La Sagesse des bêtes

Abstract

This book was adapted from the British version of Helen Ward's Unwitting Wisdom: An Anthology of Aesop's Fables. It was also published, apparently at the same time, by Chronicle Books in the USA: that book I have and have already reviewed. The book's lovely dedication continues in this French version: To Aesop and all tellers of moral tales who, despite a monumentally ineffective history, still gently try to point the human race in a better direction. The book seems to follow the English version, and so I will repeat some of my comments from that version. (However, I need to compare this with the English version: some visual effects with the text may have been lost in this French version.) The text versions make the point of the fables abundantly clear, as when the fox not only leaps for the grapes but tries to climb the tree around which the vine is curled, tries to prod the grapes with a cane, and throws and kicks sticks and stones at the vine. When he leaves, he mutters to himself that they were undoubtedly the nastiest, most horrid, disgusting, revolting, inedible, indigestible and very probably the sourest grapes he had ever had the pleasure of not eating! Ward illustrates every page, but the key illustrations are those which accompany the title and a short description on a lavish two-page spread. (The text then generally follows on a more modest two-page spread). The prizes for the grandest illustrations may go to the dressed-up jackdaw and the fox sniffing among the stork's beautiful Greek urns.