First published completely in 1842, with some parts coming as early as November 20, 1840, it was produced by "P. J. Stahl" (Pierre-Jules Hetzel) in collaboration with Honore de Balzac, Antoine Gustave Droz , Émile Lemoine, Jules Janin, Georges Sand, Charles Nodier, Marie Mennessier-Nodier, and Alfred de Musset; and illustrated by J. J. Grandville (Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard), it proved to be best-seller, selling 25,000 copies.

Hetzel's wrote to the collaborating authors indicating that all texts were to be in the first person of an animal narrator.

The book begins when the animals decide to end human tyranny and form a parliament at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.

[1] In the various stories storks personified free and harmonious people while the wolves (of Ukraine) were considered as being strictly egalitarian.

[2] The chapter layout and authorship (titles translated) are: The chapter "Voyage d'un Moineau de Paris à la Recherche du Meilleur Gouvernement" ("The Flight of a Parisian Bird in Search of a Better Government") begins with a youthful French sparrow which has a comfortable life thanks to grains grown by humans visiting other parts of the world and wonders why sparrows do not have a good social organization unlike the ducks and crows.