Neuf Fables de la Fontaine
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Authors
No Author
Issue Date
1957
Volume
Issue
Type
Pamphlet
Book, Whole
Book, Whole
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Abstract
I enjoy this work. The cover and frontispiece of this unstapled pamphlet show La Fontaine extending out from an oval portrait and offering a book of fables. The frontispiece notes that this copy was printed for Monsieur Jean Gallut, on his birthday, and offered with the best wishes of the Club du Livre Sélectionné. I am guessing that the director of the Club, Dominique Wapler, had this book done in 1957 and then presented it to each of the members of the club during that year on his or her birthday. And the next year he had a different booklet done. In any case, this is a delightful selection of fables well illustrated. Each of the nine fables tends to have two illustrations. Compare the two illustrations for La Jeune Veuve. There is a liveliness to the widow as she looks at a horseman (14) that we did not see as she wept before her husband's hearse (12). Again, the second illustration for DW shows the wolf romping away from the chained dog (17). I congratulate the artist on the imaginative conception of the hand reaching out from the casket for the praying priest in Le Curé et le Mort (18). This may be the best flour caked cat I have seen (23), and the old rat will not be fooled. The rear view of Raminagrobis is excellent before (28) and after (30). Before, we see the rabbit and weasel contesting; afterwards, we see their bones. The declawed, defanged lion is a sad sight (33). The artist follows La Fontaine's lead in putting together The Heron and The Daughter. His first image shows the two of them; his second image shows what they end up with: an ugly old man and a snail. The only fables among the nine that I have not yet mentioned are The Bear and the Lover of Gardens and The Animals Sick from the Plague. Those illustrations are good too!
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Publisher
Club du Livre Sélectionné
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Identifier
4980 (Access ID)