The Cunning Little Vixen Rudolf Tesnohlidek, illustrations by Maurice Sendak [Fine] [Hardcover]

Description

The Cunning Little Vixen; Rudolf Tesnohlidek; pictures by Maurice Sendak; translated by Tatiana Firkusny, Maritza Morgan & Robert T. Jones; Farrar Strauss & Giroux, New York, 1985. First edition. From the blurb – Nearby, on the slope facing Black Glen, a blessed fox family lay resting after breakfast. Forester Bartos watched them for a moment, then thrust the branches aside and hurled himself into the scene, grabbing the nearest cub. Like a pair of tongs; his fingers clamped on the tail of spoiled little Sharp-Ears, while Mother Fox and the other cubs fled wildly into the depths of the forest. Sharp-Ears immediately recovered from the shock of capture and decided to betray no fear. Poor thing, she could nor suspect that her future among humans would be hard, that many months of slavery and humiliation would pass before freedom, revenge, and happiness were to be hers again. So begins the adventures of Sharp-Ears, the enchanting heroine of Rudolf Tesnohlidek’s classic Czech novel The Cunning Little Vixen. Deftly poised between poetry and farce, The Cunning Little Vixen focuses on two characters, the forester Bartos, a man coming to grips with nature, and Vixen Sharp-Ears, an innocent who abandons innocence in order to survive. Vixen Sharp-Ears is a model of feminine charm and instinctive morality, but she’s also as tricky as a politician and can be as crude as a streetwalker when it serves her purpose. Either way, she emerges in Tesnohlidek’s novel as one of the most memorable heroines in Middle European fiction. This edition of The Cunning Little Vixen is lavishly illustrated by Maurice Sendak, who designed the New York City Opera’s celebrated production of the Janacek opera. This book, 187 pages is in fine condition in a near-fine dust jacket that is now enclosed in a protective mylar wrap. There is a neat personal gift inscription on the first free endpaper. The illustrations by Sendak are delightful, the illustrator most famous for Where the Wild Things Are.