From Trans-Species Bibliography (TIB) vol. 4, # 1 (1993), p. 26

The Parliament of Animals: anecdotes and legends from books of natural history, 1775-1900. Pace University Press, New York, 1992. viLl9Sp. $42.50 (ISBN 0-944473-07-5); M residents add 5% sales tax; orders to University Publishing Associates, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham MD 20706; 301-459-3366 Cite ISBN 0-94473-07-5; orders to: Eurospan L 3 Henriette St London WC2E 8LU, UK

REVIEW: Sax’s title adequately describes the material collected in this slim volume, most of it from sources not readily available even to scholarly readers. What the title belies is the importance of his own contributions-- introductions and bibliographies which provide essential information, focus, and interpretation. Sax’s broad knowledge of the role of animals in legend, fable, and fairy tales, as well as anecdotes, explored in depth in his book The Frog King (Pace University Press, 1990), focuses this collection also. His focus, at once personal and critical, is on the continuing human need for an empathetic relationship with animals, or, put in other terms, the often suppressed but none-the-less persistent recognition of the kinship between human and nonhuman animals. First given expression myth and fantasy, ‘the old world of simple conflicts and fantastic adventures that link human and nonhuman animals, found expression again in the 18th century in the literature and natural history of the Romantic per They serve as the sources for the anecdotes and legends about animals and human encounters with animals that Sax collects here. The force of the volume is, as Elizabeth Lawrence, Professor of Environmental Science, Tufts School of Veterinary Science, comments, to convince the reader that “the line of demarcation separating people and animals” is indistinct, perhaps a fantasy of the human mind. Because of our disenfranchisement with the natural world, it is “an urgent message for our time of ecological crisis.”

Sax’s book adds an important contribution to the growing number of works seeking to enhance the understanding of how people perceive animals and the ties of kinship with other species that are so important to human health and welfare.

Review for TIB by Marion W. Copeland, 128 Amherst Rd, Pelham, MA 01002

Index terms: Animals—Anecdotes; Animals—Folklore; Beast Tales.