''Fables for the Frivolous'', or ''Fables for the Frivolous (with Apologies to

La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

)'', is one of the earliest works by the American parodist

Guy Wetmore Carryl Guy Wetmore Carryl (4 March 1873 – 1 April 1904) was an American humorist and poet. Biography Carryl was born in New York City, the first-born of writer Charles Edward Carryl and Mary R. Wetmore. He had his first article published in ''The N ...

. It was published by Harper & Brothers in 1898.Catalog record 000626090
HathiTrust Digital Library. These

fables Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral ...

are adapted from

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

's original writings. The

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...

-style fables are written in verse, and are light-hearted re-tellings of fables from two centuries before, each ending with a moral and a pun. Among the more celebrated of the fables are ''The Persevering Tortoise and the Pretentious Hare'', ''The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull'', and ''The Sycophantic Fox and the Gullible Raven''.

References

External links

*
''Fables for the Frivolous''
a digitized copy of the first edition from the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. 1898 books American poetry collections Literary parodies {{poetry-collection-stub