Die Gans und der Fuchs: Drei Dutzend Fabeln von La Fontaine, Goethe, Heine und Andern Schülern des Aesop

Abstract

This is a fine, playful, well selected group of thirty-six fables on 75 pages, with a T of C at the end. Scarpi announces his criteria: he chooses rhymed animal fables that please him. Each fable gets a fresh page. There are about twenty fabulists represented. Among my favorite fables here are these: Gellert's Der Tanzbär (23); Pfeffel's Die Zwei Hunde (34); Lichtwer's Der Esel und der Dohle (39, with a good illustration) and Der Löwe und der Wolf (40); Gleim's Der Löwe und der Fuchs (46); and Iriarte's Die Ente und die Schlange (63). This small (4¾ x 6½) hardbound book has a nice fox-and-goose confrontation on its cover.