Fables de La Fontaine
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Authors
La Fontaine, Jean de
Issue Date
1950
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Four years ago I found a five volume work of the fables and stories of La Fontaine with excellent illustrations by Gaston Barret. It is a limited edition of some 2200 numbered copies. Fables make up the first two volumes of the five. Now I have found a single volume that curiously repeats the first volume there with specific changes. The pages are again collected in a portfolio. Here are the changes I have noted. There is no indication of other volumes in the series. What happened, one wonders, to the other half of La Fontaine's fables? The texts are given and paginated exactly as in the first volume of fables. This is not a numbered copy, and there is no indication that it is a limited edition. The eight pictures here are identical with eight of the twelve there, but they are not necessarily placed with their stories, as they were there. The eight here are OF (frontispiece); OR (12); FC (110, though the text is on 42); FS (103, though the text is on 94); MSA (171); TMCM (183, though the text is on 138); WL (217); and "The Cat, the Weasel and the Little Rabbit" (224). As Metzner comments of the fuller work in Bodemann, the animals are humanized in clothing and posture. Humans are "puppenähnlich." In the frontispiece of OF, the proud about-to-explode female frog is pregnant. That is what she is so proud of! Metzner says that the illustrations are hand-colored. If so, the coloring agents generally add only one or two colors, often green and brown. In FC the fox wears an eye-patch. FS wins my prize. A supercilious female stork looks down on the sheepish fox as he leaves the table with its tall vase. TMCM features a country-rat with an eye-piece who manages to steal a chicken as he flees. MSA has the miller riding in front of three beautiful young women. WL has the wolf perched on a branch coming out of the water as he prepares to beat the lamb with a long stick. "The Cat, the Weasel and the Little Rabbit" puts the scene in the cat's bedroom.
Description
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Publisher
Aux Éditions Arc-en-Ciel
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Journal
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PubMed ID
DOI
Identifier
10986 (Access ID)