Fall Book Club: The Fables of Marie de France (Part 1 of 3)

What's in a fable? Sometimes great insight, despite their brevity. This book club will examine a selection containing both timeless wisdom and issues contemporary to the times in which they were written, including feminist values.  Called the Ysopet in Old French (meaning "Little Aesop"), their author Marie de France was a Medieval poet serving the 12th and 13th-century royal courts of the Plantagenets.  

She claimed she translated the fables from the Old English, and that their original author was not Aesop but King Alfred the Great of England--but this is a literary ruse. They are traditional fables from her native France and the Ancient world, with her own special spin (set to poetry!)

Our guest discussion leader is Dr. Marsha Dutton, a scholar of Medieval literature.