Research Catalog

Title

Kalila and Dimna : selected fables of Bidpai / retold by Ramsay Wood ; illustrated by Margaret Kilrenny.

Author

Wood, Ramsay, 1943-

Publication

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1980.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Kilrenny, Margaret
• Lessing, Doris, 1919-2013

Description

xix, 262 pages, 1 unnumbered page : illustrations; 22 cm

Summary

This volume is a collection of fables, made up of dozens of linked stories, mostly involving animal characters, with each story slotting into another within a whole "over-story." Originally these stories came from India over 2000 years ago, where they were collected into a book called The Panchatantra. Taken together, the tales ostensibly constitute a handbook for rulers, illustrating and explaining a series of admonitions on how to run a kingdom, on the conduct proper to a king, on the use of spies, on the legal system, on how to create a village, etc. But in their slyly profound grasp of human nature at its best -- and, more often, at its worst -- they are clearly meant as good counsel for all of us.

Uniform Title

Fables of Bidpai. English.

Subjects

• Fables
• Fables, English

Genre/Form

Fables.

Note

• Adapted from English translations of the Fables of Bidpai from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and Syriac versions, translated respectively by F. Egerton, Wyndham Knatchbull, Arthur N. Wollaston and I.G.N. Keith-Falconer, and other sources. See Afterword, pages 261-263.
• Introduction by Doris Lessing: pages ix-xix.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Contents

King Dabschelim -- Dr. Bidpai -- Convergence -- Kalila and Dimna: The carpenter's monkey. The fox and the drum. The dervish and the thief. The crow, the snake, and the jackal. The crane and the crab. The lion and the hare. The three fish. The bedbug and the flea. The cormorant and the star. The camel, the lion, and the leopard. The crow and the jackal. The sandpipers and the sea. Chitchat turtle and the geese. The apes and the busybody bird. Sneaky, straight and the tree. The iron eating mice -- In between -- Zirac and friends: Super Rat and the monks. Mrs. Sadili and the sesame seeds. The wolf who wished to hoard. The pet of a prince -- Doctor's orders.

Call Number

*OMP 81-1479

ISBN

• 0394506936
• 9780394506937

LCCN

79017425

OCLC

5219510

Author

Wood, Ramsay, 1943- author.

Title

Kalila and Dimna : selected fables of Bidpai / retold by Ramsay Wood ; illustrated by Margaret Kilrenny.

Publisher

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1980.

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references.

Added Author

Kilrenny, Margaret, illustrator.

Lessing, Doris, 1919-2013, writer of introduction.

Added Title

Fables of Bidpai. English.

Other Form:

Online version: Wood, Ramsay, 1943- Kalila and Dimna. First edition. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1980 (OCoLC)858701766

Research Call Number

*OMP 81-1479