Today in Language: Jean de la Fontaine

The world fabulist of French origins Jean de la Fontaine died on April 13, 1695. His children’s fables have been translated or at least recast in most major cultural and linguistic traditions, which is not to say they did not already come to some extent from a variety of cultural and linguistic traditions.

La Fontaine is known today for his children’s fables, but in his own day he was known for his racier and morally transgressive “adult” fables. La Fontaine was a powerful storyteller, well worthy of his appointment to the Académie Française.

His tomb can be visited in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.