Fables: Aesop
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Authors
Aesop
Jacobs, Joseph
Issue Date
1894
Type
Book, Whole
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
This small (4½ x 6½) edition shares several curious features with the other five like it in format: Home Book Company 1894/95? (plain tan cover with title); Montgomery Ward 1894/98 (La Belle Library on cover); Caldwell 1894/1901? (two children reading on cover); Caldwell 1894/1902? (DS on cover); Pathfinder 1894/1905? (abstract silver designs against maroon background without title on cover). First, one OF illustration is inserted at 67 between The Jay and the Peacock and FS, several pages away from the OF story. Second, the Contents page is not well matched with what follows. It announces A Short History of the Aesopic Fable on 11. It announces next a List of Fables on 19, but it is on 5. It announces Aesop's Fables on 23, but they start on 26. One printer's error can last through many editions! The notes are correctly announced for 205. All these editions finish on 228. Stories frequently run two pages long, one of which has to be turned to view the other. These editions differ in how they handle several features other than their covers: especially the early pages and their illustrations; the preface and history mentioned above; the acknowledgement of the editor, Joseph Jacobs, and the illustrator, Richard Heighway; and several paste-in illustrations on heavier paper, printed on only one side. The ideal places for these inserted pages are 42 (The Sick Lion), 64 (The Bald Man and the Fly), and 196 (The Buffoon and the Countryman). This edition--with red roses against a gold background on the cover--has only the demon-in-the-mirror image on the left pre-title page. It has the frontispiece (The Fox and the Lion), the preface with Jacobs' name, and the history. Heighway is nowhere mentioned. The inserted image of the sick lion is not present (if it ever was), while that of the bald man is loose at 65, and that of the countryman with the pig is misplaced at 200. This book is beautifully bound. Inscribed in June, 1900, as an award to Nettie Lutz for Punctual Attendance.
Description
Citation
Publisher
H.M. Caldwell Company