Fables de La Fontaine

Abstract

Bodemann describes the book very well (#409) and lists it as ca. 1921. I find no date indicated in this book, but I have no doubt that this is the first edition of a book I have loved for a long time, first through Whitman's Fontaine's Fables (1934) and then through Hachette's reprint in 1992. See my comments there. See also a 1929 reprinting once owned by the Newark Free Public Library. The illustrations in this edition are slightly larger than in the 1992 edition. They have a dull finish that seems to me better than the 1992 edition's glossy finish. Some of the best illustrations in a book full of beautiful work: the anthill with its beautiful colors (6), the ant at work in a scene that is used recently for the cover of a French pocketbook La Fontaine (10), the face of the cheese-mouthing crow in a rich variety of hues (14), and several title-pages, including TMCM (25), WL (37), and The Heron (61). The spine is weak internally, and the pages are loose; it is also split and taped externally. A wonderful surprise find!