Item
Krilof and His Fables
- Title
- en_US Krilof and His Fables
- en_US 0
- Description
- W.R.S. Ralston
- Creator
- en_US Ralston, W.R.S. See all items with this value
- Date
- 2019-07-05T20:12:43Z
- 2019-03
- en_US 1869
- Date Available
- 2019-07-05T20:12:43Z
- Date Issued
- en_US 1869
- Abstract
- en_US Here is a copy of an early -- perhaps the earliest? -- edition of Krylov's fables. There is perhaps an issue: Did his original edition appear in 1868 or 1869? This edition, in any case, is dated 1869 on its title-page. I will continue to try to find an 1868 edition, but I have to admit that I am not sure that it exists. As I wrote of this book's third edition from 1871, it is a happy find! The last of this book's ninety-three fables here is "The Lion" on 177. Then comes an AI and thirty-two pages of Strahan advertisements. With the exception of a "Preface to the Third Edition" found in my 1871 third edition, this book appears to be identical with that edition through 177. Both add a long "memoir" (xvii-xlii) after the T of C and before the first fable. The preface is dated Dec 14, 1868. There is no indication that this is a second edition. Bodemann #343.1 has a second edition dated 1871, the same date as her and my third edition. This copy is inscribed in 1870. Curious! This copy is fragile and has a separated chunk from the top of the spine. I include comments from that third edition that pertain here. Good fables include the following. "The Brook" (7) criticizes the river, then becomes one, and does just what it had criticized. "The Elephant as Governor" (35) accepts the wolves' clever ruse that they are asking for only one fleece from each sheep! "The Wolves and the Sheep" (57) presents an edict allowing any aggrieved sheep to seize the guilty wolf by the neck and drag him to court! "The Man and His Shadow" (59) is applied to man and the love goddess: he will never catch her when he tries to seize, and he will never get away when she pursues. Some of the best illustrations include "The Miser" (24) and "The Lion, the Chamois, and the Fox" (129). Apparently the Dalziels did some of the engraving, along with an "ABH." I find Krilof really good in only a few fables. One can see the machinery of insight working; the story becomes pedantic. Krilof's politics are dark, even cynical. "Gossip" is a favorite appellation for a friend here.
- Identifier
- en_US 11573 (Access ID)
- Language
- en_US eng
- Publisher
- en_US Strahan & Co.
- en_US London
- Item sets
- Carlson Fable Collection