Jean De La Fontaine
La Fontaine, the most versatile and most widely celebrated nondramatic poet in seventeenth –century France. He has often experienced the misfortune of having the artistry of his works obscured by a host of myths, half-truths, prejudices, and nonaesthetic issues. This great poet, has become a "classic". His fables, on which his Reputations rests, are part of the literary canon of French writers and are studied in schools. His other works, however, have been rediscovered and are the object of quite a few recent studies. (Carter, pg.46)
Very little is known about the early part of La Fontaine’s life. He was born in Château-Thierry, a small town in the province of Champagne ...
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who was born two years after La Fontaine. He also had an older step sister named Anne de Jouy on his mothers side of the family. (Carter, pg. 46)
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The education and formative years of young la Fontaine are not documented. Most biographers state that, in all likelihood, he attended château-
Thierry "college". This is a secondary institution where humanities were taught to the sons of the middle class. (Encarta n.pag.) He then attended a school at Reims. From there he went to Paris to study medicine and theology, but was drawn into the whirls of social life. During that time he became qualified as a lawyer, but never perused it.
In 1641 he went to the Oratory of Saint Magloire in Paris, intending to become a priest and was soon joined by his brother who later dropped out as did La Fontaine. (Http//localhost, pg. 3) After he left the Oratory he went home and started to work for his dad and eventually took over in 1647. The same year he married Marie ...
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the poet gained the protection of Marguerite Hessein, Madame de La Sablière, who lived in Paris apart from he husband. For nearly twenty years she provided La Fontaine with lodging. In he salon, La Fontaine gained access to a distinguished society of littérateurs, scientists, and philosophers. His protectress helped secure for him the leisure needed to develop his poetic craft. This however did not make La Fontaine wealthy, his fathers debts were to remain a burden for many years; in 1676 he would even sell the family home in Château-Thierry in order to Seattle with creditors. In 1684 La Fontaine was elected into the Académie Française (a society of ...
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"Jean De La Fontaine." Essayworld.com. April 27, 2006. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Jean-De-La-Fontaine/45048.
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