12 Folk and Fairy Tales

Abstract

Here is an earlier copy of a book already in the collection. Originally published by Deux Coqs d'Or in Paris and Mondadori in Verona, perhaps both in 1968. I am always curious which stories I would call fables appear in collections labelled as folk or fairy tales. Here I find three. The Nightingale (15) tells of a real nightingale who teaches a Chinese emperor a lesson about what is most important in life. This nightingale, previously neglected and forgotten, is contrasted with the mechanical nightingale on which the emperor foolishly had relied. The Flying Tortoise (33) is the traditional story of TT. Here onlookers praise the tortoise as a wonderful fellow. He called back, 'I always said I was remarkable.' I wonder if The Clever Farmer (56) might be considered a fable, even though it has several phases. A farmer with a duck that is his starving family's favorite does some clever trading and impressing of the squire to end up with a whole sack of grain in exchange for giving up the favorite duck. Simple colored illustrations grace each story.