Aesop's Fables

Title

en_US Aesop's Fables

Description

en_US Mulk Raj Anand

Creator

en_US Aesop

Date

2016-01-25T16:29:42Z

en_US 1998-09

en_US 1987

Date Available

2016-01-25T16:29:42Z

Date Issued

en_US 1987

Abstract

en_US Ninety-five fables in a book distinguished by different approaches to printing than we are used to. Thus the cover has Aesop's Fables stamped on it twice besides the title, and the author's name appears likewise twice. The T of C follows different standards than ours for capitalization, apparently capitalizing all nouns and some verbs. The T of C names for the stories do not always match the title-like phrases at the top of the texts. There are printer's errors, like the paragraph error on 4 and the frequent problems with quotation marks. Until just before the book's end, there is one fable to a page. The half-dozen simple illustrations have their own charm, like that for MSA on 103. An onlooking hare asks the fox in FG why he cannot get the grapes and receives the answer They are sour (9). Han seems to be the animals' favorite exclamation! The battered king lion, kicked by the donkey, bids him go and he does (13)! The dog gives the wolf's speech on 14! This fable actually turns out to be a new variation, since the wolf asks the dog not to bark when the former comes into the flock; when he gets in, he first eats the dog. The wolf in sheep's clothing just happens to be the one chosen by the shepherd for supper (17). Jupiter here becomes The Great God. The version of The Cat and the Parrot (28) is one of the better versions I have seen; it climaxes in The family does not like your voice as it likes mine. The She-Pigeon and the Crow is new to me (31). The goats in the cave do not butt the bull, but they ask him why he is a coward (34). Am I missing something in the moral on 42: The poor man generally finds that a change of Master, means exchanging one master for another? The dog in DS is crossing the river in a boat (47)! CJ's moral follows James in its ambivalence but adds a new twist: The cock was sensible because he wanted to eat, but a woman would say it is better to have a jewel, rather than food (54). Here is a good one-liner from the horse to his keeper: Give me less of your praise and more of my corn (55). When the fox loses his fear of the lion, the lion eats him in one gulp (56)! The creaking wheel story is told with the driver insulting the creaking wheels. The moral? Those in authority think they are always right (57). Mother finishes her remark to the moon by saying You look better naked (60). SW is a bet over whichever of them made a traveller take off his tunic (66). The detoothed, declawed lion in love runs away before he can be hit (67). Not only does the horse lose his freedom to get revenge on the stag, but the man does not even pause to kill the stag once he gets mounted (75). The weak old lion asks animals to come in order to clean his house (86). A girl, not a boy, hears the lecture while drowning (92). The moral? One must help to relieve a suffer before giving advice. The mother of the sick kite asks which gods she can turn to, since she has robbed the altars of all of them (98). The moral for the boy with the nettles is Do baldly what you have to do (99). The last fable, without acknowledgement of Lessing, is his Aesop and the Ass. One could see in this book how fables can easily get off the track!

Identifier

en_US 746500696

en_US 3087 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/78494

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Oriental University Press

en_US London

Subject

en_US PA3855.E5 A52 1987

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole