Fables de La Fontaine

Abstract

I already have a copy of this 1929 printing of Lorioux's great work, formerly owned by the Newark Free Public Library, from Hoboken Books in 1998, and in fact I paid then one cent more than I just paid for this edition! I find the two copies identical except that the Newark copy has a library cover and binding, while this copy has the typical canvas binding and the lively picture on its cover of wig-wearing La Fontaine reading from a large volume with two children perched on his arms. This canvas-bound copy lacks the usual pre-title-page and the title-page; that is, it starts promptly with the title-page for GA (1). Pages 25-26 and 31-32 are lacking. For endpapers, it uses the FC design regular in other editions, as the Newark library-bound copy does not. As I wrote there, I find the Lorioux illustrations glorious! I have loved this work for a long time, first through Whitman's Fontaine's Fables (1934) and then through Hachette's reprint in 1992. Some of the best illustrations in a book full of beautiful work: the ant at work in a scene that is used recently for the cover of a French pocketbook La Fontaine (10), the face of the cheese-mouthing crow in a rich variety of hues (14), and several title-pages, including TMCM (25), WL (37), and The Heron (61).