Knaurs grosses Buch der Fabeln

Abstract

The Germans continue to create impressive large collections of fables. This volume of 511 pages has at the back a register of authors and where their works can be found. This register also serves as a T of C. The afterword on 487 offers stimulating suggestions but may be hurt by seeing fable as one form of animal poetry. After the earliest authors -- Babrios, Phaedrus, Marie de France, Gesta Romanorum, and Poggio -- the collection is strongly German. Other non-Germans include Guicciardini, Fénélon, La Fontaine, de la Motte, Krylov, and Afanas'ev. No Florian or Gay! Heinrich Seidel, who died in 1906, seems to be the last author represented. One curiosity is that an anthology of various genres of the Barock era is the source for no less than eight of the authors represented here: Elfriede Moser-Rath's 1964 Predigtmärlein der Barockzeit. This is not only a big collection. It is an inexpensive book!