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Fables & Classical Sketches: 1843: Hardback: Parables: Folklore

Fables & Classical Sketches: 1843: Hardback: Parables: Folklore

£40.00 GBP
£40.00 GBP
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Fables & Classical Sketches

By A Clergyman


Published by John W Parker, London, c1843. Hardback cover, 95 pages. Black & white illustrations.


CONDITION
Overall acceptable condition - see photos. Various damage to cover, dented front right centre edge. Foxing to head, fore and bottom edge. All pages present. Inscription to first page. Otherwise no names or writing.


This small book (4¼ x 7) has thirty-one items on 95 pages. The first twenty-eight are fables, and the last three are sketches, ancient historical anecdotes. All the fables seem to be original. The author, as his preface declares, wants to give some practical hints for the conduct of life, and to convey instruction, especially to the young, in a manner the least likely to offend. He points to his first fable as a (counter-) symbol of what he can offer; there a proud glow-worm refuses to help an ant. Having turned its light off, the proud glow worm is crushed by a human being passing in the dark. The preface even lists in respective order the vices to be learned about in each of these fables. Thus the proud beetle steps up to the blacksmith expecting to be shod when the Pasha's horses are being cared for (13). Or in the next fable the blacksmith's son, who has slept during the hours of labour, is turned away when he shows up to eat (16). 

(Bindery shelves)

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