Aesop's Fables. New and Enlarged Edition.

Abstract

I think I have here the key link from which so many editions spread. This is, I believe, the first edition of the enlarged book that worked off of Rundell and Griset's edition of 1869? See my comments there. This copy seems to be identical with what Bodemann describes as #344.2. By comparison with that earlier copy, this one removes from the title-page the red ink from the title and publisher; Revised and Re-written by J.B. Rundell; and a New York address. It adds on the title-page both a reference to Paris and New and Enlarged Edition. The list of illustrations is still contained within two pages (vii-viii) but includes 66 new illustrations, including Finis. That book had stopped dead at the bottom of 240 with an image of a chysalis under the fable The Ant and the Chrysalis. The following page began the AI. This book moves immediately to The Bee and the Fly on 241 and continues with texts and illustrations through to 416, which includes the Finis illustration. On the facing page, 416, the AI starts. The illustrations are excellent in this copy! Bodemann mentions that there are 132 added prose and verse fables. After so many reproductions and partial presentations, I have worked my way back to the source! This copy is inscribed at Christmas, 1887.