ILLUSTRATED FRENCH MORALITY TALES

(Berquin, Arnaud)

The Looking-Glass For The Mind; Or, Intellectual Mirror. Being An Elegant Collection Of The Most Delightful Little Stories, And Interesting Tales, Chiefly translated [by W. D. Cooper] from that much admired Work, L' Ami Des Enfans. A New Edition, Ornamented With Cuts.

Providence: Carter and Wilkinson, 1794. (Bewick, John). 12mo. 160 x 100 mm., (6 1/4 x 4 inches). [8], 252 pp. Illustrated with 37 cuts by John Bewick. First American Edition. Contemporary calf binding with red leather spine label. Leather rubbed. Pages toned with some worming to margins. Binding sound. Hamilton calls for an engraved frontispiece by S. Hill of Boston that is not present in this copy.

These morality stories for children by the French author and poet Arnaud Berquin (1747-1791) originally appeared in monthly installments in a magazine called L' Ami Des Enfans. The tales were so popular they were collected and published together in French and English.

Berquin's work is notable for its realism and lack of fantasy – no castles or supernatural powers are found within these pages. He wrote with the "conviction that children should be addressed directly, in language they could readily understand." [Lathey]

Hamilton, 152; Gillian Lathey, The Role of Translators in Children’s Literature: Invisible Storytellers, New York: Routledge, 2010 -- online. Item #441

Price: $750.00