Aesop's Fables

Abstract

This new Aesop is big and bold. Its cover has the texture of leather. Its art is made chiefly of ink-blots skillfully rendered as various creatures. Among the best of the illustrations are the peacock on 16, FG on 22, and the cicadas on 152-3. Most fables finish on the page on which they start. The texts show two tendencies. Positively, they are often snappy, particularly in their fresh morals. Thus the lamb says to the clumsy shearer Your indecision is complete torture (71). The last line of The Flies and the Honey (81) is The flies realised their greed had brought them to a sticky end. Negatively, some stories get lost. The House Full of Mice (10), for example, needs the flour or the bag that has made this story interesting in other versions. Similarly, The Cicada and the Fox needs the clever reference to dung to be more than it is here. There is a T of C at the beginning. I find it curious that the two versions of this book that I bought have a difference of some $1.20 in price, and they come from the same seller.