JEAN DE LA FONTAINE, THE STORYTELLER

Exceptional destinies

An episode from the series SECRETS OF HISTORY - PORTRAITS

Synopsis

A genius storyteller, La Fontaine is a man of many faces, both worldly and dreamy, Parisian and provincial, erudite and popular. Above all, he was a free man.

Nicolas Fouquet, the Finance minister for the young Louis XIV and a great patron of the arts, helped the poet. After his arrest, La Fontaine, who bravely took Fouquet's defence, found it difficult to adapt to the new situation.

He died alone, in misery.