The Masterpieces of La Fontaine

Abstract

The title continues Done in a vein of phrasing terse /and fancy into English verse. Sixty fables. Thirty-one of them had appeared earlier and received a warm reception. Fine title-pieces and often humorous end-pieces; note the fox and wolf sitting facing each other in their buckets on 12, the rabbit with a turtle-house on his back on 26, and the lion and man, both artists, dueling each other on 57. Again, a cat rests by a bird cage with a To Let sign on it after The Cat and the two Sparrows (72). Van Quiller Allan (Allon?) has three full-page illustrations on 58, 82, and 128. Hodgson has full-page illustrations on 13, 17, 30, 38, 50, 70, 86, 94, 98, 106, 110, 116, and 150. The versions, chatty and engaging, appear to me to be both witty and faithful to La Fontaine. I want to look back at them during our fable course next semester. The title-page (like the cover) claims the book for Blackwell but the page before the title-page has Longmans, Green & Co. on it. Might the latter be the American distributor? 1916 also appears on the back of the book.