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Title
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en_US
From Ur to Uncle Remus: 5000 Years of Animal Fable Illustrations
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Description
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en_US
This is a hardbound book (hard cover)
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en_US
This book has a dust jacket (book cover)
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en_US
Limited edition of 1000
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en_US
Clay Lancaster
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Creator
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en_US
Lancaster, Clay
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Date
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2016-01-25T19:28:50Z
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en_US
2002-07
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en_US
1997
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Date Available
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2016-01-25T19:28:50Z
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Date Issued
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en_US
1997
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Abstract
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en_US
I am still trying to find the focus in this book. It goes at a huge subject in snippets. Without that focus, I find too much that is scattered, partial, and misleading. Did the book perhaps grow out of a lecture or series of lectures? Frequently the text seems to be a commentary on the visuals. After the frontispiece, all of these appear on right-hand pages without print or image on the verso. There are fascinating glimpses at important moments in the history of art. Thus Sumerian harp figures are imbued with fable essence (11) even though there are no known texts associated with the figures. Lancaster finds fable in Greece by the eighth century BC. Be careful: the image of the fox and the crow on 23 is really from the story of Chanticleer, not the usual FC story of dropping a morsel of cheese or meat. The Jataka tales took their present form in the fifth century AD, but the first illustrations of them occurred in the second century BC. China's great contribution to fable history comes with the creation of paper in 100 AD, when prints became possible. There is a sizeable chapter (III) on Buddhism's spread of the Jatakas. For Lancaster, Buddhism developed the fable and gave it sanctity and popularity as it moved from India eastward throughout Asia. Why am I impatient with the book? There is too much here that is either erroneous or seems to invite to error. The story of the lion and the hare is about the lion plunging not at the perceived hare but rather at the perceived lion (70). Lancaster speaks on 85 as though Oudry's were the first edition of La Fontaine's fables. The only representatives of modern European fable discussed here are Oudry's La Fontaine and Bewick. Croxall did not publish his fable book in Philadelphia in 1777; he published it in England in 1722. Because of the misrepresentations, I do not know whether I can trust some of Lancaster's most engaging observations, e.g. that the first exclusively fable book published in the USA came in 1762 (100) or that the tar-baby story became the most popular of the Uncle Remus stories (111). Note the typo expressd on 70. I had hoped for more from this kindred spirit!
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Identifier
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en_US
091751906X
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en_US
5083 (Access ID)
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Language
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en_US
eng
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Publisher
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en_US
University of Kentucky Librairies
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en_US
Lexington, KY
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Subject
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en_US
NC961.7.F34 L36 1997
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en_US
Secondary
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en_US
Title Page Scanned
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Type
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en_US
Book, Whole