Jean de La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695) was a French poet, born at Château-Thierry in Champagne, where he held his father's post as master of waters and forests. He lived mostly in Paris on the patronage of a succession of protectors, among them the finance minister Fouquet, the Duchess of Orléans and Madame de la Sablière, and he was admitted to the Académie française in 1684. His Contes, verse tales in the manner of Boccaccio, were condemned for indecency. The twelve books of Fables published between 1668 and 1694, reworking Aesop, Phaedrus and Eastern sources in supple free verse, are among the most read works in the French language.