The Fables of La Fontaine Jean de la Fontaine - The Fables by Jean de La Fontaine are considered classics of French literature. Collecting fables from a variety of sources, La Fontaine then adapted them into verse. Consisting of twelve books and 239 fables in all, these were originally aimed at adults, but have since been taught to children as a way to educate them in morals. At times they have been mixed in with the fables of Aesop. The sources for the fables are wide-ranging, from Aesop to Boccaccio, from Babrius to Machiavelli - even drawing at times from ancient Indian collections of tales.