Fables. A Book for Reading in French

What is a fable? It is a poetic or prose literary work of a moralizing, satirical nature, mocking the vices of people. It always contains a brief moral conclusion - the so-called moral. The characters are usually animals, plants, or... objects that are given human characteristics. The fox is characterized by cunning, the owl by wisdom, the goose by foolishness, the lion is associated with courage, and the snake embodies treachery.
We all know the fables of the wonderful Russian poet Ivan Andreevich Krylov from childhood: "The Quartet", "The Elephant and the Mosquito", "The Swan, the Crawfish, and the Pike", and many others. The fables "The Crow and the Fox", "The Grasshopper and the Ant", "The Wolf and the Lamb", "The Oak and the Reed", and some others were written by him based on the stories of the great French poet, one of the leading figures of French culture in the 17th century, Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1694).
This collection includes only a small number of the enormous number of fables written by La Fontaine.
Compilation, questions, comments, and dictionary by O.P. Panayotti.