Once Again, La Fontaine (Wesleyan Poetry) - Hardcover

Jean de La Fontaine (1621 - 1695), one of the best-loved French poets, is the foremost fabulist since Aesop, and his books have entertained generations of readers throughout France and the Western world. In Once Again, La Fontaine, Norman R. Shapiro brings his scholarly knowledge of fable lore and outstanding facility with English verse together to produce beautiful, witty translations. Adults will be captured by the subtle and sophisticated layers of meaning which Shapiro has skillfully brought to light, and children will delight in the moral tales. Readers of all ages will appreciate the sly and charming illustrations by David Schorr.

NORMAN R. SHAPIRO is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Wesleyan University. He has translated many works of poetry, theater, and prose from the original French, including Fifty More Fables of La Fontaine (1997), The Fabulists French (1992), Fifty Fables of La Fontaine (1988), and Fables from Old French: Aesop's Beasts and Bumpkins (1982). DAVID SCHORR, a printmaker, painter, and book designer, is Professor of Art at Wesleyan. His portraits of writers, artists, and musicians have appeared in The New Republic for many years. He has also illustrated Shapiro's The Fabulists French and La Fontaine's Bawdy. JOHN HOLLANDER is A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English at Yale University and a chancellor of the American Academy of Poets. His most recent volume of poetry is Figurehead (1999).