AESOP; Sir Roger L’ESTRANGE ( translator ). The Fables of Aesop.

£875 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

AESOP; Sir Roger L’ESTRANGE ( translator ). The Fables of Aesop. Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire: The Golden Cockerel Press . 1926. Large 8vo. Cream-backed brown publisher’s boards lettered in gilt to spine, in typographic dust-jacket; with 11 wood engravings by Celia M. Fiennes; pp. [8], iii-v, [1], 94, [6]; almost entirely uncut, spine tips lightly bumped, previous bookseller sticker “Paul Elder Co, San Francisco” to rear paste-down, bookplate of Alma Ruth Lavenson to the front paste-down (see below); a near-fine copy; the jacket is lightly spotted, browned along spine and to folds, chipped to extremities with some closed tears along spine; good but seldom found. Limited edition, number 268 of 350 copies, of L’Estrange’s translation of the Fables , rare in dust-jacket. L’Estrange first published his version of the fables in 1692, and it is now regarded as one of the most popular English translations. Commissioned by a group of booksellers, his edition appeared two years after Locke had recommended Aesop as an ideal first reading book for children. As Muir notes, it was “the best and largest collection of fables in English, and he had children especially in mind when making his compilation”. L’Estrange’s Aesop is, in fact, “an assemblage of fables and facetiae from a variety of sources, ancient and modern, the second volume being wholly un-Aesopian. The trenchant reflections added to the individual fables possess a strong political animus and were to draw severe criticism

• Binding: Hardcover

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