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The Cat and the Cook and Other Fables of Krylov
"One of the greatest pleasures of this impressive collection of 12 Russian fables is Lobel's sophisticated artwork. She outdoes herself with watercolor-and-gouache paintings that are brilliantly colored and wonderfully composed. The details are just right....Heins' prose retellings of poems by Ivan Andreevich Krylov, "Russia's greatest fabulist,' are elegant. A gem that deserves a place in folklore collections."--Booklist.
- GenresPicture Books
32 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1995
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About the author
Ivan Krylov
153 books26 followersIvan Andreyevich Krylov (Russian: Иван Андреевич Крылов) is Russia's best known fabulist. Fables of Aesop and Jean de la Fontaine loosely based many of his earlier fables; later fables, original work, often satirized the incompetent bureaucracy, stifling social progress in his time.
Ivan Krylov spent his early years in Orenburg and Tver. His father, a distinguished military officer, in 1779 died, leaving the destitute family. A few years later, Krylov and his mother moved to Saint Petersburg in the expectation of securing a government pension. Krylov obtained a position in the civil service but after death of his mother in 1788 gave up this position. His literary career began in 1783, when he sold a comedy he had written to a publisher. He used the proceeds to obtain the works of Molière, Racine, and Boileau. It was probably under the influence of these writers that he produced Philomela, which gave him access to the dramatic circle of Knyazhnin.
Krylov made several attempts to start a literary magazine. All met with little success, but, together with his plays, these magazine upstarts helped Krylov make a name for himself and gain recognition in literary circles. For about four years (1797-1801) Krylov lived at the country estate of Prince Sergey Galitzine, and when the prince was appointed military governor of Livonia, he accompanied him as a secretary. Little is known of the years immediately after Krylov resigned from this position, other than the commonly accepted myth that he wandered from town to town in pursuit of card games. His first collection of fables, 23 in number, appeared in 1809 with such success that thereafter he abandoned drama for fable-writing. By the end of his career he had completed over 200, constantly revising them with each new edition. From 1812 to 1841 he was employed by the Imperial Public Library, first as an assistant, and then as head of the Russian Books Department, a not very demanding position that left him plenty of time to write.
Honors were showered on Krylov even during his lifetime: the Russian Academy of Sciences admitted him as a member in 1811, and bestowed on him its gold medal in 1823; in 1838 a great festival was held under imperial sanction to celebrate the jubilee of his first publication, and the Tsar granted him a generous pension. By the time he died in 1844, 77,000 copies of his fables had been sold in Russia, and his unique brand of wisdom and humor gained popularity. His fables were often rooted in historic events, and are easily recognizable by their style of language and engaging story. Though he began as a translator and imitator of existing fables, Krylov soon showed himself an imaginative, prolific writer, who found abundant original material in his native land. In Russia his language is considered of high quality: his words and phrases are direct, simple and idiomatic, with color and cadence varying with the theme; many of them became actual idioms. His animal fables blend naturalistic characterization of the animal with an allegorical portrayal of basic human types; they span individual foibles as well as difficult interpersonal relations.
Krylov's statue in the Summer Garden (1854–55) is one of the most notable monuments in St.Petersburg. Sculpted by Peter Clodt, it has reliefs designed by Alexander Agin on all four sides of the pedestal representing scenes from the fables. A much later monument was installed in the Patriarch's Ponds district of Moscow in 1976. This was the work of Andrei Drevin, Daniel Mitlyansky, and the architect A. Chaltykyan. The seated statue of the fabulist is surrounded by twelve metal relief sculptures of the fables in adjoining avenues.
Krylov shares yet another monument with the poet Alexander Pushkin in the city of Pushkino's Soviet Square. The two were friends and Pushkin modified Krylov's description of 'an ass of most honest principles' (The Ass and the P
Ivan Krylov spent his early years in Orenburg and Tver. His father, a distinguished military officer, in 1779 died, leaving the destitute family. A few years later, Krylov and his mother moved to Saint Petersburg in the expectation of securing a government pension. Krylov obtained a position in the civil service but after death of his mother in 1788 gave up this position. His literary career began in 1783, when he sold a comedy he had written to a publisher. He used the proceeds to obtain the works of Molière, Racine, and Boileau. It was probably under the influence of these writers that he produced Philomela, which gave him access to the dramatic circle of Knyazhnin.
Krylov made several attempts to start a literary magazine. All met with little success, but, together with his plays, these magazine upstarts helped Krylov make a name for himself and gain recognition in literary circles. For about four years (1797-1801) Krylov lived at the country estate of Prince Sergey Galitzine, and when the prince was appointed military governor of Livonia, he accompanied him as a secretary. Little is known of the years immediately after Krylov resigned from this position, other than the commonly accepted myth that he wandered from town to town in pursuit of card games. His first collection of fables, 23 in number, appeared in 1809 with such success that thereafter he abandoned drama for fable-writing. By the end of his career he had completed over 200, constantly revising them with each new edition. From 1812 to 1841 he was employed by the Imperial Public Library, first as an assistant, and then as head of the Russian Books Department, a not very demanding position that left him plenty of time to write.
Honors were showered on Krylov even during his lifetime: the Russian Academy of Sciences admitted him as a member in 1811, and bestowed on him its gold medal in 1823; in 1838 a great festival was held under imperial sanction to celebrate the jubilee of his first publication, and the Tsar granted him a generous pension. By the time he died in 1844, 77,000 copies of his fables had been sold in Russia, and his unique brand of wisdom and humor gained popularity. His fables were often rooted in historic events, and are easily recognizable by their style of language and engaging story. Though he began as a translator and imitator of existing fables, Krylov soon showed himself an imaginative, prolific writer, who found abundant original material in his native land. In Russia his language is considered of high quality: his words and phrases are direct, simple and idiomatic, with color and cadence varying with the theme; many of them became actual idioms. His animal fables blend naturalistic characterization of the animal with an allegorical portrayal of basic human types; they span individual foibles as well as difficult interpersonal relations.
Krylov's statue in the Summer Garden (1854–55) is one of the most notable monuments in St.Petersburg. Sculpted by Peter Clodt, it has reliefs designed by Alexander Agin on all four sides of the pedestal representing scenes from the fables. A much later monument was installed in the Patriarch's Ponds district of Moscow in 1976. This was the work of Andrei Drevin, Daniel Mitlyansky, and the architect A. Chaltykyan. The seated statue of the fabulist is surrounded by twelve metal relief sculptures of the fables in adjoining avenues.
Krylov shares yet another monument with the poet Alexander Pushkin in the city of Pushkino's Soviet Square. The two were friends and Pushkin modified Krylov's description of 'an ass of most honest principles' (The Ass and the P
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 7, 2017
Original stories, sort of in the style of Aesop, only without the pithy moral statement at the end.
July 22, 2019
I loved this book growing up! So happy to be able to pick it up again!
June 15, 2016
Reading these stories, I am not sure why fables are not used more as teaching tales for children. The kids will love these for their stories about animals and at the same time they will hear about guidelines for good living. I am afraid that the stories are too long for most of the students to pick up and read on their own, but this would be a great tool for helping students learn inferences, especially when they are just beginning to learn about them.
April 20, 2017
Ivan Krylov is the Russian Aesop. He was recommended to me by one of my students, with a background in many things Russian, because of my penchant for telling stories. I am particularly intrigued by those stories which contain morals or which may be readily adapted to teach some point.
As with many fables, the stars are frequently animals. The lessons are clear and the stories are short. The failing here is my own inability to read Russian. Translations can be tricky, or course, since many word choices do not translate well. A pun in one language may be totally untranslatable to another.
Save for this one flaw, this was an enjoyable return to the world of fable. It is a pleasant and enjoyable work.
As with many fables, the stars are frequently animals. The lessons are clear and the stories are short. The failing here is my own inability to read Russian. Translations can be tricky, or course, since many word choices do not translate well. A pun in one language may be totally untranslatable to another.
Save for this one flaw, this was an enjoyable return to the world of fable. It is a pleasant and enjoyable work.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews