Fable, Parable, And Allegory, Influence of Jean de La Fontaine

The fable has normally been of limited length, however, and the form reached its zenith in 17th-century France, at the court of Louis XIV, especially in the work of Jean de La Fontaine. He published his Fables in two segments: the first, his initial volume of 1668, and the second, an accretion of �Books� of fables appearing over the next 25 years. The 1668 Fables follow the Aesopian pattern,