The Fabulists French: Verse Fables of Nine Centuries

Title

en_US The Fabulists French: Verse Fables of Nine Centuries

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US Language note: Bilingual: French/English

en_US First edition

en_US Norman R. Shapiro

Creator

en_US Shapiro, Norman R.

Contributor

en_US Schorr, David

Date

2016-01-25T16:07:58Z

en_US 1992-05

en_US 1992

Date Available

2016-01-25T16:07:58Z

Date Issued

en_US 1992

Abstract

en_US Reading this massive and excellent work has been quite a project! The 250 fables or so from seventy fabulists represent of course only a sampling of the French tradition. An excellent prologue conveys Shapiro's good understanding of fable. Fables are not for children. They are not overall successful in reforming people; the coating keeps getting in the way of the pill. They are unpretentious, persistent, indomitable. They are meant to be read aloud. La Fontaine is clearly the measure of all French fable-writing. What comes before him is generally inferior to what comes after. The spread that Shapiro offers is truly amazing, including great geographic diversity: Switzerland, Canada, Louisiana, Algeria, Senegal, Togo, Mauritius, Haiti, and several dialect-areas within France are all here. For each of the seventy fabulists a half-page to a page of careful introduction gives biography, bibliography, and a refreshingly frank critical assessment. For me the collection perks up appreciably in the twentieth century. I cannot understand his statement that Babrius...composed his versions in the pithy four-line form (46). I took copious notes. The book has introduced me to several delightful fabulists of whose very existence I had been unaware, including Kaddour (186) and Franc-Nohain (188). Among the best of the twenty-nine woodcuts are The Mule Who Boasted of the Family Tree (110), Leda and the Turkey (126), and The Olive and the Watermelon (187). Ordering this book has put me in touch with David Schorr, who just sent a catalogue of his latest show, and Liz Dulaney, who works for the publisher and collects fable editions.

Identifier

en_US 0252017560 (alk. paper)

en_US 1879 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/77445

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US University of Illinois Press

en_US Urbana

Subject

en_US PQ1170.E6 F3 1991

en_US French

Type

en_US Book, Whole