A bilingual children's book in English and in French. - The Cricket and the Ant - The Crow and the Fox - The Frog that wanted to be as big as an Ox - The Hare and the Tortoise - The Wolf and the Lamb - Death and the Woodcutter - The Hen with the Golden eggs - The town Rat and the country Rat

A heavily illustrated reprint of a 1927 edition of La Fontaine's fables contains the original French verses and new English translations of such tales as "The Crow and the Fox" and "The Heron."

The Fables of La Fontaine by Jean de La FontaineTranslated from the French by Elizur Wright.With Notes by J. W. M. Gibbs.Complete 12 BooksThe Fables of Jean de La Fontaine were issued in several volumes from 1668 to 1694. They are classics of French literature.The first six books, collected in 1668, were in the main adapted from the classical fabulists Aesop, Babrius and Phaedrus. In these, La Fontaine adhered to the path of his predecessors with some closeness; but in the later collections he allowed himself far more liberty and in the later books there is a wider range of sources.The first edition of this translation of La Fontaine's Fables appeared in Boston, U.S., in 1841. It achieved a considerable success, and six editions were printed in three years. Since then it has been allowed to pass out of print, except in the shape of a small-type edition produced in London immediately after the first publication in Boston, and the present publishers have thought that a reprint in a readable yet popular form would be generally acceptable.

This volume in large format (8.5 x 11 inch) encompasses the 12 books of the 240 Fables (plus introductions and epilogues) written by French poet Jean de La Fontaine, first published between 1668 and 1694 and here translated into English with notes and an explanatory preface by Elizur Wright. Of course, La Fontaine's special dedications to the King of France and to some members of the French noblesse, and introductions that accompanied certain fables are here transcribed and translated in full. Each and every of the fables are illustrated with a sketch plus a vignette by famous French artist and engraver Gustave Doré. Also, 89 large plates illustrate the best known fables, including some which were not published in the original Doré's printing of 1867. So this edition reunites all at the same time the exhaustive collection of the Fables of La Fontaine and all illustrations Gustave Doré has ever drawn for it. Most of La Fontaine's fables were in the main adapted from the classical fabulists Aesop, Babrius and Phaedrus. Elizur Wright's translations of the Fables are in prose; so their reading claims a consistent knowledge of the English tongue. Notes by the translator come to explain particular words, allusions and their origins that couldn't be fully understood otherwise, as for their historical and literary contexts whenever it is necessary. We changed the preface by the author Jean de La Fontaine for Elizur Wright's, which tell us more on the true origins and meanings of the fables. The reproductions of the sketches, vignettes and large plates by Gustave Doré have been done on the basis of a selection among the best we found in several original copies, since one may notice variations in contrast from one original printing to another. After we scanned them in high resolution, we fixed the small scratches and various imperfections of printing visible on any original copies, and we reviewed their contrasts so as to restitute their depths often lost due to insufficient inking during the printing process.For the making of this book, we have been all along anxious to publish the best version of the Fables of La Fontaine illustrated by Gustave Doré.

The Fables of La FontaineJean de La FontaineCOMPLETE - 12 BOOKS IN 1Translated from the French by Elizur Wright.With Notes by J. W. M. Gibbs.The Fables of Jean de La Fontaine were issued in several volumes from 1668 to 1694. They are classics of French literature.The first edition of this translation of La Fontaine's Fables appeared in Boston, U.S., in 1841. It achieved a considerable success, and six editions were printed in three years. Since then it has been allowed to pass out of print, except in the shape of a small-type edition produced in London immediately after the first publication in Boston, and the present publishers have thought that a reprint in a readable yet popular form would be generally acceptable.The translator has remarked, in the "Advertisement" to his original edition (which follows these pages), on the singular neglect of La Fontaine by English translators up to the time of his own work. Forty years have elapsed since those remarks were penned, yet translations into English of the complete Fables of the chief among modern fabulists are almost as few in number as they were then. Mr. George Ticknor (the author of the "History of Spanish Literature," &c.), in praising Mr. Wright's translation when it first appeared, said La Fontaine's was "a book till now untranslated;" and since Mr. Wright so happily accomplished his self-imposed task, there has been but one other complete translation, viz., that of the late Mr. Walter Thornbury. This latter, however, seems to have been undertaken chiefly with a view to supplying the necessary accompaniment to the English issue of M. Dor�'s well-known designs for the Fables (first published as illustrations to a Paris edition), and existing as it does only in the large quarto form given to those illustrations, it cannot make any claim to be a handy-volume edition. Mr. Wright's translation, however, still holds its place as the best English version, and the present reprint, besides having undergone careful revision, embodies the corrections (but not the expurgations) of the sixth edition, which differed from those preceding it. The notes too, have, for the most part, been added by the reviser.