Fables de La Fontaine

Abstract

One of the finest works I have. As I mentioned above under Volume I, both the paper and the impressions here are outstanding, even and especially in comparison with the beautiful first printing. Some of the best, besides the endpiece (268), are of the bear and the gardener (22), the cat and the fox (103), the two goats (206), and the animals crying at LaFontaine's tombstone (308). This volume continues to have a problem with losing its middle margin to the initials that begin Books 9, 11, and 12. I have the impression that more designs were kept from the first to the nouvelle edition in this Volume II than in Volume I. Some title-frames that seem different are the same, just printed more heavily. A typical design transformation can be found on 164.