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Dreamland Aesop's Fables

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Fox and the Grapes and other stories. Art Work by Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables: Dreamland Publications. $4 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

Was this bright color work done in India? This is an oversized 8½" x 11" presentation of four fables. The fox in FG is female. The expression of frustration and anger on her face on the final page of FG is well done. The dog in DS wants more than one bone. After losing his bone, he waits for the other dog to return with both bones; when the water clears and he sees his own reflection, he thinks that the other dog has already eaten the meat from both bones. Foxy the fox in FS makes a home for herself by taking a rabbit hutch and eating all the rabbits in it. She is returning from successful hunting with a rabbit in her mouth when she meets the hungry Mr. Stork. Foxy notices the way Mr. Stork eyes her dead rabbit and so she conceives the bright idea of an invitation to dinner. Mr. Stork promises upon leaving to offer as good a dish as he has been offered. The artist presents Mr. Stork's offering in a jar, which the fox holds up with ease. Does that conception not undercut the story? The fox here could lift the vase like a bottle of beer and so get at the food inside. The dog in DM wanders into the stable. There is a garish red-purple in some of the skies. Some turns of phrase leave out articles that we would expect, e.g. "in future."

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Vain Crow and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Dreamland Aesop's Fables #2. Delhi: Dreamland Publications. $4 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of five fables. In BF, King Lion wants to appoint a Chief Minister, and that desire grounds the competition. The pictures never show the crow with more than one feather, although the text underscores the removal of feathers one by one. The king actually appoints the crow, and then the other birds react. "The Sparrow and the Farmer" inserts a sparrow where many versions have a lark. Though she has three chicks in the text, there are always just two in the nest in the pictures. The crow in "The Crow and the Swan" has a white vest. In GGE, the man and wife build a big new house for themselves, furnish it in style, buy new clothes, and save a good deal of money. They must have collected eggs for many days! The last of the stories is "The Lion and the Hare." In the text the lion is carrying the hare, still living, in his mouth; in the pictures he seems to hold it dead in his paws.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Thirsty Crow and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Dreamland Aesop's Fables #3. Delhi: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of four fables. The crow in CP sweats a great deal. The broken pot gets so full that the water eventually leaks down the side! Thie groaning mountain about to give birth has a human head like those on Mt. Rushmore. Men and women dispute for a couple of days over the sounds they hear, claiming respectively that it is an earthquake and the groaning of a giant. The moral (logical?) is "Empty vessels make much noise." The lion in LM restrains himself from laughing on hearing that the mouse will repay his mercy. The version here of "The Donkey and the Lapdog" is the most extensive I have seen. In a clever anthropomorphic gesture, the donkey sits down to think.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Wind and the Sun and other stories. Art Work by Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Dreamland Aesop's Fables #4. Delhi: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of five fables. The wind in SW is female; the bet is presented in the poorer form. "The Little Boy and the Nettle" here is more about obedience than about taking a firm grasp of things. The third story is 'The Man and the Lion." In FK, the frogs make and break laws. The eel is their second king, after the log and before the stork. Jupiter here looks like an Indian god. The last story is TB.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Fox and the Lion and other stories. Art Work by Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Dreamland Aesop's Fables #5. Delhi: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of six fables. In "The Fox and the Lion," the fox not only loses his fear of the lion, but the latter extends his paw in friendship. The picture of the fox extending her paw may be the most awkward in this volume. The moral is good: "One cannot get to know a person in a single meeting." "The Fir Tree and the Bramble" is routine. "The Wolves and the Dogs" mixes together two fables, I think. Here the relationship of the dogs to the sheep drops out of the fable as it goes along. "The Man and the Partridge" has highly dramatic facial expressions for both bird and man. The moral of "The Baby Crab and the Adult Crab" is "Every creature has a unique body and no one can change that." I think there are several leaps between the fable and that moral. The last story is "The Trees and the Axe."

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Donkey and His Shadow and other stories. Art Work by Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #6: Dreamland Publications. $4 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of six fables. The cover picture and the picture one page later for the first story are almost exactly the same in design, but the colors of the clothes change dramatically. In "The Snake and the Eagle," the snake plots revenge on the man for a long time, since the man had saved the eagle from the snake. As "The Boys and the Frogs" opens, the boys are playing cricket. "The Boastful Traveller" makes the boaster into an ex-convict, who is covering up his past. SS and AD round out the volume. In the latter, the dove and ant sit together and chat for hours.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Monkey and the Two Cats and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Dreamland Aesop's Fables #7. Delhi: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of four fables, two of which come from the standard Aesopic corpus. These are "The Monkey and the Two Cats" and "The Widow and the Two Maidens." The booklet's best presentation is of "The Hermit and the Mouse." This fable touches well on the selfish arrogance of a receiver of gifts: the lion wants to kill the hermit! The two girls who kill the rooster are the daughters of their widow employer; it is strange how a little detail like that changes a story! New to me is "The Twelve Weavers." Their problem is that each of them, when counting the group, forgets to count himself, and so they keep coming up with a total of eleven.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Crow and the Fox. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #8: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of five fables. This number differs from the others in the Dreamland set in that it does not include "and other stories" in its title on the cover, even though it does include four other stories in the volume. The crow in the title-story is pictured with a good deal of white in his plumage, especially around his chest. The fox tells the crow about having heard him sing recently and being enraptured with his voice. Still, it takes several rounds of flattering before the crow begins to sing. In "The Bull and the Mouse" the bull mistakenly steps on the mouse's tail, and the mouse in revenge hits the bull on the nose with a wooden cross. The mouse then hides while the bull charges against his hole. This pattern is repeated until the bull is exhausted. "The Bat and the Weasel" really has two weasels, and its moral is "Your wisdom is your best friend." OF and BC complete the booklet.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Hare and the Tortoise and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #9: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of six fables. TH includes this typo, said by the hare about to go to sleep: "The winning past is not so far from here." The frontal view of the tortoise with purple laurel around his head and a multicolored string of flowers over his shoulders makes him look quite psychedelic! "The Treasure in the Orchard" has a father who claims to have hidden a treasure in the orchard but to have forgotten exactly where. The story unfortunately climaxes with a merchant who "handed over a big bundle of money to the boys." Something of the love of work and homestead has been lost here! The final picture in "The Vain Stag" is a graphic depiction of branches that have pulled the stag up off the ground. There is an even more unfortunate typo here: "He always thought that Hod had given so beautiful horns to none else except him." "The Merchant and the Robber" is more of a morality story of escape through prayer. In "The Miser" here, the stone changes function. Usually it is suggested as a substitute by a wise neighbor. Here it has become the cover of the miser's hole in his cellar. The neighbor recommends that the miser come and merely look at the stone, as he has so often in the past. In "The Cock, the Cat and the Mouse," the near victim is a traveller rather than a young mouse. He is lucky to encounter a related mouse family when he flees from the aggressive cock. The orthography and English style here are not good.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #10: Dreamland Publications. $4 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., ''02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of three fables. In TMCM, the country mouse lives with a wife and family. The ninth paragraph has several awkward repetitions, and a later turn of the page creates this error: "With a sweep of his hand, Mr. Town Mouse asked his cousin to/and began to eat it." "The Lion and the Gnat" and "The Partidge's [sic] Stolen Eggs" follow, the latter from Kalila and Dimna. The partridges enlist the help, with the support of the whole bird population, of Lord Naryana, who commands the sea king to give back the couple's fourteen eggs which he stole.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Fox and the Cock and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #11: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of three fables. "The Fox and the Cock" is the Chanticleer story slightly adapted to, apparently, an Asian setting. In "The Owl and the Eagle's Daughter" the owl asks the crow to contact the eagle on his behalf, to ask namely if he may marry the eagle's daughter. Only she would be worthy of him, handsome as he is. The eagle asks for a meeting up in the air at noon the next day. When the owl tries to attend, he cannot manage the bright light, the sustained flying, and the altitude. He has to return to a tree to rest--and to give up the idea of marrying a princess. Unfortunately the last line is bungled in the story: "he crept into his nest and went off to sleep learning idea of marrying a princess for all time to come." Should that "learning" be changed to "leaving the"? "The Story of the Bat" puts the bat between the warring birds and beasts. An unusual scene has the victorious eagle deciding the bat's fate in the presence of some accusing beast prisoners.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Shepherd with the Flute and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #12: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of five fables. "The Shepherd with the Flute" develops the basic story by making the girl Rani rightly suspicious of the boy Raja's work ethic. His flute has charmed other animals, but only frightens the fish away. He finally drags her net through the water and catches many fish. "The Man and the Satyr" has the former, not the latter, get lost. "The Arab Merchant and the Camel" includes a typo: the beast asks to put his head under the tent, and the master asks him to put his neck in. Of course, the beast asks next if he can also put his neck in…. The leads in "The Two Beggars" are blind and lame. They do so well helping each other that they earn well and even begin studying in the evening. The end result is that they both find good jobs. "Brother Generous and the Snake" fills out the booklet. Brother Generous takes the snake home on a stick rather than in his shirt. The snake, in a moment of thought unusual for this story, thinks as he awakes that the fire has been lit to kill him, and so he attacks the man. Usually, the snake's reaction is simply instinctual.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The King Bruce and the Spider and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #13: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of seven fables. "The King Bruce and the Spider" is new to me. Taking an example from a spider that has fallen sixteen times but succeeds on the seventeenth try, Robert Bruce tries and tries again to rewin his Kingdom of Scotland. He finally succeeds. "The Three Painters" concerns a painting contest won on the basis of the best "trompe l'oeil" art. The moral is surprising: "The whole show of this world is an illusion." "Divine Help" presents Chandan the carter interacting with, not Hercules, but "God Himself," who appears in Indian form. This telling of the tale is positive, and the god is encouraging to this good man. "The Silver Key" is another new story. An inn-keeper claims that he cannot open the locked door without a silver key. The traveler slips a one-rupee coin under the door, and the inn-keeper opens. Then the traveler mentions his luggage outside. When the inn-keeper steps out to get the luggage, the traveler closes and locks the door and says he needs the silver key to open it…. "Three Friends and a Bag of Gold" is Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale" but there is no mention here of meeting death. DLS now has a monkey rather than a donkey. He terrifies villagers for months. A wise old man notices that he neither roars nor growls and that he has killed no one. The villagers beat the monkey to death! The booklet misses a chance to have more fun with the visual possibilities of a monkey-lion. "The Equal Share" may not be a fable. It is the old story--from Herodotus?--of the fisherman who wants to deliver a much-wished fish to a rich master. The watchman at the door demands half the reward, or he will not let the fisherman in. Once inside and asked what he wants for a reward, the fisherman asks for a flogging rather than money, so that the watchman who cheated him will have to be flogged too!

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Crow and the Nightingale and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #14: Dreamland Publications. $2 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of five fables. In "The Crow and the Nightingale" King Eagle accedes to the request of the crow to be called the king of song of the woods. The laughter of the other beasts when he makes his claim leads him to realize, with the eagle's help, that to call him the king is different from making him the king. In "The Three Wishes" the main character is a woodcutter rather than the usual fisherman. A wish-granting fairy lives in a tree which he is about to cut down. He and his wife use up their three wishes when he wants bread, when she wants it to hang from his nose, and when he wants it not to hang from his nose. "The Clever Boy" is about a spoiled young math wizard. When he proves verbally that two chickens are really three, his clever father gives one real chicken to his wife, takes the second for himself, and leaves the fictitious third for the too-clever son. In FWT the fox does not cut off her tail; it comes off as she tries to free herself. She is laughed at first and then confidently asks if she does not look prettier without it. The answer is still "no." "The Two Jars" features china clay and brass jars. Somewhat out of keeping with the story, the former has it easier in the flood, and the brass jar wants to get close to the clay jar. The clay jar refuses in terms usual for this fable.

1997 Aesop's Fables: The Horse and the Donkey and other stories. Raju Gupta & Mitu. Paperbound. Delhi: Dreamland Aesop's Fables #15: Dreamland Publications. $4 from Indian Ink, Coburg, Victoria, Australia, Sept., '02.

This is an 8½" x 11" presentation of seven fables. "The Horse and the Donkey" does not involve the loading onto the horse's back of either the dead donkey or his skin. Only his burdens are transferred. GA has for a moral: "Work while you work and play while you play." This advice is good, but does that moral come out of this story? "The Horse and the Wolf" uses the "health" ploy of the wolf not as an excuse for doctoring him but rather as a distracting way to chat while positioning himself for attack. Having the wolf start the ploy then works nicely when the horse answers that he is unwell because of an aching foot. "The Wise Goats" is confusing in its first lines: "There was great love lost between them. So, they never quarrelled with each other." In fact, the story does the opposite of the traditional story. One goat lies down so that the other can leap across it over the tree-trunk that spans a stream. "The Shrewd Farmer" is new to me and somewhat confused. A farmer working the land of a rich landlord finds a sack of money. He hides it elsewhere and arranges to "find" it while out with his wife. (Clever thinking, I would say!) Despite his attempts to keep her quiet, she spreads the news. The landlord has them in and the wife tells him everything frankly. (But does she know that her husband found it on the landlord's property?) The kind landlord forgives all and lets them keep the money. "The Monkey King" is told in standard fashion but has an unusual moral: "The innocent are easily duped by the cunning." The tale usually sides with the fox against the silly monkey. "The Tail of the Bear" involves a surprisingly anomaly. A fisherman is "crossing a jungle," and the next thing we know a bear is having his tail frozen while he ice-fishes! Which jungles have frozen lakes?

 

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