| Guest Post |
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| Katherine Lee, final year Masters student, writes about rare book Bêtes, Bêtises, Boutades: Suite de quarantehuit dessins comiques, colories (LT220 .B4 18--) held in the Fryer Library. |
Word play and absurd imagery abound in the Fryer Library’s rare book Bêtes, Bêtises, Boutades: Suite de quarantehuit dessins comiques, colories created by French cartoonist and lithographer, Gilbert Randon (1818-1884). The Fryer’s copy is the only edition of Bêtes, Bêtises, Boutades held in a public institution.
The title roughly translates to Beasts, Nonsense and Jokes: A collection of 48 coloured comic designs. However, Randon’s use of bête has a double meaning, as the word also means idiot in French.
Randon uses double entendre and anthropomorphic illustrations of animals throughout the book to poke fun at class dynamics, politics, fashion, and marriage.
His style is similar to J. J. Grandville’s (1803-1847) Les Metamorphoses du Jour (1829), which satirised the Parisian bourgeoisie by depicting them as animals dressed in human clothing.
Bêtes, Bêtises, Boutades was donated to the Fryer Library by Frederick Walter Robinson, one of the original founders of the Fryer Library.
Robinson lectured in English and German at the University of Queensland from 1923 to 1932 and was promoted to associate professor of English in 1946 a position which he retained until he retired as head of the department in 1958.
This book has been digitised and is available to view online via UQ eSpace.