Fables
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Authors
Powys, Theodore Francis
Issue Date
1929
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Nineteen stories that are really tales, I would say, about talking sub-human creatures rather than fables in the tradition, invoked by the dust jacket, of Aesop and La Fontaine. The dust jacket says aptly The common note is a sort of smiling cynicism. I read five and found them various, offbeat, and engaging. The Withered Leaf and the Green (31) is a poignant classic confrontation of young and old with well-etched attitudes given to each. The Seaweed and the Cuckoo-Clock (45) is a bizarre piece about Miss Gibbs who marries unlike things to each other, like these two objects. The Ass and the Rabbit (65) is a good commentary on the problem of a creature whose life gets complicated and mixed up by thinking he is God. It contains this fine sardonic remark: There are some who have even doubted that the hermit ever lived at all upon the moor, for during all the time that he lived--if, indeed, he did live--he caused no scandal that could rightfully give him the smallest place in the remembrance of a man (67). Though I do not think these belong in the history of fable, I intend to read more.
Description
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Publisher
The Viking press
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Identifier
2073 (Access ID)