Les Fables de La Fontaine
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Authors
La Fontaine, Jean de
Issue Date
2018
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Abstract
I happened to pass Chantelivre on my way elsewhere during this Paris visit, and so I stopped and asked. What a great find! This book's art is explosive! Sfar's work reminds me of Quentin Blake's. Almost every right-hand page between 33 and 199 has a full-page colored illustration to match a fable. The few exceptions arise with those fables too long to print on one left-hand page. The art is vigorous, with nervous black lines filled in with vigorous color. The cover pictures of FC (front) and La Fontaine with a lion and other animals (back) give a good sense of what the reader will find inside. The effect is, I believe, to shock the viewer into reconsidering the fable's invitation to perception. GA, for example, presents a rainy, muddy, brown world with a grasshopper in what might be a raincoat appearing at the door of an aristocratic ant with a huge hat and a very sturdy home behind him (33). There is a lively sense of exaggeration in the art. Thus the donkey is lying in the lap of his owner and trying to lick his face (39). The expressions of donkey, owner, and wife are all strong. The cozy lapdog looks on motionless from his pillow. The town mouse lives not in splendor but among trash (47). The lion is a hell's angel meeting the mosquito in a bar (51). The young wolves devouring young lambs are human males sneaking up on beautiful human females asleep (59). The list goes on through one surprise after another. Sfar often provokes a curious mixture of fear and laughter, as when we see four burning suns descending on frightened frogs (109). Other provocative pieces include LM (75) and TB (101). I welcome this kind of creative interpretation of La Fontaine! The order of fables is not La Fontaine's. T of C at the end.
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Editions Michel Lafon
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11608 (Access ID)