Fables of La Fontaine, Part I

Abstract

This set of four volumes constitutes a wonderful surprise. I had thought it would be a worthy second copy of the original Tappan and Dennet publication of Wright's translation of La Fontaine. I remembered the printing of Grandville's illustrations as being especially good. I was surprised by the description that it spreads into four parts the two volumes which Tappan and Dennet published then. The surprise when I received the four books is that this edition intercalates La Fontaine's French texts with the Wright translations. The binder apparently did not have an easy time with this procedure, partly perhaps because, as in that edition, the full-page illustrations are never printed on the obverse. The strange result can be seen as this book begins FS, which is La Fontaine's I 18. What precedes this fable had been a two page spread featuring on the left I 17 starting in English and on the right, in a page marked 35, the French of I 16 finishing. We turn the page to find on the left the beginning of I 17 in French, and on the right an exquisite illustration of I 17. Turn the page to find, on the left, the blank obverse of the illustration and on the right, on a page marked 35, the finish of the English translation of I 17. Turn the page and FS (I 18) begins in English on the left, while I 17 finishes in French on the right. Notice that there are two pages marked 35, and so it continues with two pages marked 37. I tried a hypothesis that the illustrations always face French text, but that pattern does not hold. This first volume begins with the same title-page and the same beginning elements as the aforementioned first volume: "To My Subscribers"; a preface that changes its heading, as it did there, between xviii ("Fable and the Fabulists") and xix ("La Fontaine"); an English AI; and a "Fables" title alone on a page. Then, before a page announcing "Book 1" with an illustration, this volume has "To Monseigneur the Dauphin" with a bust of Aesop in front of animals and then "A Monseigneur le Dauphin" with the same illustration. This volume stops with III 18. It features the same two gold embossed urns on its covers as the two volume English edition referred to above. The base of its spine is hanging from one side. The inside front cover features a small seal "Bound by P. Row, 21 Devonshire St., Boston."