Reynard the Fox: Edited and Annotated

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
538K words
Chapters
54

Tags

Foreign Language Books Classical Literature Reynard the FoxPower GameHuman NatureMoral AllegoryAnimal FableSatirical StyleMedieval EpicClassical TextFolk CustomsDutch Literature

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Vanden Vos Reinaerde: Uitgegeven en Toegelicht by W. J. A. JonckbloetAuthor: ,Language: Dutch, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Nov 9, 2010

Editor's review

This is an important scholarly edition of the medieval Dutch beast epic Van den vos Reynaerde, edited and annotated by the nineteenth-century Dutch literary historian Jonckbloet. Centered on the fox Reynaert, the work uses animal fable to satirize the feudal court, justice, and the Church, and stands as one of the core texts of the European vernacular narrative and satirical tradition, offering dual value for understanding the language, literature, and social ideas of the medieval Low Countries. This electronic edition preserves the original Dutch text and the editor's notes, making it suitable as a base text for collation and close reading. Readers need not seek the continuous pleasure of plot; rather, they should attend to the ironic structures of the verse narrative, the social mapping behind the anthropomorphic animals, and the philological clues supplied by the editor's notes. The gains are greater when it is used alongside standard introductions to the medieval beast epic and Dutch reference works. As a public-domain ebook, it is better suited to research reading and course support than to casual cover-to-cover reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the textual remarks in the editor's notes to learn the source of the edition and its editorial principles, then proceed to the text.
  2. Read section by section, returning to the notes after each passage and recording correspondences between anthropomorphic animals and feudal ranks.
  3. Prepare a medieval Dutch dictionary or related reference works; when encountering archaic spellings, verify them before judging meaning.
  4. Read alongside other language versions of Reynaert or research introductions to avoid understanding any single passage in isolation.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this book in Dutch or English? Both the text and the editor's notes are in Dutch. The metadata lists the language as Dutch, in the Germanic literatures class. English readers will need a dictionary or a parallel translation; it should not be treated as an English-language read.
Can I read it without any Dutch? Reading it straight through from zero Dutch is not recommended. This is an annotated edition: the text is verse in older spellings, and the notes are also in Dutch. If you only want the story, start with a modern translation or a research introduction, then return to this edition for textual comparison.
What role do the editor's notes play in reading? The notes supply glosses, variant readings, and textual background, and are essential aids for understanding the medieval verse and its satirical targets. Treat the notes as part of the reading rather than an appendix; when a passage is obscure, consult the notes before deciding.
Is it suitable as a course textbook? It can serve as a supplementary text or collation material for courses in Dutch literature or medieval literature, but instructors must supply historical background and contemporary research. It is itself a public-domain annotated edition and does not include a systematic course introduction.

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About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

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