lxiv, 839, [3] pp. Royal 4to. 12 3/4 x 10. Leather boards with gilt decorative borders, all edges gilt, yellow endpapers. Translated into English verse by Walter Thornbury, with 86 full-page engraved illustrations and numerous vignettes by Gustave Dore throughout. First published between 1668 and 1693, the Fables of La Fontaine rank among the masterpieces of French literature. This edition includes all the fables (nearly 250), as well as An Essay on the Life and Works of Jean de la Fontaine, The Life of Aesop, the Phrygian, a dedication to Monseigneur the Dauphin, a preface, and a poem addressed to Monseigneur the Dauphin.
