Le Renard et l'Alouette et autres fables

Abstract

This is one of four twelve-page oversized (9 x 11¾) pamphlets I bought from Marie Gervais together. There seem to be two others in the series beyond these four. The illustration style is highly reminiscent of that found in several works: Les Plus Belles Fables d'Animaux, published in 1982 by Deux Coqs d'Or; El arca de las Fabulas, published in 1983 by Sigmar in 1983; and work published in English in 1979 by Falcon Books. The surprise is that the artist listed for those is Sergio Cavina, while these pamphlets are explicit in proclaiming P. Latimer as the illustrator. The bibliographical notes here mention a 1976 copyright by Falcon. Someday this mystery will be solved. Here five fables get either two or three pages each, with an abundance of clever and fine-grain illustrations. All five fables are new to me: The Wolf and the Goat; The Giraffe's Neck; The Fox and the Lark; The Rooster and the Two Cats; and The Timorous Rabbit. In the first fable, the little goat helps the wolf escape from angry farmers, hoping for a reward. He learns that his only reward is to escape alive. The Giraffe's Neck is standard fable stuff. A young gazelle envies the giraffe's long neck. While his mother is suggesting to him that the giraffe's gift has its drawbacks, a leopard jumps forward. All the other animals can flee into the woods, but the giraffe cannot…. The Fox and the Lark seems a variation of Universal Peace. The lark says to the love-protesting fox Fly up here and we will talk all you want! The two cats act as horses drawing the king rooster's coach, until they get away from the farm, pounce upon him, and devour him. The Timorous Rabbit seems a development of the fable in which the rabbit allows himself delusions of grandeur because of his antlers, which are really ears. Readers of this volume will remember particularly the image of the giraffe looking in terror as the leopard bounds with open jaws towards the giraffe's long neck.