[[Contents]]

THE
LIFE AND LOVE
OF THE INSECT

BY
J. HENRI FABRE
TRANSLATED BY
ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS

LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1911

[[v]]

[[Contents]]

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

The author of these essays was born at Sérignan, in Provence, in the year 1823, and was long in coming to his own. His birthday, indeed, is now celebrated annually (Henri Fabre is still alive) at both Sérignan and Orange; but, as Maurice Maeterlinck, writing of this “Insect’s Homer … whose brow should be girt with a double and radiant crown,” says:

“Fame is often forgetful, negligent, behindhand or unjust; and the crowd is almost ignorant of the name of J. H. Fabre, who is one of the most profound and inventive scholars and also one of the purest writers and, I was going to add, one of the finest poets of the century that is just past.”