Fables de M. De Florian
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Authors
Florian
Issue Date
1792
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Here is a wonderfully surprising find. Two years earlier I exulted over finding a first edition Florian for $125. Here is a larger version of the same edition for $39! It has the same date, title, and publisher but is larger both in format and length: 5" x 7 ¾" and 358 pages. It includes, besides the fables, various verse works, including stories and romances. It also has a different frontispiece: animals around a fountain under a bust (of Florian? of Aesop?). I do not find this edition mentioned in Bodemann, whose #179 covers this family of Florian editions. I will include comments from the edition found earlier. I thought that there might have been a number of editions of fables in his lifetime, but there was just one, in 1792, two years before he died. Here are Florian's five books of fables, with 21, 19, 20, 20, and 20 fables in them, respectively. The first fable of each book is illustrated here: "La Fable et la Vérité"; "La Mere, l'Enfant et les Sarigues"; "Les Singes et le Léopard"; "Le Savant et le Fermier"; and "Le Berger et le Rossignol." The joy of finding this book has led me to dig deeper into these fables. In I 1, Truth emerges from a well as an old hag, naked, and people flee from her. Fable gives Truth her cloak and recommends that they travel together: the wise will accept truth for her sake, and fools will accept truth because of the attractive cloak. In III 1, monkeys are playing a game like "Blind Man's Buff," only what is hit here is an extended arm. Leopard comes by. The lower class monkeys are impressed that the noble leopard would want to play with them. One swipe from the leopard and the blindfolded person, who knows well who hit him, leaves silently. One by one, all the others leave too. It is better not to have the noble play with the commoners, since hid beneath their softest paws are very sharp claws. In V 1, the shepherd enjoys the nightingale's song and asks her to sing again. She says that she is giving it all up, because the frogs are drowning out her song. "No," answers the shepherd. "When I listen to you, I'm not even conscious of them." IV 1 has this lovely saying under its illustration: "je fais souvent du bien pour avoir du plaisir." The farmer has been answering the question where he got his wisdom. He got it from observing nature and taking his part in it. I bet one can hear a bit of Kant's "Ode to Duty" in this farmer's Enlightenment answer.
Description
Citation
Publisher
L'Imprimerie de P. Didot l'Ainé
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DOI
Identifier
11049 (Access ID)