Fables of La Fontaine, Part II
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Authors
Jr., Elizur Wright,
Issue Date
1841
Type
Book, Whole
Language
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Abstract
This lovely volume includes two volumes of an earlier set. Where that took four volumes to present a bilingual text and translation of La Fontaine's fables, this set uses just two beautifully presented volumes. This remains a very curious edition. After a title-page for Volume II, we get an elaborate pictorial page that proclaims Fournier as the printer, followed by a print-page that proclaims Tappan and Dennet as the publishers, with bibliographical information on its verso. Facing that on the right is "Fables" made of animal characters standing alone. A random opening of the book brings me to another brilliant image: "The Women and the Secret" (VIII 6). One element in this volume is IX 19, "The Shepherd and His Flock." A curiosity is that the header for this page erroneously has "Book XI. Fable XIX" just as the English-only volume did (173). This last part ends rather unceremoniously by repeating twice the small illustration that had housed in French "Fin des Fables" on a theater stage's archway and "II G" on an open book among the footlights. The former of these two has been removed, though Grandville's initials remain. Those searching for exceptional illustrations may want to look at the last of the full page illustrations: "The Arbiter, the Almoner, and the Hermit" (XII 27). Who cannot love the illustration for "The Two Goats" (XII 4)?
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Citation
Publisher
Tappan and Dennet