Jean de La Fontaine: Basni (Russian)

Abstract

At 672 pages, this is one of the largest books in the collection. The seller estimates that there are some 1000 illustrations, all black-and-white, in the book. The book is unusually well printed for a publication emanating from Russia. The front and back covers -- as opposed to the black-and-orange dust-jacket -- is a wild collage of colored illustrations, many of them familiar but some new. Lorioux, Grandville, Oudry, Vimar, Doré, and Lambert are well represented. Not all illustrations are presented in their original form. Many seem copied from derivative sources, especially Alfred Mâme's publishing house. Most of Grandville's illustrations, for example, are cited as published by Mâme in 1887; they were published by Fournier Ainé in 1838. All of Oudry's illustrations are presented between busy columns that I do not remember seeing before: why complicate his fine designs? Vimar (about 1910) is cited as appearing in a Mâme publication of 1987. My impression is that the simplest line-drawings and silhouettes come off the page best in this book. Heighway's occasional appearances are thus strong. The printing job is poorest on the full-page reproductions of Doré, e.g., The Wolves and the Dogs on 158; much better is Doré's The Monkey and the Dolphin on 186. My two strongest experiences of the book are that this is a major undertaking, and that one would have hoped for more that would be new, like the illustrations from Belgrad 269 and at several other places. Late in the work one finds a number of title-pages and covers of prominent editions of La Fontaine's fables. At the end one finds a life of La Fontaine, comments, an index, a bibliography, and a T of C. For the student of fable editions, the bibliography (666) is disappointing. One finds titles, dates, and sometimes publishers, without indication of illustrators or editors.