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Not Your Father's -- or Your Children's -- Aesop
Steven M. Zeitchik -- 2/9/98
New translation causes controversy and publishing pushup -- but will that translate into sales?
Improbable as it may seem, last month's British publication of Aesop: The Complete Fables created a giant stir, with a beaver doing a star turn. Sort of. Reuters, the New York Times, NPR -- not to mention Rush Limbaugh and Comedy Central -- found the new edition of the Greek fabulist's fables so worthy of attention that Penguin Classics has responded by moving up the American publication of the book from its original July release date to February 24, with books shipping in the next few days. The house has upped the print run, too, from 3000 to 8000, an unusually high number for a Penguin Classic.
So what's causing the buzz? Yes, folks, a beaver, but not your average tree-chawing beaver. This one mutilates his own genitals in order to escape capture, and he is just one creature in Robert and Olivia Temple's new, uncensored translation that now includes 100 stories not previously found among what had been somewhat bowdlerized translations from Aesop's 6th-century B.C. tales. The translators discovered the new fables by returning to the last known version of the Greek text, published in 1927. "A beaver's genitals serve, it is said, to cure certain ailments," reads one of the new tales. "When he sees himself about to be caught, he will bite off his own parts, throw them, and thus save his own life. Moral: Among men also, those are wise who, if attacked for their money, will sacrifice it rather than lose their lives." Other tales examine adrogynous hyenas and a "camel who shat in the river."
Penguin director of academic marketing and sales Dan Lundy told PW he's rather surprised by the attention the new translation has received. "It's funny what people pick up on," he said. The house's decision for the new translation originally came from a desire to finally supplant the 1954 Penguin Classic translated by S.A. Hanford, which sells about 2000 copies per year.
"We were all aware that a 1954 edition came from an entirely different era in regard to its approach toward Aesop," said Ed Iwanicki, director of group publishing at Penguin Classics.
And perhaps the racier anecdotes in this new Aesop will spark some extra sales. "It seems like the type of thing that the more literary types will want, as well as the Gen-Xers," said Dawn Bailey, publicist for Vero Beach (Fla.) Book Center.
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