Showing posts with label Fables. Show all posts

Thursday, December 29, 2022

In brief /The Man Who Died Twice; Aesop’s Animals; Breathtaking – reviews

In brief: The Man Who Died Twice; Aesop’s Animals; Breathtaking – reviews

Richard Osman’s second novel doesn’t disappoint. Plus, the science behind Aesop’s fables and on the Covid frontline with Dr Rachel Clarke

Hannah Beckerman
Sunday 12 September 2021

‘His characters are beautifully drawn’: Richard Osman. Photograph: Antonio Olmos

The Man Who Died Twice

Richard Osman
Viking, £18.99, pp432

TV presenter Osman’s highly entertaining second novel revisits the quartet of septuagenarians that made his debut, The Thursday Murder Club, a runaway hit. Ex-spy Elizabeth is visited by her former husband and colleague, Douglas, in need of help to escape the clutches of MI5 and the mafia, sending the pensioners on their next sleuthing adventure. Osman’s characters are beautifully drawn, perfectly balancing humour and pathos, and the result is a novel that’s pure pleasure to read.

Aesop’s Animals: The Science Behind the Fables

Jo Wimpenny
Bloomsbury, £16.99, pp368

Jo Wimpenny, a zoologist, questions whether there is any scientific reasoning behind Aesop’s depictions of animals in his collected morality tales. Her canvas is wide-ranging, incorporating personal reflections and research. In one chapter, The Dog and Its Shadow, she sweeps from Darwin to modern neuroscience by way of her own childhood desire to be a canine. Engaging and comprehensive, this is highly readable popular science.

Breathtaking

Rachel Clarke
Abacus, £9.99, pp240

Dr Rachel Clarke’s award-winning 2020 book Dear Life established her as a compassionate and lyrical voice within medical literature. With Breathtaking, the palliative care specialist turns her attention to Covid, in a raw and unflinching portrayal of life on the frontline of the pandemic. There is her fury at the government’s ineptitude – here we understand the terrifying reality of insufficient PPE – and an intimate portrayal of her colleagues on Oxford’s Covid wards. And there is her grief for the patients, and co-workers, she loses. Deeply humane, Breathtaking is a book replete with courage, resilience and empathy.

THE GUARDIAN

Sunday, November 6, 2022

The Fox, the Cock, and the Dog by Aesop

The Fox, the Cock, and the Dog

by Aesop

One moonlight night a Fox was prowling about a farmer’s hen-coop, and saw a Cock roosting high up beyond his reach. “Good news, good news!” he cried.

“Why, what is that?” said the Cock.

“King Lion has declared a universal truce. No beast may hurt a bird henceforth, but all shall dwell together in brotherly friendship.”

“Why, that is good news,” said the Cock; “and there I see some one coming, with whom we can share the good tidings.” And so saying he craned his neck forward and looked afar off.

“What is it you see?” said the Fox.

“It is only my master’s Dog that is coming towards us. What, going so soon?” he continued, as the Fox began to turn away as soon as he had heard the news. “Will you not stop and congratulate the Dog on the reign of universal peace?”

“I would gladly do so,” said the Fox, “but I fear he may not have heard of King Lion’s decree.”

Cunning often outwits itself.

Aesop / The dog and the Wolf
Aesop / The wolf and the lamb
Aesop / The sick lion
James Salter's Top Ten List
The Dog and the Shadow by Aesop
The Dog in the Manger by Aesop
The Fox, the Cock, and the Dog by Aesop
Aesop’s Fables / The Cruelty of the Gods review: A welcome feast of fables for our times

The Dog in the Manger by Aesop

The Dog in the Manger

by Aesop

A Dog looking out for its afternoon nap jumped into the Manger of an Ox and lay there cosily upon the straw. But soon the Ox, returning from its afternoon work, came up to the Manger and wanted to eat some of the straw. The Dog in a rage, being awakened from its slumber, stood up and barked at the Ox, and whenever it came near attempted to bite it. At last the Ox had to give up the hope of getting at the straw, and went away muttering:

“Ah, people often grudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.”

The Dog and the Shadow by Aesop

The Dog and the Shadow

by Aesop

It happened that a Dog had got a piece of meat and was carrying it home in his mouth to eat it in peace. Now on his way home he had to cross a plank lying across a running brook. As he crossed, he looked down and saw his own shadow reflected in the water beneath. Thinking it was another dog with another piece of meat, he made up his mind to have that also. So he made a snap at the shadow in the water, but as he opened his mouth the piece of meat fell out, dropped into the water and was never seen more.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Aesop / The sick lion

Aesop

THE SICK LION

A Lion had come to the end of his days and lay sick unto death at the mouth of his cave, gasping for breath. The animals, his subjects, came round him and drew nearer as he grew more and more helpless. When they saw him on the point of death they thought to themselves: "Now is the time to pay off old grudges." So the Boar came up and drove at him with his tusks; then a Bull gored him with his horns; still the Lion lay helpless before them: so the Ass, feeling quite safe from danger, came up, and turning his tail to the Lion kicked up his heels into his face. "This is a double death," growled the Lion.

Only cowards insult dying majesty.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Aesop / The wolf and the lamb

Aesop

THE WOLF AND THE LAMB

Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. "There's my supper," thought he, "if only I can find some excuse to seize it." Then he called out to the Lamb, "How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?"

"Nay, master, nay," said Lambikin; "if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me."

"Well, then," said the Wolf, "why did you call me bad names this time last year?"

"That cannot be," said the Lamb; "I am only six months old."

"I don't care," snarled the Wolf; "if it was not you it was your father;" and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out:

"Any excuse will serve a tyrant."