Fables, Vol. I
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Authors
Rousset, Alexis
Issue Date
1854
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Eighteen months ago I thought that purchasing a set of Rousset for about $150 might have been a mistake. Now purchasing a set of Rousset for $300 may have been another mistake. But it has been a fascinating mistake! Why? First, this set of four volumes is signed by the author. Secondly, there is a surprising pattern: though some images overlap in the two sets, images missing in that set are in this set and vice versa. Thus this copy lacks the decorative title-page, an image of an inscribed log with surrounding leafage. On that page we find In this deep impression "Imp. Dantzell. Lyon," about as close as either version comes to announcing a publisher. Our new volume has a title-page beginning Livre I with a cherub. Our new volume does not have for the first fable the full-page image of a figure (Poesie?) looking over the shoulder of another figure (Sagesse?). But fable II in the new-bought copy has an image of a narcissus and a butterfly. It has full-page images for Fables III and VI but none for VII, which has an image in the earlier copy. And so it goes, apparently throughout the volume. How strange! At last in Book II Fable III both have the identical full-page illustration. There is a third anomaly here. The printer or bookbinder botched his job! This volume is missing 121 to 172. It skips from III 5 to IV 6. That segment is found in the middle of an even greater lapse in the second volume (120 to 240). My! In this volume, a particularly good image portrays a group of rats abandoning a house for Book II Fable VIII, an illustration not present in the other version. Another is "Lion and Ass" facing 280 (also not in the earlier copy). My favorite printer's device is on 58: A lion plays piano. Many of these devices are lively! The illustration facing 52 has a fine moral: "Les bons et les méchants pursuivent le Bonheur. Mais les bons seuls peuvent l'atteindre." 285 pages, followed by a T of C for the five books here. The illustrated interior title-page pays homage to Aesop and La Fontaine. I am not so sure the fables do. 5.5" x 8.5".
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Publisher
L. Maison?
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Identifier
13702 (Access ID)