The Illustrated Book of World Fables
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Authors
Cotterall, Yong Yap
Issue Date
1979
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Book, Whole
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Abstract
A curious book containing one hundred fables. The introduction gives a key: following Robert Louis Stevenson--second only to Aesop in representation here--the collector finds that the key to fable is its suggestiveness of other dimensions. This position is taken in deliberate reaction to a Victorian sense of fable as morally uplifting. The selection of fables made according to this criterion is thus various and surprising, including specimens that the introduction itself recognizes as close to parables (e.g., Chinese fables), that develop the story for its own sake (e.g., medieval fabliaux), or that aim only at humor (e.g., Poggio's renaissance facetiae). The result leaves the reader to resolve for himself what may be meant ; this is not a comforting collection of moral tales. Artists run from Ulm to Thurber through Gheeraerts, Rackham, Condé, Hellé, lots of Eastern art, and E.R. Herman (new to me). The selection is impressive. New stories I find good include: Forgetfulness (35), Two Sons (65), The Prescient Goldsmith (65), Worth (82), The Servant and the Master (97), and The Father and the Son (139). AI at the back. Acknowledgements on 159: Aesop is from V.S. Vernon Jones (unacknowledged) and Handford, the latter fables marked by their catchy but obscure titles.
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Publisher
Book Club Associates
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Identifier
1183 (Access ID)