First Edition. Illustrated in vibrant colour throughout, Large 4to, publisher's navy-blue cloth over pictorially illustrated boards in colours. 58 pp. A very good copy externally, some old evidence of damp to the lower right corner of the pages not affecting the colourplates or the text, a few closed tears here and there, otherwise clean and bright throughout. FIRST EDITION. La Fontaine was famously known as one of the important literary group of the Rue du Vieux Colombier which included Racine, Boileau and Moliere. By the 1680s, he was known as one of the first men of letters in France. The FABLES were especially praised by well-known critics and it were well received by the general public. Many of the fables were in the main adapted from the classical fabulists Aesop, Babrius and Phaedrus.