KRYLOV’s often wry and sardonic fables, dating from the period 1809, when he was 40, until his death in 1844, are less well known to English readers than Aesop’s or La Fontaine’s, but in his native Russia they are considered classics, though he sometimes ran into trouble with the political censors. The Fables of Ivan Krylov, a new translation and introduction by Stephen Pimenoff, has been published with Arts Council support. The translator makes no attempt to reproduce Krylov’s rhyming patterns, but uses free verse with lines of different lengths centred on the page (Dedalus, £9.99 (£9); 978-1-910213-51-3).