The Romance of Reynard the Fox (World's Classics)

The only available English translation of The Romance of Reynard the Fox, this age-old tale is an oblique critique of medieval society and its institutions. The animals, endowed with human vices and fewer virtues, play out a thinly disguised social comedy in which all the orders from nobility to peasantry are lampooned. Full of shrewd observation of rural life and animal behavior, this new translation offers an enlightening introduction and clear notes that involve the reader in the social, historical, and literary context of the work.