Jean de La Fontaine's Fables have enchanted readers for centuries with their masterful verse, witty animal characters, and timeless moral insights. If you appreciate his blend of elegant poetry, sharp social commentary, and profound wisdom, you're in for a treat. This curated list explores authors who share his spirit, from the ancient storytellers who inspired him to the modern writers who carry on the tradition of the moral tale.
No exploration of fables is complete without Aesop, the wellspring from which La Fontaine drew much of his inspiration. While La Fontaine embellished these tales with poetic flair and sophisticated commentary, Aesop's original stories are models of brevity and moral clarity. His tales, like The Tortoise and the Hare or The Ant and the Grasshopper, are the foundational myths of the genre.
Why you'll like him: He provides the original, unadorned stories that La Fontaine so brilliantly adapted, offering a direct link to the heart of the fable tradition.
Phaedrus was a Roman fabulist who was the first to translate Aesop's fables into Latin verse. Like La Fontaine, he wasn't merely a translator; he adapted the tales, added his own stories, and infused them with personal and political commentary. His work serves as a crucial bridge between the Greek oral tradition and the polished literary fables of later Europe.
Why you'll like him: Phaedrus shares La Fontaine's ambition of elevating fables into a respected poetic form, using them to deliver sharp, often satirical, observations.
Often called the "Russian La Fontaine," Ivan Krylov is perhaps the most direct successor to the French master. His fables are beloved in Russia for their colloquial language, clever humor, and sharp critiques of bureaucracy and social folly. While his style is more direct and folksy than La Fontaine's courtly verse, his genius for character and moral punchlines is undeniable. Look for his famous fable The Quartet, a hilarious depiction of inept committee work.
Why you'll like him: Krylov captures the same blend of amusement and social critique, using animal characters to expose universal human weaknesses with unmatched wit.
A key figure of the German Enlightenment, Lessing approached the fable with a philosopher's mind. He wrote his own fables and essays on the theory of the genre, arguing for stories that were concise and focused on a single, clear moral. His fables are less about poetic flourish and more about intellectual precision, offering sharp, logical explorations of ethics and human nature.
Why you'll like him: If you appreciate the intellectual depth and moral reasoning behind La Fontaine's tales, Lessing’s analytical and thoughtful fables will be highly rewarding.
Writing centuries before La Fontaine, Marie de France was one of the earliest known female poets in French literature. Her collection of fables, the Ysopet, demonstrates a remarkable talent for storytelling in verse. Her tales often feature a nuanced and sympathetic perspective, particularly concerning the abuse of power, making her an important and distinct voice in the fable tradition.
Why you'll like her: She proves that the art of the verse fable was thriving in France long before La Fontaine, and her work shares his elegance and moral seriousness.
A contemporary and fellow member of the Académie Française, Perrault did for the fairy tale what La Fontaine did for the fable. He took traditional folk stories—like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood—and rewrote them in elegant prose for the sophisticated audience of Louis XIV's court. Each of his tales concludes with a rhyming "moralité," explicitly linking entertainment with instruction.
Why you'll like him: Perrault shares La Fontaine's goal of crafting morally instructive tales with literary grace, though he works with fantasy and human characters instead of animals.
The celebrated American humorist and cartoonist James Thurber brought the fable into the 20th century with his collection Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated. Thurber's tales are whimsical, funny, and often absurd, using animals to satirize the anxieties and follies of modern life. His memorable morals, such as "It is better to have loafed and lost than never to have loafed at all," offer a delightful, cynical twist on the classic form.
Why you'll like him: He updates the fable with a modern, humorous sensibility, perfectly capturing the spirit of using simple stories to make a sharp point about human behavior.
While known for his dystopian novels, George Orwell was also a master of the political fable. His novella Animal Farm is a towering achievement of the form, using a barnyard rebellion to create a powerful and devastating allegory for the Russian Revolution and the corruption of power. It demonstrates the fable's enduring capacity for serious political critique.
Why you'll like him: If you value the sharp, satirical edge of La Fontaine's fables, Orwell's work shows how the same techniques can be used to tackle the most significant political issues of an era.
Known for his dark, cynical wit, Ambrose Bierce penned collections like Fantastic Fables. These are not gentle moral lessons; they are biting, misanthropic, and often end with a shocking twist. Bierce uses the fable structure to mercilessly satirize politics, religion, and human hypocrisy. His stories are short, sharp, and utterly unforgettable.
Why you'll like him: For readers who love La Fontaine’s more cynical moments, Bierce distills that sentiment into its purest, most potent form.
A master of postmodern fiction, Italo Calvino frequently played with folktales and fables. His Italian Folktales is a monumental collection of stories he gathered and retold with literary skill. In his own fiction, like Cosmicomics, he uses non-human characters and imaginative scenarios to explore profound philosophical and scientific ideas, much like a fabulist uses animals to explore ethics.
Why you'll like him: Calvino shares La Fontaine's playful intellect and his ability to use simple narrative forms to explore complex truths about humanity and the world.
From the ancient roots of Aesop to the modern satire of Thurber and Orwell, the spirit of La Fontaine lives on. If you cherish the poetic elegance, start with Marie de France. If you seek the same witty social critique, Ivan Krylov is your perfect match. And if you want to see how the form has evolved, George Orwell's Animal Farm is essential reading. Happy reading!