99 fables by william march

Title

en_US 99 fables by william march

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US First edition

en_US William T. Going

Creator

en_US March, William

Contributor

en_US Brough, Richard

Date

2016-01-25T16:13:52Z

en_US 1994-10

en_US 1960

Date Available

2016-01-25T16:13:52Z

Date Issued

en_US 1960

Abstract

en_US This book represents a genuine surprise. After I have read so many books that promise fables but offer something else, here are real fables! William Edward March Campbell apparently worked over this collection for years and had it refused once by one of the publishers of his other works. Except for a very few that mention Aesop (#1, #97, and #98) and one that deliberately redoes his work (#30), the fables are original. Is it wrong to take #1 and #97 as programmatic? The former concludes the fable is, and always had been, the platitude's natural frame (2) and the latter has the Delphians killing Aesop in Going's words not because of the warming of the oracle and not because his wit was too sharp and biting, but because he told fables--nothing but fables--and he was boring (xviii). Going places March apart from Ade and Thurber, for his style is purposefully flat and folk-like, and totally apart from the allusive, decorative manner of La Fontaine and Gay. He places him rather with Bierce, for his fables are sharp and ironic (xvi-xvii). I find them tending overall more than I would want toward a scolding tone. But there is also a rich variety of humor, as when the escaped elephant admits that he has been too thin-skinned for life among humans (5). Typical and insightful is The Peacock and His Bride, where the central character admits that what the two have in common is that we both love me to distraction (74). Let me list some other fables worth a special look: #29, 52, 53, 56, 57, 64, 71, 77, 84, and 88. Brough's work is often strong, e.g., on xxiv and 58.

Identifier

en_US 2086 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/77647

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US University of Alabama Press

en_US University, AL

Subject

en_US PS3505.A53157 N5 1960

en_US March

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole