Valued for its comic spirit, its high literary quality, and its clever satire of feudal society, the famous medieval poem about the legendary fox uses animals to represent the members of various classes.

"Based on William Caxton's bestselling 1481 English translation of the Middle Dutch, this edition is an imaginative retelling of the Reynard story, expanded with new interpretations and innovative language and characterizations"--Publisher marketing.

This is the story of Renard the Fox. He'll eat anything or anyone. To get food, he'll trick, lie, and cheat. He's chased by the hounds, declared an outlaw, dyed bright yellow, left for dead. But he always has another trick up his sleeve. There's not a creature on earth as smart as Renard the Fox. At least that's what he says.

Valued for its comic spirit, its high literary quality, and its clever satire of feudal society, the famous medieval poem about the legendary fox uses animals to represent the members of various classes.

"A collection of folktales at their absolute best" (Elizabeth Bird, SLJ.com) about a legendary scoundrel, brought to new life through Renate Raecke's lively retelling and Jonas Lauströer's expressive illustrations. Reynard the Fox has been a staple trickster character of European literature since at least the Middle Ages. The tales of his schemes have been told many times, and he always manages to win readers' sympathies. Reynard is a rascal, a ne'er-do-well. While we may suffer from his pranks, at the same time we smile at the shrewd thinking through which he escapes hopeless situations. In this expertly retold version, the classic tales of Reynard's exploits find a new life. They speak to us now as much as ever, for who among us doesn't know a Reynard-like figure in our lives?

Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, as well as in chapbook form throughout the Early Modern period. The stories are largely concerned with the main character Reynard, an anthropomorphic red fox, trickster figure. His adventures usually involve his deceiving other anthropomorphic animals for his own advantage or trying to avoid their retaliatory efforts. His main enemy and victim across the cycle is his uncle, the wolf, Isengrim (or Ysengrim).

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.