This fabulous book is titled The Fables of La Fontaine, Translated into English Verse by Walter Thornbury, With Illustrations by Gustave Dore, and published by Cassell in New York, London and Paris @ 1887. 

Jean de La Fontaine (1621 - 1695) was a French fabulist - teller of fables - and one of the most widely read poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists all across Europe. Gustave Dore (1832 - 1883) was a French illustrator, printmaker, caricaturist, and sculptor, and best known for his wood engravings illustrating classic literature. His work received mixed reviews from contemporary art critics,  but he was widely acclaimed by the general public. 

The Fables here has a gilt decorated spine and beautiful gilt-decorated cover, with decorated endpapers, no date, but it is inscribed “Elsis from his brother C.O.D. Christmas 1887” on a front endpaper, with a frontis portrait of Jean de La Fontaine, the title page, four pages of Contents (v - viii), a three-page List of Full-Page Illustrations (ix - xi), a twenty-page essay on the life of La Fontaine (xiii - xxxii), a chapter on the Life of Aesop, the Phrygian (xxxiii - l), a three-page dedication to the Dauphin ( li - liii), a Preface that runs from lv - lxi, 757 pages of text, 86 illustrations by Dore, and all the edges are gilt. 

The book measures 11 5/8 x  9 7/8 x 2 5/8 inches wide and is in very good condition. The binding is tight and the pages are very clean, with just hints of light soiling here and there and one small brown mark on the first Contents page, and a very attractive book for readers of fables and great art.  

Size: 11 5/8 x 9 7/8 x 2 5/8 in. 

#8707