La Fontaine's verse fables turned the traditional folktales derived from Aesop and a range of Oriental sources into some of the greatest, and best-loved, poetic works in French. His versions of stories such as The Hare and the Tortoise and The Wolf and the Lamb are witty and sophisticated, satirizing human nature in miniature dramas in which the outcome is always unpredictable. The behavior of both animals and humans is usually centered on deception and cooperation (or the lack of it), as they cheat and fight each other, arguing about life and death, property and food, in an...

Perrault's fairy tales in a scintillating translation, including the less familiar verse tales and with illustrations by Gustave Dore. The introduction explores the imaginative power of the stories and the many interpretations to which they have been subject.