The Rich Man and the Shoemaker: A Fable by La Fontaine
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Authors
La Fontaine, Jean de
Watts, Bernadette
Issue Date
2002
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
I am delighted to see that Bernadette Watts is continuing to illustrate fables. She had done so for at least three Aesopic fables earlier: The Wind and the Sun, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, and The Lion and the Mouse. The telling here is not true to La Fontaine's fine fable. Not only are fine little details left out, like the shoemaker's reference to the feast days on which he may not work, but bigger things are changed too. For example, the merchant here at first asks the shoemaker to stop singing. There is no such request anywhere in La Fontaine. In La Fontaine's version, the singing stops of its own accord as the shoemaker fixates in worry on his new treasure. In this version, the merchant has to try three times to give the shoemaker some gold. The latter, when he finally accepts it, digs into the frozen ground behind his home. I enjoy Watts' art. She sets the shoemaker into a very warm family-business setting here.
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Publisher
North-South Books
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Identifier
5398 (Access ID)