Moncrif's Cats : Les Chats de Francois Augustin Paradis de Moncrif

London: The Golden Cockerel Press. Fine with no dust jacket. 1961. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Ostensibly about cats and their ways, this 1727 work is also a witty satire that mocks people and their ways, various strata of society, and exacting scholarship. The prose and verse are fluid with feline and human characteristics ascribed interchangeably. Contemporary criticism treated 'Les Chats' as frivolous because of its subject and it was long a target of public and artistic ridicule. Contemporaries were seemingly too busy mocking Les Chats to identify the satire buried just below the surface. The author was a thoughtful, tasteful, artistic man of his time, ultimately being admitted to Académie Française. Written as 11 Letters and 10 Poems, although the letters themselves contain some additional poems and fragments. After that are extensive Notes and an Index of Subjects, both infused with satire and essential components of the entire work. Copy 211 of a limited edition of 400. Although a signature is not required for the edition, this copy was signed by the translator "Reginald Bretnor / 2/28/91" on the limitation page, 30 years after the book was published. The majority of the work was translated by Bretnor, a noted science fiction author, who provided the Foreword. Includes 10 collotype reproductions of Charles-Antoine Coypel's illustrations for the original edition of 1727, one being a fold-out leaf of a fictional genealogy of a cat family. Set by The Chiswick Press in Gill's Perpetua type and printed on T. H. Saunders mould made paper. Tail edge of text block untrimmed. Paginated [4],187,[1] with a cancelled leaf between pages 98 and 99. Bound in red and blue cloth over boards, gilt device to front, and title and Golden Cockerel device to spine. In crisp, clean, and Fine condition. This is a witty read for anyone who *thinks* they know both cats and people, and it's enhanced by the satiric subtext.; B&W Illustrations; tall 8vo 9" - 10" tall; 187 pages; Signed by Translator .