The Parliament of Animals: Anecdotes and Legends from Books of Natural History, 1775-1900

This book represents a scholarly treatise on folkloric and literary narratives of animals. Useful select bibliographies on zoology, literature, folklore and language conclude these introductory comments which are followed by intriguing fables, legends, anecdotes and literary works concerning the animals under discussion. The book is thus a novel approach to the fascinating subject of the depiction of animals in prose writings over many centuries, giving scholarly information while at the same time providing a splendid collection of readable and enjoyable narratives from anonymous or known authors. It is exactly this all-inclusive approach to animal narratives that makes this book by Boria Sax such worthwhile reading for naturalists, folklorists, cultural historians, literary scholars, and last but not least, the interested generalists.