Aesop's Fables: The Cruelty of the Gods

(Hardback)

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Description

A witty, scatological illustrated version of the world's most celebrated fables, allegedly written by a slave in the 5th century BC. A book for our times: as Gbler notes, Aesop has two subjects the exercise of power and the experience of the powerless, who endure life and all that it inflicts on them. This retelling of the Fables makes them relevant and richly enjoyable. Gavin Weston's brilliant images complement Gbler's prose. Large and fierce animals kill and butcher weaker creatures; gods play games with the hopes and fears of lesser species, including men and women; and occasionally the weak turn the tables on the strong, exposing their pretensions. This is a stunning new version of a book that was often bowdlerised and used to teach moral lessons to children. Gbler's Aesop is darker and more realistic, and compulsively readable.

Reviews

This repackaging of [Aesop's] fables by Carlo Gebler and illsutrator Gavin Weston is a reminder that adult minds were originally the target of this litany of pocket-sized parables... There is very much a feeling here of the ancient sound-tracking the alarmingly present' * Sunday Independent (Dublin) *
Scary new versions of ancient morality tales, Aesop's Fables, with stings in all their tails [...] are full of adult wisdom, human misfortune and bitter experiences, which, because they happen to other people, are hilarious * Belfast Telegraph *

Author Bio

Gbler was born in Dublin, the elder son of the Irish writers Ernest Gbler and Edna O'Brien. He is a novelist, biographer, playwright and teacher, frequently working with prisoners in Northern Irish jails. His novel The Dead Eight, based on events that took place in rural Tipperary in 1940, was described by Julian Evans as having a 'Swiftian understanding of the world's secret machinations'. His other novels include How to Murder a Man (1998) and A Good Day For A Dog. Driving through Cuba: An East-West Journey was published in 1988, and his other non fiction books include The Glass Curtain, about the sectarian divisions of Belfast, and Father and I: a Memoir, a book about his difficult relationship with his distant father.