Fables de Florian

1930s book illustrations by Benjamin Rabier

The (translated) list of anthropomorphic fables in this Benjamin Rabier-illustrated version of Florian's original 18th century children's tales:
The cat and the mirror - Beef horse and donkey - Carp and carpillons - The cowboy and the gamekeeper - The Cat and the bezel - The blind and the lame - Mother the child and opossums - The Mole and rabbits - the sheep and the dog - The Cricket - The monkey magic lantern shows - The brouvreuil and raven - The young and the old hen fox - The child and the mirror - Two cats - horse and foal - The hedgehog and rabbit - The Phoenix - The cat and the sparrow - The linnet - The fox preaches - monkeys and leopard - Wild boar and nightingales - The rhinoceros and camel - The squirrel, the dog and the fox - Hare, her friends and two deer - Peacock, both goslings and diving - the monkey, the monkey and nuts - fox disguised - The owl, cat, rat and goose - The parrot confident - The snake and leech - The Parrot - The cats and rats - both farmers and the cloud - Leopard and squirrel - The lion and leopard - The dog - The donkey and the flute - The rabbit and Teal - The crocodile and sturgeon - The wasp bee - The warbler and nightingale.

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755-1794) was a French poet, romance and comedy writer, fabulist and pastoral novelist. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1788. Florian is best remembered for his children's fable verses, drawing from both traditional sources such Aesop as well as his own imagination.

Florian was arrested and imprisoned during the French Revolution and managed to avoid the guillotine during Robespierre's Reign of Terror. However, he died a year later at 39 years of age from an illness while still in jail.

Florian's most famous line might well be:
"Rira bien qui rira le dernier" or "He who laughs last, laughs best!"

• The images above, from 'Fables de Florian / Illustrées par Benjamin Rabier' (1936), are hosted online by Rosalis, Bibliothèque Numérique de Toulouse.
• From the same source & same illustrator on BibliOdyssey a couple of months ago: Le Buffon Choisi: this post has more background on the illustrator and further links.
• Agence Eureka has many Rabier posts.
• Wonderful Japanese illustrations of the Florian Fables from 1895: Volume One & Volume Two.
• Fables de Florian pour lire, en Français.
• Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian et les fables [trans.]
• At the Internet Archive: 'Fables de Florian : avec des notes par madame Amable Tastu ; suivies d'un choix de fables de nos meilleurs fabulistes' (1845) {steel engravings by Bertrand}
• http://www.benjaminrabier.com/
• Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian at Wikipedia.