The Dragon's Tale and Other Animal Fables of the Chinese Zodiac

Title

en_US The Dragon's Tale and Other Animal Fables of the Chinese Zodiac

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US Demi

Creator

en_US Demi See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Demi

Date

2016-01-25T19:02:32Z

en_US 1998-11

en_US 1996

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:02:32Z

Date Issued

en_US 1996

Abstract

en_US This book is like all those I have known from Demi: it is delightfully and playfully illustrated. For each of the twelve spreads in this book, there is a tale plus a moral within a circle on the left and a circular animal painting on the right. The Rat's Tale is a variant of The Marriage of the Rat's Daughter. Only here there is no marriage and no daughter. The rat himself becomes the sun and then wishes to be a cloud and then successively the wind and the rock and…a rat! The Ox's Tale is about the oxen who were safe as long as they stayed together but were devoured as soon as gossip broke them apart. The Tiger's Tale is about the fox's claim to be king of animals. He demonstrates it by approaching animals together with the tiger; they run, but not from him. The Rabbit's Tale is the tale about the thump of a falling piece of fruit misinterpreted as the end of the world. The Dragon's Tale is about the smallness of any river compared to the sea. The Snake's Tale is about the suspicious appearance of the behavior of one snake when his friend snake has started to suspect him. The Horse's Tale is the old The Bull and the Gnat story. The Goat's Tale condemns those who see the world as if from the bottom of a well. Their view, like their experience, is narrow. A dramatic illustration shows the narrowness of the frog's view from the well's bottom. The Monkey's Tale is new to me. A chain of monkeys allows the last of them to try to fetch the moon from the bottom of a well. When they finally notice the moon in the sky, they get out of the well rejoicing. The Rooster's Tale is a good cart and horse conundrum. The sun tells the rooster that he waits for the rooster to crow before rising. The rooster answers that he waits for the sun's rising before he crows. The Dog's Tale is probably in the genre of joke. The dog asks the pup conundrum-like questions, especially on whether the sun or the city is closer. The Boar's Tale is about the boar who got stuck smashing against a tree. The title-page, The Dragon's Tale, and The Boar's Tale are my favorite illustrations here.

Identifier

en_US 0805034463 (alk. paper)

en_US 4050 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/79389

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Henry Holt and Company

en_US New York

Subject

en_US PZ8.2.D3 Dr 1996 See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole