The Most Beautiful Fables of Aesop, Phaedrus and La Fontaine

Abstract

This heavy, large-format book offers twelve fables from each of its three fabulists, each fable two to eight pages long. The artist works hard to integrate text with illustration. "The Lion and the Mosquito" presents a good example on 12-13: statements are arranged like radii around a center, and the radii are the lion's mane. The statement of the lion's scratching himself comes among three lines like tines of a fork. In this telling of the fable, the lion actually brushes away the cobweb for his little conqueror! The shepherd boy in BW laughs in the face of the villagers: "It was only a prank…and you fell for it!" (32). FG (42) may be the shortest fable here: one picture and six lines. My prize goes to the illustrations for "The Fox with the Swollen Belly" (50). Also good is the expression on the face of the rejected grasshopper on 61. The Phaedrus section starts off strong with "The Lion King," which might better be titled "Monkey Stew" 84. The selection of Phaedrus fables here underscores what many have talked about: they underscore the hard life of the underdog. The La Fontaine selections are in poetic form, with rhyme. The book finishes with the best tailless fox that I have seen!