FABLES.

Lausanne [Switzerland]: La Guilde du Livre, [1962]., [1962].. Good. INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY JEAN ANOUILH - Octavo, pictorial maroon cloth titled in gilt with an image of 2 birds stamped in blind on the front cover. The bottom corner of the front cover is slightly creased & there is a small stain to the rear cover. 145 & [3] pages plus colophon. There is creasing to the bottom corners of pages 65-100 with increasingly light creasing to some additional pages. Good. <p>Hors commerce edition of this book of verse fables printed for members of La Guilde du Livre, a reprint of the 1962 edition published by La Table Ronde.<p>Inscribed in French and signed in full by the playwright on the half-title: "Pour Honoria avec l'affection d'un homme comble de boite de the et de dessins de maitre / Jean Anouilh / Noel 66". Perhaps the box of tea and the drawings of a master were a Christmas gift from Honoria to the playwright.<p>Jean Anouilh [1910-1987] was a French playwright whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, he is best known for his 1943 adaptation of Sophocles' "Antigone". The play was seen as an attack on Marshal Petain's Vichy government. Anouilh was one of France's most prolific writers in the postwar period. Much of his work addresses themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise.<p>Costume designer Honoria Plesch [1919-1990] was born in Berlin. In 1933, together with her brother Peter and her family, she left Germany and emigrated to England. Her most important professional assignment was as costume designer for the 1947 film "Brighton Rock" starring Richard Attenborough. Plesch was apparently Anouilh's neighbor for a time in Switzerland.<p>The text is in French.