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Here is a curiosity.  In 2010 I bought a carton of five large pamphlets, apparently accompanied by a CD, of Aesop's fables produced in India and sold to me by a company in Australia.  This year, listening finally to the CD, I wondered if there were booklets to go with it.  The left hand did not know what the right hand had done!  I went online and found the set of five booklets, sold to me this time by Books Puddle in New York through ABE books in England!  As I finally catch up to what happened, I notice some differences in the carton and the individual booklets.  The carton is much the same, but the Pegasus emblem has changed.  The price marked on the bottom of the carton has risen from $18.50 to $19.95.  I believe I found the date of the set bought earlier only by going online to see when the set was listed as published.  Several things have changed in the booklets, too.  The format of the bibliographical information on the inside front cover has changed slightly.  Gone is "1^st Impression" from the earlier group.  Mention of J.J. Offset Printers is gone.  The back covers no longer mention Pegasus' promise to give a book for every ten books bought.  Instead the back cover advertises "101 exciting storybooks!"  The individual copies now state a price of 60 Rupees.  Instead of the 10 to 1 offer on the bottom of the back cover, one finds now one of three cartoons.  One has a mouse holding a sign in front of a lion "What is the value of moral values?"  Things undergo curious changes!  I am guessing at a date of 2015 for the later publication.  By now in 2021, the series seems to have been discontinued. 

2010 The Ant and the Grasshopper & Other Stories. Paperbound. New Delhi: Aesop's Fables: Pegasus B. Jain. AU$.16 from Clear Fountain Pty Ltd, Canberra BC, Australia, Nov., '10.

There are four fables in this 16-page, large-format (almost 8½" x 11") booklet. After GA, the booklet offers "The Ass and his Masters," TB, and CV. Each story has four pages. In GA, the grasshopper only sees the ants "happily munching" and then he realizes that it is best to prepare for hard days coming. In the second story, the ass works first for an herb-seller, then a tile-maker, and finally a tanner. The ass realizes his foolishness too late, for he has run out of wishes. "Jupiter would not grant him any more wishes" (8). The artist for CV has the now-married woman changed into a cat apparently as soon as she sees the mouse. I think the text has the story better: that action comes later as a punishment for the lack of internal character change.

2010 The Ass and the Lapdog & Other Stories. Paperbound. New Delhi: Aesop's Fables: Pegasus B. Jain. AU$.16 from Clear Fountain Pty Ltd, Canberra BC, Australia, Nov., '10. Extra copy from Clear Fountain at the same time.

There are four fables in this 16-page, large-format (almost 8½" x 11") booklet. The title-story comes only third of the four. "The Shepherd and the Wild Goats" is well told and well illustrated: those who treat new "recruits" exceptionally well are saying something about the way they treat old recruits.. "The Thief and his Mother" includes a second unreprimanded childhood theft. "The Ass and the Lapdog" makes a point that this ass is well cared for already before he wants what the dog has. In BC, the meeting is called and led by an older mouse with glasses, who also makes the quieting response to the clever young suggestion-maker. Simple, lively illustrations. Apparently the young man with a chest of gleaming jewels on the cover is the thief in mid-career.

2010 The Hare & the Tortoise & Other Stories. Paperbound. New Delhi: Aesop's Fables: Pegasus B. Jain. AU$.16 from Clear Fountain Pty Ltd, Canberra BC, Australia, Nov., '10. Extra copy from Clear Fountain at the same time.

There are four fables in this 16-page, large-format (almost 8½" x 11") booklet. TH is told in traditional fashion, but the booklet's cover presents the hare riding on the tortoise. The hare also happens to be holding a golden egg. I think that there is a prominent folktale that presents this business of hare riding on tortoise, and the riding has nothing to do with this fable. The producing of golden eggs in GGE goes on "for sometime" [sic]. "However, the richer they were, the greedier they became" (7). "The Eagle, the Cat and the Wild Sow" features a cat "not happy to see her neighbors so joyful and content" (10). "The Fox and the Goat" completes the four. Simple, lively illustrations. Why might the cover have a howling wolf in the background?

2010 The Horse, Hunter & the Stag & Other Stories. Paperbound. New Delhi: Aesop's Fables: Pegasus B. Jain. AU$.16 from Clear Fountain Pty Ltd, Canberra BC, Australia, Nov., '10. Extra copy from Clear Fountain at the same time.

There are four fables in this 16-page, large-format (almost 8½" x 11") booklet. "Mercury and the Woodcutter" underscores the stupidity of the greedy man, who immediately takes the golden axe. "The Horse, Hunter & the Stag" has a great final picture of both the horse's and the rider's faces as the man announces that from now on the horse will serve him (8). "The King's Son and the Painted Lion" features a king who wears his crown to bed! The artist has the painted lion glaring so menacingly that I would have struck him too (10, 11)! In this version, the son reaches out to a thorn tree to break a twig with which to beat the lion. There are simpler approaches, I believe, to this part of the story. LM closes out the four fables. Simple, lively illustrations. The starring characters are well presented on the booklet's cover.

2010 The Milkmaid & her Pail & Other Stories. Paperbound. New Delhi: Aesop's Fables: Pegasus B. Jain. AU$.16 from Clear Fountain Pty Ltd, Canberra BC, Australia, Nov., '10. Extra copy from Clear Fountain at the same time.

There are four fables in this 16-page, large-format (almost 8½" x 11") booklet. MM features about the youngest girl -- "Anne" -- I have seen for this role. Her ruminations include "Poor Polly Shaw! Won't she be jealous?" After she loses the milk, her mother advises her not to count her chickens before they are hatched. BW includes two rounds of trickery. The wolf then appears a few hours after the second episode. The boy, who sits on a high limb of a tree, loses all his sheep. WSC includes a twist I had never seen before: this sheepskin had belonged to the mother of a sheep, and so that sheep follows the wolf as the flock heads home. There is no "retribution" phase in this telling. The wolf simply eats the lamb he has led away from the flock. This is not the Aesopic fable! "The Woodcutter and the Serpent" includes a serpent who is "about to die due to the cold" (13). The woodcutter places it by the fireplace at home. As it comes to, the woodcutter's son tries to stroke it. The woodcutter intervenes and kills the serpent. Simple, lively illustrations. The principal characters are on the cover. Wolf and lamb occur in two different fables here.

2015? The Ant and the Grasshopper & Other Stories.  Pamphlet.  New Delhi: Aesop's Fables: Pegasus B. Jain.  $2.40 from Books Puddle, NY, through ABE, UK, Dec., '20.

2015? The Ass and the Lapdog & Other Stories.  Pamphlet.  New Delhi: Aesop's Fables:  Pegasus B. Jain.  $2.40 from Books Puddle, NY, through ABE, UK, Dec., '20.

2015? The Hare & the Tortoise & Other Stories.  Pamphlet.  New Delhi: Aesop's Fables:  Pegasus B. Jain.  $2.40 from Books Puddle, NY, through ABE, UK, Dec., '20.

2015? The Horse, Hunter & the Stag & Other Stories.  Pamphlet.  New Delhi: Aesop's Fables:  Pegasus B. Jain.  $2.40 from Books Puddle, NY, through ABE, UK, Dec., '20.

2015? The Milkmaid & her Pail & Other Stories.  Pamphlet.  New Delhi: Aesop's Fables:  Pegasus B. Jain.  $2.40 from Books Puddle, NY, through ABE, UK, Dec., '20.

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