Cent et Une Fables

Abstract

1852 is the definite date of the first edition of this book, available online. What we have is a third edition, expanded and with a preface. I tried three of the fables that are illustrated with excellent full-page chromolithographs. The first is "Les Fagots" (The Sticks). A well-to-do woman encounters a woman starving and asking for help. She promises four sticks after Mass. She actually forgets about the woman after Mass and has a nice meal. When the starving woman rings the doorbell, this mistress notes that winter is turning to spring and determines that she should be given one stick. "In the bosom of abundance, one easily forgets the misery of others." The second is brief, "Le Mendiant et le Voleur." A thief passes by a freezing beggar and throws him a shirt. The beggar notices a blood stain and gives it back. " I am far less apprehensive of the cold than a smear." I am not sure how to understand this brief fable. In "L'Ane et le Peintre," a rich donkey wanted his portrait painted. When he saw the results, he had problems with the artist's frank rendering of him. He offered plenty of suggestions for improvement, and the artist complied. He painted a beautiful portrait of a horse, and the donkey loved it. "One sees oneself differently than nature has made one." I find eight very good chromolithographs, unless these lovely full-page illustrations were hand-painted: "Les Fagots" (frontispiece); "L'Enfant et la Chrysalide" (14); "Le Mendiant et le Voleur" (26); "L'Ane et le Peintre" (56); "La jeune fille et l'Ortie" (110); "L'Enfant, le Saule et les Roseaux" (134); "L'habit d'autrefois" (148); and "Le Pêcheur et la Fortune" (169). I can find no clear expression of the artist's name, which is long and begins with either "R" or perhaps "K." Not in Bodemann. This copy happened to contain a slip of paper that I will leave in the book, from the "Association des Dames Françaises" for help with war victims, issued in 1901.