Ivan Krylov - La Fontaine

La Fontaine

Krylov is sometimes referred to as 'the Russian La Fontaine' because, though he was not the first of the Russian fabulists, he became the foremost and is the one whose reputation has lasted. His first three fables, published in a Russian magazine in 1806, were imitations of La Fontaine; the majority of those in his 1809 collection were likewise adaptations of La Fontaine. Thereafter he was occasionally indebted to La Fontaine for themes, although his treatment of the story was independent. One might cite Krylov's pithy "Man and his shadow" with the more lengthy "The man who ran after fortune and the man who waited for her in his bed" of La Fontaine (VII.12), or the satiric "The Peasant and the Snake" with The Countryman and the Snake (VI.13).

It has been observed that in general Krylov tends to add more detail in contrast with La Fontaine's leaner versions, and that where La Fontaine is an urbane moralist Krylov is satiric. The following are the fables that are based, with more or less fidelity, on those of La Fontaine:

• The Dragonfly and the Ants (I.1)
• The Fox and the Crow (Aesop) (I.2)
• The Frog and the Ox (I.3)
• The Wolf and the Lamb (I.10)
• Death and the Peasant (or the woodman in La Fontaine) (I.16)
• The Cock and the Pearl (I.20)
• The Oak and the Reed (I.22)
• The Mice in Council (II.2)
• The Lion and the Mouse (II.11)
• The Frogs who Begged for a Tsar (III.4)
• The Wolf and the Crane (III.9)
• The Aged Lion (III.14)
• The Fox and the Grapes (III.11)
• The Fly and the Bee (or ant in La Fontaine) (IV.3)
• The Crow (The Jay in Peacock’s feathers) (IV.9)
• The Greedy Man and the Hen (V.13) = golden eggs
• The Animals Sick of the Plague (VII.1)
• The Choosy Bride (The Maid in La Fontaine) VII.5)
• The Hermit and the Bear (VIII.10)
• The Wolf and the Shepherds (X.6)
• The Old Man and the Three Young Men (XI.8)