Book excerpt: Though they were first written over 300 years ago, this is the first complete English translation of Jean de La Fontaine's comedic classic Contes et nouvelles en vers. Both sexually charged and wickedly funny, La Fontaine's Tales will surprise readers who know him only from his work on fables for children. Though the writing is more suggestive than vulgar, it still has the power to shock readers unprepared for the darkness that inhabits these poems. Included are nearly seventy illustrations dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, many of them rare, as well as extensive commentary by the editor.