A bold bad butterfly: & other fables and verses

A bold bad butterfly by Oliver Herford is a collection of whimsical fables and light verse written in the early 20th century. Playfully illustrated, it uses talking animals, flowers, and mythical figures to satirize vanity, gossip, pretension, and fashion, offering gentle morals in bright, comic vignettes.

The poems follow a parade of charming misadventures: a “bold bad” butterfly’s pose leads to a collector’s pin; a crafty lion turns politics to his advantage; a poet’s song finally makes a princess sleep; a financial “corner in curls” unravels; and a hypnotic serpent fatally mistakes a hat ornament for prey. Elsewhere flowers bicker, stage circuses, and spread scandal; scarecrows pine for crows; mermaids debate umbrellas; rabbits compete by fleeing; dragons invent princesses to lure knights; and foxes outwit a touring lion. Throughout, the book delights in wordplay, reversals, and light morals that gently mock human follies while celebrating imagination.