Jean de Lafontaine: biography, творчество

In the world literature among the most famous fabulists can be named two names: Aesop and Jean de Lafontaine. The first lived in Ancient Greece, and the data about his life are more of a fairy-tale character. The second - in France, in the second half of the XVII century. And it is about the French author of small moralizing works that will be discussed in this article.

Biographical information

Childhood of the great fabulist passed near the picturesque forests and fields. Jean de Lafontaine was the son of a forestry official. He came from an ancient rich family. Father prepared his son for a spiritual career, which did not entice the future fabulist. But about moralizing works, he thought about already in adulthood. From a young age, he was interested above all in philosophy. Lafontaine was also a fan of poetry, which prompted him to create poems, which, however, did not bring success to him.

At the age of twenty-six, Jean de Lafontaine married. However, he treated his family extremely easily. Lafontaine spent most of his life in Paris, far from his family. For a long time, the only source of income for him was literary creativity.

According to the recollections of his contemporaries, the French poet led a cheerful and frivolous life. For years I could not see my family. And once, having met his already grown-up son in a noble house, he did not even recognize him.

Early Creativity

In the genre of poetry and drama, he created his first works of Jean de Lafontaine. Fables appeared in the late period of creativity. The first work, which was able to publish, was a translation of the ancient Roman author Terence. Subsequent creations were also created under the influence of ancient drama.

"Dream in Wo"

Under the patronage of Fouquet, Lafontaine created a poem that glorified the country palace. Only three excerpts survived from this work. In them there is a mixture of various literary forms, and the influence of ancient, medieval authors is seen. But Renaissance poetry had a special influence on Lafontaine's poetics.

Fairy tales

Inspiration was drawn in the works of not only ancient writers, but also authors of the Renaissance Jean de Lafontaine. The biography of this personality evolved under the influence of his character. And his disposition was very careless and frivolous, which prevented him for many years access to the court. Only in the last years of his life did he renounce the carefree way of life, which positively influenced his work. In the seventies of the XVII century Jean de Lafontaine published two tales, differing from the previous works by stylistic and plot variety. To write these works, he was inspired by the work of Giovanni Boccaccio.

Becoming a regular visitor to one of Paris's trendy salons, Lafontaine came under the patronage of independently minded philosophers and scholars. Their views appealed to the poet, who was freethinker and reluctant to maintain a way of thinking, approved by the Catholic Church. Hypocritical asceticism became the subject of satire in The Tales, but later the author of this collection felt the need to look critically at other human vices.

Fables

But not as the author of comedies and fairy tales is known today Jean de Lafontaine. The biography of this poet is of interest to modern people, since it belongs to the creator of the new literary genre. Having borrowed a plot from an ancient author, he created a whole series of fables, which later translated poets into other languages. It was taking the source of Aesop's creation, Jean de Lafontaine wrote "Fox and Grapes" - a fable, which was later translated into Russian by Ivan Krylov. Many other achievements of the Russian poet are also very talented, but still translations from the French.

Literary style of La Fontaine

A unique literary style was possessed by Jean de Lafontaine. His fables were hardly included in the world literature, if not for a kind of didactic genre, thanks to which his works convey a rather sober outlook on life to the reader. Rousseau and Lamartine were arguing about the educational benefits of reading Lafontaine's morals. Lafontaine can not be called a moralist, since his fables too clearly have confidence in the inevitability of human vice. His creativity is close to the philosophy of Epicurus, who assured us that life should be treated imperturbably and be able to see it without embellishment.

Poetics

The structure of Lafontaine's works includes the main part, the introduction and retreat. Each of the fables has a variety of poetic forms. The poetic form was adopted in the XVII century not by everyone, so they were written in a free style. The edifying character, according to the author and his contemporaries, was more approached by a free verse.

The fabulist Jean de Lafontaine is the author who was of the opinion that he did it occasionally, solely by inspiration. Yet his creative heritage includes creatures created in a variety of genres. Among them are mythological poems and comedies. In addition, Lafontaine became the founder of the scientific descriptive genre. In his work there are also lyric operas. However, in the world literature he came in thanks to the publication with a very modest name - "Aesop's Fables, laid down by La Fontaine's poems." His work is a high achievement of French literature. And the artistic discoveries of Lafontaine predetermined the development of the fable genre in the literature of other countries.