Fables de La Fontaine
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Authors
La Fontaine, Jean de
Issue Date
1838
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Abstract
This book joins three others as "Nouvelle Édition" printings of Grandville's La Fontaine in 1838 but with one significant difference, that this is a single book containing two volumes while all of those are two-book copies. The three parallel copies came to us from Pangloss, Albatross, and Nash. As was the case with the Nash copy found in 2018, I was surprised at the low price and thought it worth capturing while it was available. Again, I will keep this volume in the collection simply because it is a first edition of a great work. The Nash copy provoked a review of the several copies, including the Lovy copy that is not a "Nouvelle Édition." I will present results of that review here. This copy comes with a note from Peter G. Tudor on the restoration of the binding of this book done in 1992 for £30. The copy also features a bookplate of Henry Reeve. These four copies differ among themselves only, as far as I can tell, in two ways that may depend more on the bookbinder than on the publisher. The illustration for "Le Héron -- La Fille" faces 258 in Pangloss and Nash, while it faces 260 in Albatross and here. Secondly, Pangloss and Nash place the initial at the beginnings of Books 2, 3, 6, and 7 too close to the binding. Some of the best illustrations within Volume 1 are of the city and country rats (20), the cat-woman (82), the lion in love (127), and the fox without a tail (182). In Volume 2, they include the bear and the gardener (22), the cat and the fox (103), the two goats (206), and the animals crying at LaFontaine's tombstone (308).
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H. Fournier Ainé
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12807 (Access ID)