Fables: When Animals Talk: Tales for Grownups
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Authors
Seeman, Laura
Issue Date
2006
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Type
Book, Whole
Book, Whole
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Thirty four fables done in a variety of rhyming verse forms. Some of them present established fables, like Quartet (6) and The Dog and His Reflexion (9). Others present a traditional fable with a change of character like The Deer and His Friends (5), based upon Gay's The Hare and Her Many Friends. Others are new but with perceptions typical for fables, like The Antelope (1) who has to live in old age with cousins who rise early and stupidly agree to arrive promptly to be cast by a lion supposedly a director from Hollywood. His set turns out to be his den, from which the stupid cousins never emerge. Better late forever. Similarly The Eagle (3-4) presents a main character who finds smaller birds mistakenly admiring him, when he knows he is a dysfunctional mess. The need to rhyme can sometimes force the poetry, as in these two lines from Quartet (6): And so to charm each living soul/With two violins, a bass and viol. At other times the rhyming shows a decided cleverness, as at the finish of The Crow and the Partridge (10). The partridge has been telling the crow not to imitate the partridge's walk. Instead of the partridge taking umbrage,/He ought to be flattered by the crow's succumbrage. The black-and-white drawings for about a third of the fables are indifferent. The colored illustrations by Seeman on the cover are more interesting, I believe. My favorite from this collection is The Hippopotamus (13-14). The hippo complains that he is never in fables. A wise turtle gives him a sage response that concludes: But calm and fat, the way you are,/To me you're handsomer by far/Than a skinny giraffe or a slithering snake./So keep out of fables and enjoy your lake.
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iUniverse Inc.,
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Identifier
6329 (Access ID)