£85
8vo, pp. 368. Black and white illustrations within pagination. Original blue cloth, front board and spine elaborately blocked in gilt and black, rear board blocked in blind, all edges gilt. Some spotting. Binding rubbed to extremities, spine dulled, ends bumped, front hinge cracked. Printed prize bookplate awarded to a Miss Lizzie McMillan in 1883.
The first English translation of the second collaborative work between Jules Michelet (1798-1874) and his second wife, Athénaïs Michelet (1826-1899), who is credited with inspiring and encouraging her husband's interest in natural history. Though only his name is printed, in their first collaborative work 'The Bird' Michelet acknowledges his wife's integral role: 'The book which I now publish may be described as the offspring of the domestic circle and the home fireside... of the two souls to which it owes its existence, one was the more powerfully attracted to natural studies by the fact that, in a certain sense, it had been born among them, and had ever preserved their fragrance and sweet savour.'
