Eight Fables by La Fontaine
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Authors
La Fontaine, Jean de
Lewis, Ann
Issue Date
1955 , 1955?
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Issue
Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
This large-format unpaginated book in pictured boards has a special claim on being noticed. For each of its eight La Fontaine fables (WL, TMCM, OF, FC, LM, TH, FS, and GA) there is a parallel story (often a fairy tale) based on the moral of the original French Fable. Thus for WL, there is The King and the General. There is a repeated illustration presenting the title of each fable, and there are frequent colored illustrations for both the fables and the stories. The moral for both is delivered within the last lines of the modern story. The fables are only loosely based on La Fontaine's fables. The frog in OF fell down deed (sic). The modern stories seem to me labored. Thus OF is turned into a story of two friends, one a giant and one a dwarf. Suddenly the dwarf became jealous when the giant jumped from a tower during a fair; he also jumped and hurt himself. Fairly accurate, I would say, but not inspired. The gesture of the fox in FC and on the cover seems to me anatomically impossible. The raven becomes a rich man desperate to be known as a great singer; the tinker praises him and offers to train him into a great singer for a large fee, which he keeps exacting…. LM is told unusually in that there is no phase of catching and then freeing the errant mouse. There is only a general reference that the rat had once done the lion a very great service. TH is faithful to La Fontaine in having the tortoise nap before he starts the race. The parallel of TH, The Two Painters, may be the best of the modern stories. The editor tends to forget the second pair of quotation marks. Both GA and its parallel are entirely on the side of the ant.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Mulder & Zoon
License
Journal
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DOI
Identifier
3126 (Access ID)