Aesop's Fables > Books of Fables > Series Books > Hachette Les Albums Roses

Hachette Les Albums Roses

 

1950 Le Lièvre et la Tortue par Walt Disney.  Staple-bound.  Paris: Les Albums Roses: Hachette.  €15 from a buchinist, Paris, August, '17.

This is the Disney version of TH, to be sure, minus the names of the two principals.  The hare appears like a champion athlete in a robe and cincture.  The tortoise's first picture shows his neck extended.  Snails accompany the tortoise along the route.  In this French book, the starter's box has a title "Starter."  The hare runs circles around the tortoise but then sleeps at the foot of a tree.  The racing features a roll down a hill by the tortoise and showing off biy  the hare for the rabbit girls at their "pensionnat."  The various athletic impossibilities accomplished by the hare for the girls are illustrated.  The hare is afterward as ashamed as a fox captured by a chicken.  At the end, the book quotes La Fontaine's moral: "rien ne sert de courir, il faut partir a point" even though that is not really the issue in this race!  Stiff cardbord covers and 32 thick paper pages.  6½" x 7¾".

1953 La Fontaine: Fables.  (Outside title: le Corbeau et le Renard: Fables de La Fontaine).  Imagées par Romain Simon.  Staple-bound.  Paris?: Les Albums Rosés:  Librairie de Hachette.  €2.28 from Amazon.fr, Oct., '19.

Here is, apparently, an earlier edition of a book that this collection has in a smaller edition in 1967.  That is, this book has four fables, not three.  The addition is the fable identified on the front cover: FC.  A curious fact is that the listing on the title-page follows this order:  TT, MM, FC, and "Le Renard et le Bouc."  The actual order of fables in the book is FC, MM, TT, and "Le Renard et le Bouc."  The La Fontaine text is unchanged.  As with all of Simon's work, the illustrations are simple and lively.  I can never be sure that I have found all the books included in this series!  Perhaps the cutest illustration is that of the turtle standing on two legs with suitcase and valise in her hands and a scarf around her head.  The final illustration of the abandoned goat in the well is also excellent.

1953 La Fontaine: Fables. Imagées par Romain Simon. Printed in France. Paris?: Les Albums Roses: Librairie de Hachette. 25 Francs from Brancion Sunday Used Book Market, Paris, August, '99.

Four fables are announced on the title-page of this 6.5"x8" kids' book: MSA, "Le Loup Devenu Berger," UP, and WL. They occur in just the opposite order! The La Fontaine text is unchanged. Of the simple, lively colored illustrations, the first and last may be the best. Both illustrate MSA. The former, on the title-page, shows a disgruntled father with a happy child as both sit on the beast. The latter pictures the two flanking the beast and walking arm-in-arm with it. Now all three are happy!

1953/56 La Fontaine: Fables. Imagées par Romain Simon. Canvas-bound. Paris?: Les Albums Roses: Librairie de Hachette. $4 from Luc Gauvreau, March, '03.

Here is a later printing and a better copy of a book first published in 1953. The collection, shown on the verso of the title-page, has grown in the meantime. I repeat my comments from there. Four fables are announced on the title-page of this 6.5"x8" kids' book: MSA, "Le Loup Devenu Berger," UP, and WL. They occur in just the opposite order! The La Fontaine text is unchanged. Of the simple, lively colored illustrations, the first and last may be the best. Both illustrate MSA. The former, on the title-page, shows a disgruntled father with a happy child as both sit on the beast. The latter pictures the two flanking the beast and walking arm-in-arm with it. Now all three are happy!

1954 La Fontaine: Fables (Cover: "la Cigale et la Fourmi").  Imagées par Romain Simon.  Hardbound.  Paris: Les Albums Roses: Librairie de Hachette.  $25.81 from World of Books through Ebay, Nov., '19.

Five fables are announced on the title-page of this 6.5"x 8" kids' book:  OF; FS; GA; LM; and "The Heron."  They occur in this order: GA; FS; OF; "The Heron"; and LM.  The La Fontaine text is unchanged.  I have seen Simon's GA illustrations before.  I find the facial expressions of the ant wonderfully expressive (6-7).  Similarly, the facial expressions of the fox in FS are excellent, from his sniffing the pot he has uncovered in the stork's kitchen to his looking down the long neck of the steaming serving vessel to leaving chagrined.  The ox is shocked by the frog's explosion.  The back cover illustrates WC, a fable not presented in this booklet.

1956 La Fontaine: Fables.  (Outside title: le Lièvre et la Tortue: Fables de La Fontaine).  Imagées par Romain Simon. Canvas-bound.  Paris?: Les Albums Rosés: Librairie de Hachette.  €15 from Florence de Chastenay: Livres Anciens, Paris, June, '19.

Cataloguing this little book has one reaching for a number of other books in the collection.  There were apparently four La Fontaine books in this same format in the "Les Albums Roses" collection.  We now have three, including TT (1967) and WL (both 1953 and 1956).  Each presents several La Fontaine fables.  Romain Simon seems to have been the artist for all four.  We still need to find GA.  The present book uses the same interior art work as the 1976 book by Hachette in its "Gentil Coquelicot" series, titled "Le Lièvre et la Tortue."  That larger book includes some playful questions after the stories and an unrelated song on its back cover.  In this "Album Roses" copy, three fables are announced on the title-page, though they are not presented in that order.  At his nap, the rabbit of TH has a pipe and newspaper.  He even juggles fruit along the way.  The turtle, with an umbrella, stands at the end where there is a bag of "bonbons fins."  In TMCM, the country rat is delivered in a handle-litter carried by two other rats.  There is a fine last picture showing the smiling country rat at home in wooden shoes drinking wine and eating grains and vegetables with great pleasure!  "The Cat, the Weasel, and the Little Rabbit" features lively characters.

1967 La Fontaine: Fables. (Outside title: la Tortue et les deux canards: Fables de La Fontaine). Imagées par Romain Simon. Hardbound. Printed in France. Paris?: Les Albums Roses: Librairie de Hachette. $3 from Pierre Cantin, Chelsea, QC, Canada, Nov., '00.

Three fables are announced on the title-page of this kids' book: the title story, MM, and "Le Renard et le Bouc." The first two are switched in order. The La Fontaine text is unchanged. As with all of Simon's work, the illustrations are simple and lively. By now I have collected some seven different works by this illustrator! Perhaps the cutest illustration is that of the turtle standing on two legs with suitcase and valise in her hands and a scarf around her head. The final illustration of the abandoned goat in the well is also excellent. Compare with the 1953 La Fontaine: Fables for the slightly different original form of books in the series of "Les Albums Rosés." This book once belonged to the École St-Coeur de Marie in Touraine, Quebec.

1967/72 La Fontaine: Fables.  (Outside title: le Loup et l'Agneau.  Imagées par Romain Simon.  Hardbound.  Paris: Les Albums Roses: Librairie de Hachette.  $3 from frenchchildrenbooks through Ebay, Nov., '19.

Two fables are announced on the title-page of this kids' book:  WL and MSA.  The La Fontaine text is unchanged.  As with all of Simon's work, the illustrations are simple and lively.  The book thus takes up two of the four fables presented in the 1953/56 edition in our collection.  The final picture of the wolf sleeping soundly at the base of a tree with a distended belly is appropriate to the text, I believe.  Images particularly well done in MSA include the two on 14 and 15, as the anger of onlookers is reflected in the anger of the riding miller.  The final image of all three smiling – miller, ass, and son – is also the perfect finish for La Fontaine's version of this traditional story.  I am coming close to having the full set of "Les Albums Roses."  This copy was printed in 1972 but copyrighted in 1967.

end