Fables for Children, Young and Old, in Humorous Verse

Title

en_US Fables for Children, Young and Old, in Humorous Verse

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US Second edition

en_US by W. Edwards Staite

Creator

en_US Staite, W. Edwards

Contributor

en_US Jones, T.H.

Date

2016-01-25T16:49:53Z

en_US 1998-06

en_US 1848

Date Available

2016-01-25T16:49:53Z

Date Issued

en_US 1848

Abstract

en_US Here is a case where the title-page says Fables for Children, Young and Old, in Humorous Verse, the cover says Fables for Young and Old, and the old spine reads Fables, though physically there may be words missing on the spine. This book is not in Bodemann. About 5 x 6½. The cover is red gilt pictorial cloth, rebacked with part of the old spine laid on. A lovely feature of this book is its eight hand-colored plates, including the frontispiece and pictorial title-page. The signature of T.H. Jones is clear on each of the illustrations. The title-page illustration is strong: an adult with distinctive round glasses reads from a fable-book to an eager group of children. Another attractive illustration is that of Tom and Harry and the Donkey (29). A third worth mentioning is that for The Barber and His Customer (94). The fables here seem new to the Aesopic tradition. While they are humorous, they are also pointedly didactic. For example, the sparrow that envies ducks sees two of them decapitated (32)! For me the morally focussed character of the fables can make them tiresome. Among the best for me--because it does not follow the moralistic pattern--is The Quack and the Mountebank (65), which shows that a laugh beats twenty bottles of physic. The following story is also strong; in it a monkey defeathers a thieving crow (68). The Pedlar's Dream (86) tells a good joke. Two peddlers are given food enough for only one. They agree to go to bed, and whoever has the unlikeliest dream gets the food. The first arises the next morning to relate that he thought the other was in heaven. The other says he had the same dream, and knowing that in heaven his associate would not want or need a cold fowl, he himself got up in the night and ate it! The barber mentioned above is also a wit. Having been duped by a fruit-dealer who contracted for a shave for himself and his friend, soon revealed as a donkey, the barber turns the tables and manages in disguise to contract with the fruit dealer to pay a crown for all he can carry. Of course, what he carries is not the dealer's fruit but the dealer's donkey!

Identifier

en_US 3610 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/78972

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US E. Churton

en_US London

Subject

en_US PZ8.2.S78 Fab 1848

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole