The Rat and the Elephant by Jean de La Fontaine

A tiny rat mocks a slowly moving elephant carrying a sultan, his animals, attendants, concubine, and wine beneath a high canopy as they travel to a distant town. Seeing people marvel at the procession, the rat argues that mere size gives no creature greater worth and proudly declares himself as good as the elephant. Before he can continue boasting, the cat leaps down and proves to him, fatally, that a rat is indeed smaller than an elephant.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Tale · 384 words

First lines

One's own importance to enhance, / Inspirited by self-esteem, / Is quite a common thing in France; / A French disease it well might seem. / The strutting cavaliers of Spain / Are in another manner vain. / Their pride has more insanity; / More silliness our vanity. / Let's shadow forth our own disease -- / Well worth a hundred tales like these.

• Open reader

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Genres

• Fable — A brief animal-centered moral tale in which the rat's vanity is exposed through a comic reversal involving the elephant and cat.
• Didactic Literature — The poem explicitly teaches a lesson about self-importance, pride, and the foolishness of judging worth by one's own inflated perspective.
• Animal Tale — Animals act as the central figures, with the rat, elephant, and cat serving as recognizable types whose actions convey human behavior.
• Satire — La Fontaine satirizes national vanity, social pretension, and the absurdity of people who overestimate their own importance.

Tags

fable · verse narrative · French literature · seventeenth century · animal characters · rat · elephant · cat · sultan's procession · travel to a distant town · pride · vanity

What this Textopian page supports

The Rat and the Elephant is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1678 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Fable
• Author: Jean de La Fontaine
• Date: 1678 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Tale, Satire, Moral Poetry
• Length: 384 words
• Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Rat and the Elephant by Jean de La Fontaine
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
• Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

More by Jean de La Fontaine

• To Monseigneur the Dauphin (1668)
• The Grasshopper and the Ant (1668)
• The Raven and the Fox (1668)
• The Frog that Wished to be as Big as the Ox (1668)
• The Two Mules (1668)
• The Wolf and the Dog (1668)
• The Heifer, the Goat, and the Sheep, in Company with the Lion (1668)
• The Wallet (1668)
• All works by Jean de La Fontaine