Les Fables de La Fontaine

Abstract

Here is a pleasing Bande Dessinée presentation of some 24 of La Fontaine's fables, introduced by three pages of La Fontaine presenting himself and then arguing with some animals who want him to change his stories about each of them. Each fable gets one or two pages. Except for the suppression of "he said" elements, the texts seem to be verbatim those of La Fontaine. The cover image presents a good array of the characters. The story moves out briefly again from straight presentation of fables to dialogue with La Fontaine on 36 to move from animal stories to those presenting plants and humans. The back cover catches one of the best of the book's illustrations, the fox holding a vase while the stork enjoys what is inside the vase (19). Heitz has a gift for closing images, like the cat carrying off the mouse who thought he was equal to an elephant (13).