The Fables of Aesop: Selected, told anew and their history traced by Joseph Jacobs

Abstract

The original of this book was published in 1894 by Macmillan. It has been reprinted quite often, for example by Schocken. This is the best facsimile reprint I have seen. Heighway's brilliant black-and-white work comes alive again here! This copy is in very good condition. I love Heighway's work! There are 220 pages, followed by a two-page AI. Like the original, this book gets going with a left-page frontispiece of two scenes showing FS; a title page with ornate left and right borders; a right-page dedication to Prof. F.J. Child; a preface signed by Jacobs beginning on the right page (ix) and ending over a design on xii; a Contents page; A Short History of the Aesopic Fable (xv-xxii); List of Fables (xxiii-xxv) including eighty-two fables numbered here but not in the text; a left-page showing a hand holding a mirror's reflection of a demon and a right page with a framed scroll of a title (The Fables of Aesop); and finally The Cock and the Pearl (2-3). As in the original, the illustrations, titles, and closing designs are very distinct. Among the best are The Hart & the Hunter (64), The Fox & the Cat (90), The Shepherd's Boy (103), The Four Oxen & The Lion (123), and GGE (134). My, what searching around Powell's won't turn up!