La Fontaine, Jean de

French poet. He was born at Château-Thierry, Champagne, and from 1656 lived largely in Paris, the friend of the playwrights Molière and Racine, and the poet Boileau. His works include Contes et nouvelles en vers (1665–74), a series of witty and bawdy tales in verse, and Fables choisies mises en vers (1668–94), his universally known verse fables.

The subjects of the Contes are taken from various writers including Boccaccio, Ariosto, and Machiavelli, while the Fables are derived from numerous sources including Aesop, Phaedrus, Babrius, and other ancient writers, or from 16th-century authors such as Rabelais and Marot. He also wrote Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon/The Loves of Cupid and Psyche (1669).