Fabelbuch: Eine Auswahl deutscher Fabeldichtungen

Abstract

The first third of this 81-page book is taken up with an introduction. As the closing T of C shows, we turn first to Lessing's verse fables and then to his prose fables. The usual suspects follow in order: Hagedorn, Gleim, von Keist, Gellert, Pfeffel, Lichtwer, Claudius, Willamow, Goethe, and Fröhlich. Lessing has twenty prose fables and four in verse. Gellert has thirteen, Lichtwer nine, and Hagedorn eight. The book is printed in Gothic script. I could not read the introduction carefully, but Ziehen has clear issues with La Fontaine's approach to fable-writing. For a hundred-year-old book, this compact little volume is in very good shape!