to Boccaccio, from Babrius to Machiavelli - even drawing at times from ancient Indian collections of tales.

Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century.According to Flaubert, he was the only French poet to understand and master the texture of the French language before Hugo. A set of postage stamps celebrating La Fontaine and the Fables was issued by France in 1995. A film of his life was released in France in April 2007 (Jean de La Fontaine - le défi starring Laurent Deutsch).