La Cicala et la Formica da Esopo

Abstract

Apparently this C'era una fiaba…. collection is only now appearing. It seems that seven books have been published to date. There may be two more fables in the three books that will complete the series of ten--TH and La Favola del Mercante--but they are not yet listed on the publisher's website for this series. This is a hardbound book 8½ square. After the title-page, there are eleven pairs of pages, with text on the left and a full-page illustration on the right. The illustrations are simple and colorful. They seem almost to be made out of colorforms, near geometric forms cleverly configured to create animal shapes, flowers, and the sun. The ant is busy in summer hauling a cart filled with a tied-up bag of grain. The book's most dramatic image comes near its center, as the leaf on which the cicada has been sitting has turned gold. In this version, the ant lets the grasshopper into the richly filled hill bunker. The request for food comes inside this cave. When the cicada asks for two or three grains, an ant answers that two or three ants had to work two or three days to carry those two or three grains to the cave. As the cicada is walking to the door to leave, he says to himself that, if he makes it to the next summer, he will sing a little and he will work a little. That is the story's good last line. This is a pleasant little book. It is also one of the few Italian fable books I could find on this trip.