Les Fables de La Fontaine

Abstract

Here is an extra copy of this book, with slightly bowed covers and about half of its spine intact. See an almost identical volume in the same year with the same title from the same publisher. The differences here lie in the cover, binding, and publisher. The covers are no longer a multi-colored cartoon scene of many animals on the front and a candle on the back but rather cloth-covered boards with a gold stamped title on the front. The binding is no longer the canvas binding of the other copy, but rather a ring binding of eleven slotted rubber (?) rings. This edition also declares a printer (Liévin Daniel) on the bottom of its last page. Let me repeat my other comments from that edition, since they apply equally. One of the most playful books I have seen in a while. Sections of La Fontaine's text are numbered to correspond to cartoon pictures. There is lots of wit here. A steam kettle boiling in one picture (DW) is smelled in the next! Imagination stamps these illustrations. The lion has torn half his skin off in pursuing the mosquito; the dove carries off the fowler's pot, in which the fowler's imagination was already cooking him; the miller's son picks his nose. "The Cat and the Old Rat" is one of the best here, including the cat's attempt to disguise himself in a bag. "Les Animals Malade de la Peste" is a magnificent two-page sweep. The last story is also excellent: "Le Savetier et le Financier." Twenty-three fables. T of C at the back.