For the past year or so I’ve been writing a book of fables. I originally began the effort inspired by the book The Little Prince. Over time, I’ve begun reading book after book of fables. I love finding different ones—from
the classics like Aesop to Buddhist koans, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Arabian fables.
The format is just so fun and I think the philosophical lessons can be really powerful. I think of it as different parts of different societies trying to gift us with wisdom…all we have to do is open a little book and give it a look!
That said, many of the books I’m reading are old and out of print, so alongside writing my own I want to share the best fables I find. I have a regular newsletter where I write about creativity, drawing, writing… and once I’m done the book I want to share fables through it.
Great! Maybe you can help me out. Some 10 years ago i went to an exhibition in portugal showing old woodcut illustrations of fables. These were released as a book which i held in my hands once but cannot find anymore. I thought the name was montaigne but probably my mind is playing tricks on me.
Fascinating! Perhaps the woodcut illustrations of Mantegna, a renaissance Italian painter?
I did not find a book of fables of Mantegna’s illustrations, but I did find a painting of a fable (The Boy and the Filberts). It is possibly credited to Aesop, but not confirmed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_and_the_Filberts
Also worth nothing: During the same period and area, another artist named Verona illustrated a book of Aesop’s fables: “It was also in Verona that the first illustrated edition of the fables of Aesop was published in 1479 (21.4.3), with woodcuts designed by Liberale da Verona, one of the city’s leading painters.” (https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wifb/hd_wifb.htm)
Do you recall any of the stories or characters in the book you read? Or anything about the book that left an impact on you?
I recall seeing the goose and the golden egg. The illustrations were more 17th centuryish. The name Jean de La Fontaine has been suggested to me a couple of times and this would certainly be fitting but strangely i cannot find the book following this name anywhere. It was a very fine print, hardcover, very elegant with full page illustrations.
Ah! The plot thickens. The Fables of La Fontaine are well known, but I hadn’t heard of Montaigne before. Apparently there is a link!
First there is this: https://www.jstor.org/stable/458505 “Montaigne as a Source of La Fontaine's Fable: La Mort et le Mourant” It notes major similarity and possible link between Montaigne’s philosophical essay and Fontaine’s fable.
But even more interesting is this: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1659-essays-michel-de... It’s two books—essays of Montaigne side by side with illustrated (by Hooghe) fables of Fontaine. Not a single book as you described, but interesting to see that there is clearly some connection between the two!
Montaigne is not a Portuguese-sounding word or name, seems more French to me, but "montagem" is a Portuguese word meaning "montage" which sounds generally like what are describing, a montage of fables.
That's cool, I've been thinking to write some fabels as well (although I'm not good at writing)! I enjoy how such tales can be simple and deep at the same time.
If you ever get to complete it I'd love to check it out
Nice! Give it a shot, you never know what might come of it :) I had been writing nonfiction essays when one day a story idea came and I shared it, got some good feedback, then just kept going with it.
They are not easy to write, but the key to the fable is the lesson, so I’m sure if you took one or two you wanted to share you could turn them into a story. Either way, you have some fun with it!
And thanks, I’m approaching the “last mile” with the book after many months of editing (working w an editor). I’m illustrating them too. If you like you can follow along via my newsletter, I share updates there: https://salman.io/newsletter
For the past year or so I’ve been writing a book of fables. I originally began the effort inspired by the book The Little Prince. Over time, I’ve begun reading book after book of fables. I love finding different ones—from the classics like Aesop to Buddhist koans, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Arabian fables.
The format is just so fun and I think the philosophical lessons can be really powerful. I think of it as different parts of different societies trying to gift us with wisdom…all we have to do is open a little book and give it a look!
That said, many of the books I’m reading are old and out of print, so alongside writing my own I want to share the best fables I find. I have a regular newsletter where I write about creativity, drawing, writing… and once I’m done the book I want to share fables through it.