Aesop's Fables
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Authors
Aesop
Matthews, Leonard
Issue Date
1998
Type
Book, Whole
Language
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Abstract
Designed and produced by Aventinum Publishing House, Prague. I found this book as I was wandering around Sliema. This was a tiny bookshop. For some reason I gave it a try and got very lucky. The book belongs in the genre of very large format books (here 9¼ x almost 13) with excellent color printing. The book contains forty-two fables. The book numbers fables rather than pages. The versions are not always what one would expect; often they lose some of the tradition's subtlety. Thus the frog hates the mouse from the start of the fable in #2. The third fable, The Wolf, the Dog and the Sheep resolves its conflict in a way much different from the tradition's when the wolf judge condemns the dog for being unfair to the sheep. Eagle and crow may reverse their traditional roles in stealing a nut dropped from high above; here it is the eagle that steals from the crow. #7 is new to me: a vulture's mother tells him that he has made too many enemies and that she cannot protect him. The dying lion in #9 laments his general situation, not the particular attack from the donkey. The Goats and the Lamb (#13) is new to me. The hunter who dismisses his old hunting dog never finds another good hunting dog (#15). The Lion kills the man who uses the stone as a proof as to who is stronger (#37). The fox is so busy boasting to the cat that he does not hear the approaching hunters (#42). The two most engaging illustrations are those for The Sick Donkey and the Wolf (#35) and The Old Lion and the Fox (#36). The publisher was wise to put these two onto the cover and dust-jacket.
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Publisher
Blitz Editions an imprint of Bookmart Ltd.,
Blitz Editions: Bookmart, Ltd.
Blitz Editions: Bookmart, Ltd.