The Ant and the Grasshopper: An Animal Fable

Title

en_US The Ant and the Grasshopper: An Animal Fable

en_US Colour Knight

Description

en_US English Version by Hilary Smyth

Creator

en_US Nemo See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US With Pictures by Nemo

Date

2016-01-25T19:55:05Z

en_US 2006-10

en_US 1974

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:55:05Z

Date Issued

en_US 1974

Abstract

en_US This English version uses the pictures one can find in Mes Fables d'Animaux by Touret in Milan. I had guessed for that larger hardbound book of six stories a date of 1975. This 24-page pamphlet uses the illustrations rather than reprints them, sometimes dividing or cropping. Smyth's text shows even more divergence. Where the French there deals with generic characters and returns regularly to the basic themes of work and rest, this story gets more particular and imaginative. Emily the ant goes about various specific tasks. Gordon the grasshopper sings directly to her, and she criticizes his song for not even rhyming. It makes Gordon tired just to see her work. The French ant constructs a ladder to help her harvest. The English ant pretends she does not even hear his plaints and invitations to her to sing. Autumn rains in the English version dampen Gordon's guitar strings, and he can no longer play in tune. Notice, of course, that the grasshopper has become a male in the English, whereas both characters in French are females. The last lines of the French have the ant remembering the earlier mockery of the grasshopper. In English, Emily retorts A fine time to complain! In neither version is it explicit that she rejects helping him, but in both she tells him to dance. This is a nice little study in intercultural transposition of a text.

Identifier

en_US 9780340190128 (sd)

en_US 6543 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/81865

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Knight Books

en_US Leicester, UK

Subject

en_US PZ8.2.N466 An 1974 See all items with this value

en_US One story See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole