Beasts & Men

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. This lively collection of Flemish folk tales and animal fables brims with tricksters, fools, and sly reversals of fortune. Foxes, bears, roosters, monkeys, dragons, cats, bees, kings, and peasants all enter a world where wit matters more than strength and every boast invites disaster. From comic episodes like Little James's absurd balloon mishap and the story of the goldfinch's borrowed colors to darker tales of punishment and deceit, the book blends humor, folklore, and sharp moral satire. Reynard the Fox dominates the collection's spirit, outwitting rivals, deceiving the King with a fabulous tale of buried treasure, and manipulating his escorts toward Malpertuis. Elsewhere, a proud c**k falls for a fox's flattering trap, a bear learns too late that humans are the most dangerous creatures, and Sponsken, a reckless boy, proves more formidable than a sexton or a giant. The closing tales deepen the book's darkly comic edge, where greed, vanity, and poor judgment lead to ironic punishment, and survival depends on cleverness that is rarely kind.