Edited Annotated Translated Percy Bicknell (1 results)

Cloth. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Original Dustjacket. ROBERT GIBBINGS (illustrator). FIRST EDITION & FIRST PRINTING. An inimitable observer - Darwin called Fabre. Maeterlincks phrase for him was The Insects Homer. Fabres books on insects not only contain the results of much original and acute scientific research and the record of many illuminating and important discoveries, but they form a storehouse of insect romances, strange and marvelous instances of instinct and habit undreamed of by the average reader. In [Marvels of the Insect World], Mr Bicknell has translated and edited a particularly interesting group of Fabres stories. Here are absorbing stories about beetles and butterflies, honey-bees and ants, flies and mosquitoes, spiders and wasps and grasshoppers. There is a chapter on what insects are like, their birth, equipment for facing the world, how they are made. Another chapter tells of singing insects, revealing how the noise of many insects is produced by the agitation of a special membrane. There is another chapter on the fascinating subject of metamorphosis, telling of the four stages of growth through which most insects pass. - CONDITION & DESCRIPTION: Original Dustjacket - Price clipped to the top of the front prelim but with a very faded inked price of 7/6 nearby. The dustjacket had some small tears and missing edges but it has been repaired with colour like paper to the rear. Good quality thick paper dustjacket has become soiled and browned on the lighter areas but the dustjacket is in a fairly good condition overall and now housed in a removable plastic archival sleeve for future protection. - Green cloth with dark blue lettering to the front board and spine and the boards are a very good clean condition apart from minor bumping and scuffing to the front bottom corner, the other 3 corners are in a fine condition. - Browning mainly to the endpages, otherwise all the pages are in a beautiful clean condition. The striking wood-engravings of Robert Gibbings are a beautiful feature of this treasure-chest of Fabre's stories. - Book itself has 232 pages with a comprehensive index to the rear which consists of a further seven pages. This book with the original dustjacket, are very rare these days. - END - Our orders are shipped within 1 to 2 days. - Thank you for your interest.