In 1899, French writer Jules Renard unleashed upon the literary world his clever and insightful observations of ordinary everyday animals. 🐖 Hogs had bellies swollen like gooseberries, worms stretched themselves out like fine noodles, fleas were specks of tobacco with springs in them, cats had heads closed up like fists, chickens walked like barefoot humans, and swans floated like clouds. 🦢 He collected all these musings in a book called Histories Naturelles which featured 60 different creatures from the natural world including trees and flowers. Even though his words were poetic and insightful, the book landed in the world with a soft thud. Even though the book was illustrated by beloved artist Talouse-Lautrec, it seems readers weren’t quite all the way ready for the histories Jules was trying to explain. Sometimes words just need to marinate in the world for a bit. 130 years later and Jules Renard is now a well known, beloved author in France and Histories Naturelles has become a highly revered book beloved by generations. If he were alive today, Jules would have something quippy to say about all this, but that’s not really the point. All good things take time. In the garden section of the shop, find this 1966 English translation version, titled Natural Histories, which contains all the original art and all the original sentiment. If you are looking to read something profound and insightful and creative and fun, you’ll find it here. And then you’ll go out into nature and look at all the things and understand exactly what he meant :) . . . . . . #naturalhistory #beastiary #naturewriting #nature #frenchauthors #frenchliterature #musings #naturalhistories #naturebooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CBRcgWkgyIx/?igshid=316xnbrit44c
