Zigzag Fables

Abstract

I had found an inferior copy of this delightful book from Abbey Antiquarian in 1998. Here is a superior copy, though still with flaws, particularly in the slip-pages between illustrations. Thus I will keep both in the collection. As I wrote then, this landscape volume has excellent chromolithography. Are these stories meant to be society-critical parodies? In CJ, the cock tells his wives that what he has found is nothing but jewels, no good at all. The ape condemns the wolf to pay costs for bringing a false charge and tells the fox that he is lucky to escape hanging as a thief--and he takes the disputed pullet as his fee. In some, like The Two Crabs and The Lion in Love, I do not see any parody; they look to me like the straight fable, but I may be missing something. New to me are two stories. One concerns a parrot getting angered over a card game and ending in court. The other shows the ostrich family rejected by both birds and beasts. The Hermit and the Bear makes a rousing finale. Here the hermit lives to get his revenge. I just love the colored pictures in this work! Pictorial boards for covers.