The Fables of Aesop with a Life of the Author

Abstract

Here is the copy with a blue cover otherwise identical with a version with a tan-colored cover. Did the publisher himself change the color or form of the cover as he ran out of this or that material? I take it that we are in a phase of publishing where binding is rather new to the publishing house. Let me repeat my comments from the tan-covered copy. Herrick's illustrations for Aesop were much reproduced, it seems to me. This is one of three different versions of the Oxford Edition that presents his designs, one each for one-hundred-and-ten fables. All these editions stem from the original 1865 edition by Hurd and Houghton (Bodemann #334). As she says, the author of the prose versions is unknown. The applications are often longer than the fables! I find Herrick generally noble rather than imaginative. I think that he is at his best here when he is most dramatic. Two examples are WSC on 64 and CW on 218. This copy has a blue cloth cover with a medallion of a horse in the middle of the front cover and of the spine. Beneath each there is a banner -- though different in the two places -- proclaiming Oxford Edition. There is some gold work on the spine. Compare the similar tan-cloth-cover edition and the plain blue cover edition.