Fifty Fables of La Fontaine

Title

en_US Fifty Fables of La Fontaine

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US #284 of 1025

en_US Jean de La Fontaine; Translated by Norman R. Shapiro

Creator

en_US La Fontaine, Jean de See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Blake, Quentin

en_US Bakewell, Sarah (Introduction)

Date

2016-12-01T20:16:50Z

en_US 2016-06

en_US 2013

Date Available

2016-12-01T20:16:50Z

Date Issued

en_US 2013

Abstract

en_US Printed on Modigliani paper and bound in Indian goatskin blocked in gold foil, this volume is both a treasure and a star! I have wanted to include it in the collection since I learned of its existence. Blake has been a favorite illustrator of mine, and I was delighted to learn that he was taking on La Fontaine. The frontispiece has La Fontaine sitting in a traditional pose under a tree with scroll and pen in hand. The milkmaid sits next to him, with her pitcher next to her. A fox and a frog look on, while a crow sits perched above them in a tree with a round of cheese in his beak. Perfect! I agree with Sarah Bakewell when she writes at the end of her introduction that illustrators "endlessly reinvent" La Fontaine's fables, "bringing out contemporary implications and associations" (xvi). Each fable gets some illustration. Many receive a full-page colored illustration, and many have additional pictures of various designs. Some of the best are these. Both mice look up startled in TMCM (15). The fox has turned suddenly to look for the dogs who may not yet have heard about the universal peace (17). Blake does not hesitate to imitate traditional approaches, as in "The Wolf Turned Shepherd" (25). Without careful analysis, I would guess that we are seeing a fair amount of Grandville and Doré well digested and re-presented. My sense of Blake's best gifts is well represented in FM: the eyes and posture of both animals during the frog's plunge are zany, even in the midst of catastrophe, as the mouse desperately clings to a reed. Equally comic is 2W, as the now bald man thinks about both mistresses (56). Do not miss the end of the rat who encountered an oyster: only two paws and a tail are outside the closed shell (68). The leap of the transformed cat-woman is wild and bloody (83): again Blake manages to communicate the catastrophic and the zany. The two illustrations for FG distance the fox from the grapes well; he jaunts off with an eye still on the fruit (96). Shapiro remains a wonderfully clever translator, as at the end of "The Mountain in Labour": "Fine words! And yet, what often comes to pass? Just gas." What a treasure!

Identifier

en_US 11089 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/107817

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US The Folio Society

en_US London

Subject

en_US PQ1811.E3S45 2013 See all items with this value

en_US Jean de La Fontaine See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole