Nature Stories
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- 9,49 €
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- 9,49 €
Description de l’éditeur
The natural world in all its richness, glimpsed variously in the house, the barnyard, and the garden, in ponds and streams, and at large in the woods and the fields, including old friends like the dog, the cat, the cow, and the pig, along with more unusual and sometimes alarming characters such as the weasel, the dragonfly, snakes of several sorts, and even a whale, not to mention ants in their seeming infinitude and a single humble potato—all these and more are the subjects of what may well be the most deft and delightful book of literary miniatures ever written. In Jules Renard’s world, plants and animals not only feel but speak (one species, the swallow, appears to write Hebrew), and yet, for all the anthropomorphic wit and whimsy the author indulges in, they guard their mystery too. Sly, funny, and touching, Nature Stories, here beautifully rendered into English by Douglas Parmée and accompanied by the wonderful ink-brush images of Pierre Bonnard with which the book was originally published, is a literary classic of inexhaustible freshness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Parm e's new translation of Renard's classic, late 19th-century stories (accompanied by ink-blot illustrations by Pierre Bonnard) convey the author's inimitable sensibility and his delight in nature's humor and mystery. Ranging from a few words to a few pages in length, each portrait reads like a prose poem and delivers sharp observations and fanciful stories about everything from bats to birds, autumn leaves to the new moon. Renard's five-word evocation of a flea ("An elastic pinch of snuff") and succinct description of a butterfly ("This love-letter, folded in two, is looking for a flowery address") are among the best shorter entries; of the longer, more elaborate entries, "Fish" and "The End of the Shooting Season" tell rich stories of man's changing and complicated relationship with nature. Taken cumulatively, Renard's tender, wry, and surprising tributes remind us of the millions of creatures and characters in our midst.
