Le Meunier, son Fils et l'Ane
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Authors
La Fontaine, Jean de
Issue Date
1978
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
I am coming to appreciate more and more La Fontaine's version of MSA. It loses the crescendo of other versions that finish with the most ridiculous effort: carrying the ass to market. Here the strategy, I think,of the poet is to make each effort a lunge in some direction, not in an ordered rise of ridiculousness. The last attempt turns out to be the most natural -- walkilng behind the ass -- and it still gets ridiculed. So La Fontaine's point is that, whatever we do, people will talk. Let them! The artist suggests nicely that this lazy ass liked being carried -- another shift from the more traditional version -- and so tookit ill that he had to carry someone. Soon he had to carry two! A clever illustration shows on 12 that the young man had to help his father get up onto the ass. The ass also turns to admire a butterly on 18. Good fun all the way around!
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Citation
Publisher
Flammarion
License
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Issue
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DOI
Identifier
11117 (Access ID)