Vérités Ironiques: Fables plus fables que les autres; Fables en raccourci; Fables-express
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Authors
Verdon, P.
Issue Date
1933
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Book, Whole
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Abstract
Verdon starts his work by referring to La Fontaine and speaks of relating to current times. I cannot be a very good judge of these idiomatic French works. Though the sub-title proclaims the first section fables more fables than the others (19-118), the works seem to me, at least sometimes, to be more ironic commentaries on our times. Thus the second work in this section, Jeunesse agit, n'est-ce pas mieux?... (21), pillories the old fogey who claims that writers need to ripen. While the young man he pillories writes and wins prizes, the old fogey stops after writing ten pages of his book. In the fourth work, Prêcher d'exemple eût été mieux (27), a man who caused all sorts of scandals when he was young grows up to condemn anyone dallying. Would not he have done better to have preached by example? The second section (121-50) proclaims that it presents very brief fables. Again, I find the works which I have sampled insightful but perhaps not fables. Tout est joli chez qui nous plait… (124) makes the fine point that our neighbor's wife has all sorts of attractive qualities, while our own wife is a pot of faults. True! But the text has not yet reduced what it is after to a single event; we deal rather in groups or types and their ironique juxtaposition. Le récit le plus court… (126) claims well that the shortest statement is always the best. Proof? A woman caught in a fault gets worked up, blushes, reacts strongly. It would be better to settle down. The third section (153-65) presents even shorter works. I like this two liner: Ce curé bon vivant d'être chaste se vante…. Moralité: Qu'en pense sa servante? (155). There is a T of C at the end.
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Editions Civis
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Identifier
5510 (Access ID)