The Complete Fables (Penguin Classics) (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
Throughout your childhood you would have heard the variants of these tales which give you those little nuggets of wisdom. The morals of these tales are what other authors try to explain through books that may be as big as 600 plus pages ! Aesop needs a few sentences to make some of the most profound observations on human nature. His characters are varied between almost every known man,beast,bird, tree & god of the Greek era.These are immortal tales and will remain so for eons to come. The moment someone says sour grapes , the images spring unbidden to our mind. There are many such tales which have fed the fuel for other story tellers of our time. I have no doubt that they will inspire a lot of future writers as well. There are very interesting questions that some stories pose : Did the Indians borrow some tales of the Pancatantra from the Greeks ? Did this happen after the invasion of Alexander ? No much satisfactory answers are given but there is many a tale which I have heard in may native tongue that I now realise are thinly guised versions of Aesop.Brevity is a blessing for I can copy some of the best fables on to this space : A fox, having crept into an actor's house, rummaged through his wardrobe and found , among other things, a large, beautifully fashioned mask of a monster. He held it in his paws and exclaimed : 'Ah ! What a head ! But it hasn't got a brain ! ' The moral of one other story was too brilliant to let pass by. It goes like this : It is thus that the little things reveal the big things, and that the things which are visible reveal those which are hidden. An excellent collection and quite a useful set of notes by the translator Robert Temple as well.
It's hard to say I "really liked" a book of such simplicity and sometimes outdated views on life, but I did quite enjoy it. I enjoy anyone like Aesop and other authors who may have actually written these tales and are talented with word play. It was also like being told a quick fairy tale before bedtime. It's true that some of the moral and ethical points made by the tall tales were not always applicable to life today it was still interesting and enjoyable to imagine life, daily, political, etc, as it was so long ago. Where the point of the story would obviously not makes sense to modern readers Olivia and Robert Temple added historical notes as explanation. I particularly enjoyed reading about the Greek translations where words had been misinterpreted in previous translations or where a word had many meanings or off-shoots that could change the whole story. Not all these tales are appropriate for young children and some were definitely better than others, but I did enjoy ending my day with a parable while they lasted. Next I'm excited to move on to some Celtic Tales tales and lore I found at Powell's.
What do You think about The Complete Fables (Penguin Classics) (1998)?
From a historical point, these are wonderful little nuggets. But either, in this edition, the translation is a bit rough or my sensibilities prefer a slightly more fleshed out tale (rather than a few sentences). The editors should also switch to using “BCE” and “CE”, and *never* mention any singular “god”, let alone one with a capitol letter; these tales PRE-DATED this invention. There is even an editor’s note with one of the fables seemingly apologising that the tale did not originate in the bible and, like, we’re sorry to prove that. Absurd.
—j_ay
Finally Finished All of the fables I think. I could not find the edition I have just read. But, I guess they are all the same. The one I read contained 405 stories and the last one was the hare and tortoise. I liked that set-up.I have started reading aesop's fables long ago, never truly read all of them. Now I have. Even if I have to go back again read it again to truly remember each story this was a huge feet for me. I remember las year on this day october 18th I really started investing my time read most of the stories and memorizing it, I'm happy that this is same day that I have finally finished all of the fables.Some of the fables morals I believe still holds some value, and some not so much. Again this was a great read I will probably come back to it again and again. There was one story I like 99th story about the fox and the old lady, for some reason I just liked it. :)
—Anand
Not gonna lie, I didn't read all 358 fables in the Penguin edition but I did dip in and out of this book throughout the month as part of a series of discussions that my literary book club were holding. Some of the fables are fascinating and give a unique insight into how superstitious the ancient Greeks were, but others were very silly or made absolutely no sense to me. It was interesting to see where so many stories like the infamous tale of The Tortoise and The Hare originated from as they are still so ingrained into many childhoods today.
—Evelyn
