Aesop's Fables

Abstract

This book contains twenty-five fables, with a simple and lively colored illustration for each. There is a T of C on 3. The tellings are standard. The best of the illustrations may be The Kid and the Wolf (39), which appropriately also makes it onto the cover of the book. Some of the illustrations, like the frontispiece of Aesop teaching, end up being too dark. The Hare and Her Friends is included in prose (22). The Hen and Her Chicks (49) is new to me: a young chick disobeys his mother hen by going to close to a well, sees his reflection in the water, and decides to go in and to fight the chick he sees. He drowns. The Hawk, the Rooks and the Cat (51) is likewise new to me. A cat stays long enough to be trusted by a blind hawk baby-sitter, eats the baby rooks the hawk is supposed to be taking care of, and then makes sure that the blame is pinned on the hawk. Also new to me: The Stag, the Crow and the Wolf (61). There's a typo in the last line of 54. Though this book is new, I would not predict a long life for its spine.