Aesop's Fables

Abstract

This square 8 book is a surprise to me. I had never heard of it, and it contains little bibliographical information to go on. Even its flyleaves are blank! It has the smell of having sat on musty old bookshelves for some time. There are 113 fables, with a simple black-and-white drawing for most, followed by an AI. TMCM (5) is told in strongly Horatian fashion. A typical sample of this book's approach would be The Moon and her Mother and its illustration on 14. There is an unusually good moral to The Hound and the Hare (26): Better a certain enemy than a doubtful friend. Some texts, e.g. MM (50), The Cat and the Mice (52), Hercules and the Carter (92), and TH (97), seem to be based squarely on James' versions. The same may be true of many of the other texts.