AESOP AESOPS FABLES(ILLUSTRATED)

Aesop’s Fables

Aesop

With an Afterword by Anna South

This timeless collection brings together three hundred of the most enduringly popular of Aesop's fables in a collection that will delight young and old readers alike. Here are all the age-old favourites – the wily fox, the vain peacock, the predatory cat and steady tortoise – just as endearingly vivid and relevant now as they were for their very first audience. While their lifespan over several millennia marks them out as one of the most enduring staples of world literature, they have also been the inspiration for countless other forms of narrative in various languages. For all their entertainment value – this is a world where even a lamp and the moon can speak, and mice taunt bulls – they have also come to be fondly regarded as a playful compendium of secular wisdom.

The Collector’s Library restores traditional visual and tactile pleasures to the joy of reading.

Each book is designed to appeal to the book-lover; in every case the type is re-set, illustrations, where appropriate, are selected from sources as close to the period of the book as possible, and the books are printed on high-quality paper, section-sewn and bound in real cloth. Each book has endpapers, a satin ribbon marker, head and tailbands and gilt edges. They represent the marriage of great literature to high aesthetic and craft standards, using the technology of the 21st century to produce something classic and at the same time unmistakeably modern.

Their handy size means that they can be slipped into the pocket, handbag or briefcase, and their robust manufacture makes them ideal travelling companions as well as comfortable bedside reads at very affordable prices.

‘I cannot imagine a more heavenly present; they are so beautifully produced and illustrated.’

Jilly Cooper, novelist

‘It is delicious to see gilt edges again. ... They are far more pocket-sized than any paperback.’

Joanna Trollope, novelist