Recueil des Fables de La Fontaine
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
La Fontaine, Jean de
Issue Date
1936?
Type
Book, Whole
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Now here is a curiosity. I have a copy of this book that is almost exactly the same. As I was ready to call this a duplicate, I checked. I noticed that the first monochrome picture here is blue; there it is orange. Further checking showed that illustrations generally come in threes, one after another on right-hand pages in the first half of each copy and on left-hand pages in the second half. One of the three in each case is fully colored. The other two are monochrome, and the blues and oranges there are reversed here into oranges and blues, respectively. Did the printer simply change ink for different printings? Otherwise these two copies are identical. As I wrote there, this is one of the larger cheap canvas-bound Recueil editions I have from the 30's, many of them by E.R.T. and many featuring the work of Urbain Raymond. Here one key feature of Raymond's work, including that on the cover, is that he signs his pictures mirror-backwards. A number of the full-color illustrations seem to repeat from five other such editions that I have, all with one of three titles, either on the covers or inside: Recueil des Fables de La Fontaine, Les belles Fables de la Fontaine, or Fables Choisies de La Fontaine. All are dated to either 1936? or 1950?. In this edition, there are full-colored illustrations of GA (11 and also on the cover); Le Coche et la Mouche (17); Le Gland et la Citrouille (30); Le Laboureur et ses Enfants (46); WL (64); TMCM (92); FS (96); and Le Savetier et le Financier (110). Apparent monochrome repeaters from elsewhere include FG with a proud fox walking away (106), The Swallow and the Little Birds with its dressed birds in the tree's branches (55), MM with its dancing eggs (108), and MSA (70). There is a T of C on 116. The order of fables seems to be largely alphabetical, but with many items out of place.
Description
Citation
Publisher
E.R.T. (Editions René Touret?)