Comments on: A classic work of entomology, available online in French and English

By: KBert

KBert — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 02:15:00 +0000

I was blessed to grow up with a copy of Fabre’s ‘Book of Insects’ in the house. Discovered it about age 10, he became a hero / role model for life.
Patient ongoing observation yields delicate understanding…

By: Snig

Snig — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 01:30:00 +0000

When Brood X was out in 2004, my not so beloved former boss was totally wigged out by them. I had a succession of cicadas as my screensaver to make him twitch a little more.

By: Jim Balhoff

Jim Balhoff — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:32:00 +0000

You can read this and many other classic taxonomic works at the Biodiversity Heritage Library: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/16283 and http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/71078

All downloadable with very high-quality scans. Their Flickr feed makes a great screensaver, too.

By: John Coulthart

John Coulthart — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:11:00 +0000

Yes, in that book the colour plates are all “tipped in”. Used to be a common process, especially in the more lavish illustrated books.

The Internet Archive also has Detmold’s editions of The Jungle Book and the Fables of Aesop which are well worth a look.

By: Robert Holmén

Robert Holmén — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:30:00 +0000

Lovely! I’m disappointed there were not more illustrations.

i suppose those had to be printed in a separate process, cut up and then manually pasted into the main book?

By: John Coulthart

John Coulthart — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:09:00 +0000

Great book with beautiful colour illustrations by Edward Julius Detmold. Unfortunately Google’s book scans are disgracefully bad, with colour pictures often reduced to low-res greys or omitted altogether. The Microsoft scan of Fabre’s book at the Internet Archive is a lot better:

http://archive.org/details/fabresbookofinse00fabr