The Fox and the Stork by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: The Fox and the Stork
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

Old Mister Fox invites old Mistress Stork to dinner and serves only thin soup on a platter. Unable to drink from it with her long, slender beak, the Stork gets nothing while the Fox laps up the meal and laughs at her. A few days later, the Stork returns the invitation. Fox arrives eagerly and finds the meal plentiful, fragrant, and neatly prepared in small mouthfuls. However, the Stork serves it in tall, narrow vases that admit her beak but prevent the Fox from putting in his snout. After every attempt fails, the Fox leaves hungry, with drooping head and tail. The tale warns knaves that they may receive Dame Stork’s requital.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Fiction · 415 words

First lines

Old Mister Fox was at expense, one day, / To dine old Mistress Stork. / The fare was light, was nothing, sooth to say, / Requiring knife and fork. / That sly old gentleman, the dinner-giver, / Was, you must understand, a frugal liver. / This once, at least, the total matter / Was thinnish soup served on a platter, / For madam's slender beak a fruitless puzzle, / Till all had pass'd the fox's lapping muzzle. / But, little relishing his laughter, / Old gossip Stork, some few days after, / Return'd his Foxship's invitation. / Without a moment's hesitation, / He said he'd go, for he must own he / Ne'er stood with friends for ceremony. / And so, precisely at the hour, / He hied him to the lady's bower; / Where, praising her politeness, / He finds her dinner right nice. / Its punctuality and plenty, / Its viands, cut in mouthfuls dainty, / Its fragrant smell, were powerful to excite, / Had there been need, his foxish appetite. / But now the dame, to torture him, / Such wit was in her, / Served up her dinner / In vases made so tall and slim, / They let their owner's beak pass in and out, / But not, by any means, the fox's snout! / All arts without avail, / With drooping head and tail, / As ought a fox a fowl had cheated, / The hungry guest at last retreated.

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Genres

Fable — A brief animal tale that delivers an explicit moral lesson about deceit, reciprocity, and receiving the treatment one gives others.
Didactic Literature — Its central purpose is moral instruction: the Fox's trickery is answered by the Stork's fitting retaliation, warning knaves of consequences.
Animal Fiction — The principal characters are personified animals who speak, dine, deceive, and observe social customs while retaining traits associated with a fox and a stork.
Allegory — The animal characters represent recognizable human types, especially the cunning cheat and the wronged person who returns injustice in kind.

What this Textopian page supports

The Fox and the Stork is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1668 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Fiction, Allegory, Satire
Length: 415 words
Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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