Aesopos Hechacham (Hebrew Wise Aesop)

Abstract

Sixty fables. T of C at the beginning. The book's spine is giving way, and several pages are already loose. Apparently it is unclear whether the book was published in 1941 or 1942. I am going with the bibliographer's choice. Meir writes of this book that it is extremely rare. He describes the style of Kovarski aptly as avant garde. This is one of the most engagingly illustrated Jewish fable books I have seen. The fun of the book begins on the cover with a highly expressive fox walking disdainfully away from the tree on which the grape vine is hanging. The print version of this illustration is on 121. The rhythm of the book is that there is a fable text on each right-hand page, and there is a matching monochrome illustration on the facing left-hand page. The Working Girls and the Rooster (45) is downright funny. TB is funny, despite the fact that the bear is unsuccessfully portrayed (79). Both DS (83) and GA (85) are nicely rendered here. I presume that that is the leaper from Rhodes on 119. It is one of the joys of working with this collection that it can save this fragile book for the use of people interested in lively presentation of Aesopic fables.