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    Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine
    Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine
    Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine
    Ebook95 pages58 minutes

    Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine

    By Alexander Calder

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    About this ebook

    All the imagination, whimsy, and invention that have made Alexander Calder's mobiles and stabiles so popular. 36 fables — in rhymed translation by Eunice Clark — with a Calder drawing for each fable and 12 additional vignettes. Includes "The Lion in Love" and "The Hen That Laid the Golden Eggs."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMay 5, 2014
    ISBN9780486149882
    Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine

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    Reviews for Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine

    4/5

    26 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Jean de la Fontaine is a must-read for anyone interested in folktales and fables throughout history.

      The 17th-century poet took various tales from Aesop, Greek myth, and various other sources and set them to verse. Here, they appear in English translation. While the presentation of the stories and their social commentary is witty; I didn't find the 'poetry' of the language to be that engaging - the rhyme could be distracting, and the phrasing was often clunky. I don't know if this has to do with the original or the translation; I suspect a combination of both.

      For French poems in translation; I tend to prefer a side-by-side presentation - even if one understands little of the original language, one can read to get an idea of the sound and rhythm of the original. However, I'm sure the originals are available freely online, for those motivated to look them up.

      The selected fables presented here (apparently, the book includes about half of de la Fontaine's fabulist output) are prefaced by a very nice academic essay on the author, which really helps place the writing in context. There are also liberal endnotes mentioning the source (if known), and references found in each fable. I might've preferred if the notes relating to each story were found adjacent to the relevant section, but overall, this was fine.

      A recommended volume.

      I received a copy of this title through NetGalley. Thanks to NetGalley and Oxford University Press.
    • 4/5
      This review applies to the Viking edition of selected fables, translated by James Michie with an introduction by Geoffrey Grigson and the illustrations of J. J. Grandville (from an 1842 Paris edition). Grandville's illustrations may well be the best part of the book. La Fontaine's verse retellings of ancient fables (mostly of Aesop and Phaedrus) may lose something in the translation, but mostly didn't make for particularly pleasant reading: the verse comes through as somewhat stilted. Nonetheless, it was neat to see the versions of these stories that La Fontaine's contemporary readers would have known and learned.

    Book preview

    Selected Fables of Jean de la Fontaine - Alexander Calder

    FABLES

    THE TWO POUCHES

    Let all the creatures gather round,

    Once Jupiter declared,

    "And stand before our mighty throne

    To have their looks compared.

    Don’t be afraid, he said, if you

    Believe that you were slighted

    When you were made, let’s hear it now

    And we will have it righted.

    Now you’re a likely malcontent,

    Sir monkey, have your say.

    Look over all these animals

    Are you as fine as they?"

    Who me? Why not? I’ve got four feet,

    The monkey answered smugly,

    "A portrait of me, I am sure,

    Would not be rated ugly!

    But take a look at Brother Bear!

    He hasn’t one true feature!

    Now why should any artist want

    To paint that fuzzy creature?"

    T’ was thought the bear would make a claim

    For a more gracious form,

    But no! he boasted that his looks

    Were well above the norm.

    But he pronounced the elephant

    A gross amorphous figure,

    With ears that ought to be pared down,

    And a tail that should be bigger.

    The elephant’s remarks were not

    Outstandingly sagacious

    For he maligned poor Madame Whale

    As being too capacious.

    Dame Ant, a self-styled giantess,

    Discredited the mite.

    The parley ended, each convinced

    That he alone was right.

    *

    T’is we that bear the palm of folly;

    Lynx-eyed, we find the holes

    In all pretensions but our own

    To which we’re blind as moles.

    The Lord makes men like pedlars, hung

    With pouches fore and aft:

    In front we air each others’ faults

    And stuff our own abaft.

    THE HARE AND THE BAN ON HORNS

    The King of Beasts was gored one day

    And suffered so much pain,

    He swore that such mishaps should not

    Occur again.

    Forthwith all beasts that sported horns

    From his domain were banished,

    So goats, rams, bulls and cows and deer

    All vanished.

    During the exodus, a hare

    Bethought him of his ears,

    Their lengthy shadow woke in him

    A host of fears.

    Could not those ears appear like horns

    To some official beagle?

    Or might they not be equally

    Illegal?

    He went to see a cricket friend.

    Neighbor, he said, "Adieu!

    The ban on horns will soon include

    My long ears too.

    Even," the quaking hare went on,

    "If I should have them pared

    As short as any ostrich’s,

    I’d still be scared!"

    The cricket snorted: "What, those horns!

    You take me for a clod!

    Those ears were plainly fastened there

    By God."

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