From "The Ant and the Grasshopper" to "The Hare and the Tortoise" and "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse," this is a wonderful and original collection of poems that retell some of the world's greatest and best-known fables. A cast of ignorant rats and sick lions, cunning foxes and greedy wolves, wise swallows and empty-headed tortoises, and many others are used to convey morals for human life with humor and charm. These previously unpublished and unjustly neglected translations capture beautifully the rhythm and vitality of La Fontaine's classic work.