Fables I. Krylova familiar to all Russians since childhood. By memorizing poems such as “Crow and Fox”, “Wolf and Lamb” or “Dragonfly and Ant, ” at school or even in kindergarten, few people know that the Russian fabulist was not the creator of these stories.
The fable, a work of a satirical and moral character, was never widespread in Russian literature. The fables of A. Kantemir, V. Trediakovsky, A. Sumarokov and I. Dmitriev were not included in the “golden fund” of Russian literature, now they are forgotten. You can name only two domestic writers who have clearly shown themselves in this genre: Ivan Krylov in the 19th century. and Sergei Mikhalkov in the 20th century. But only I. Krylov entered the history of literature precisely as a fabulist: his comedies, tragedies and novels are forgotten, the fables continue to be published, many quotes from them became winged words.
The origins of fables I.Krylova
Contemporaries often called Ivan Krylov "Russian Lafontaine." The French poet Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) also became famous for his fables, and from this point of view his resemblance to I. Krylov is not in doubt. But the comparison of the two writers had another important aspect: I. Krylov borrowed the plots of many of his fables from J. Lafontaine.
The fable "Wolf and the Lamb" is closest to the French source. It is enough to compare the beginning of the fable of I. Krylov with the literal translation of the first line of the fable of J. Lafontaine: "The strong is always guilty of the weak" - "The arguments of the strong are always the best." Even the details coincide, for example, both poets "measure" the distance between the characters in steps.
Plots of some other fables - “Dragonfly and Ant”, “Crow and Fox”, “Oak and Reed”, “Frog and Ox”, “Picky Bride”, “Two Pigeons”, “Frogs Begging for a King”, “Pestilence of Animals” - also taken from La Fontaine.
