Roy Brown (2) (1921–1982)

Published in 1969, this slim volume offers a modern retelling of The History of Reynard the Fox, a classic cycle of tales dating back to the 12th century, and revised and retold countless times in various European nations. The story of Reynard and his misadventures in and out of the court of King Noble the Lion, it contains many episodes highlighting its vulpine hero's duplicitous nature, his treachery, and his mistreatment of the other animals...

Read for my masters dissertation, which examined three centuries of retellings of the Reynard story for children in the English-speaking world, Reynard the Fox is an interesting twist on the story, and is an adaptation of Joseph Jacobs' 1895 version. Many of the more violent and scatalogical aspects of the original story - the attack on Isegrim's wife, the manner in which Tibert frees himself in the priest's barn, and so on - are omitted here, as is frequently the case in children's retellings, from the Victorian period onward. On the other hand, the conclusion, in which Reynard returns home triumphant, has not been changed. Roy Brown clearly felt some ambivalence about this, and about presenting Reynard as the hero of his own story, commenting in his foreword that the fox " is not the sort of "hero" one should look up to and try and imitate," going on to claim that the message to be taken away here, is the necessity of uniting against the "evil" that Reynard represents. Whatever one thinks about Brown's interpretation, his retelling here is fairly entertaining, and the accompanying artwork from John Vernon Lord, which looks to be done in some woodcut style, is humorous and appealing. Recommended to anyone looking for modern retellings of the Reynard story, or for tales about trickster foxes.… (meer)