Various Fables from Various Places

Title

en_US Various Fables from Various Places

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US Edited by Diane de Prima

Creator

en_US Di Prima, Diane See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Krigstein, Bernard

Date

2016-01-25T19:02:12Z

en_US 1998-05

en_US 1960

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:02:12Z

Date Issued

en_US 1960

Abstract

en_US This is an important anthology of fables. It is organized by geographic territories, fifteen of which are covered. In an epilogue About Fables, di Prima mentions three factors that help shape the collection. Aesop is not heavily represented here, since we know Aesop well. Fable is hard to define, but she has had no problem proceeding on her feel for what is a fable. Above all, her criterion has been delight: …these stories were chosen chiefly for the delight they gave me. The delight is mostly all I know about them. I find her anthology worthy of the company of such important traditional collections as Jerrold's Big Book of Fables (1912), the Everyman library edition (1913), Cooper's An Argosy of Fables (1921), Komroff's The Great Fables of All Nations (1928), and Barbara Hayes' Folk Tales and Fables of the World (1987). All eight Spanish fables here come from Cayetano Fernandez, and there is nothing from either Samaniego or Iriarte. All the Russian fables come from Krylov. La Fontaine has only three fables, perhaps for the same reason for which Aesop has only ten. Let me mention several among those that are new to me and good. The conceited monkey can find no one to praise her sufficiently, and so she humbly approaches the pig, who lacks all vanity. Whatever she says, the pig answers Grum, grum (Spain, 3). In the Gesta Romanorum (20), the story about testing one's wife with a lie about laying an egg becomes a story about voiding a crow! A weasel and hyena hunting encounter two men hunting. The weasel immediately hides. The hyena sees the men and thinks Here is meat. The men see the hyena and think Here is meat. The hyena and men kill each other, and the weasel comes out of his hole and thinks Here is meat (61). The toad bets the rat that he can do more than the rat (66). He walks through a crowd of men, who let him pass because they fear what touching him might bring. The rat tries to do the same and is promptly attacked. Among the best of the illustrations are those of the fox confessing to the wolf (130) and of the dancing apes (143). I wonder if there was a large-format publication of this book. It would do more justice to Krigstein's art.

Identifier

en_US 3987 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/79327

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Capricorn Books: G.P. Putnam's Sons

en_US New York

Subject

en_US PN982.D5 1960 See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value

Type

en_US Book, Whole