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190th out of 8,123 books
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38,192 voters
Aesop's Fables (Oxford World's Classics)
by
Aesop,
Laura Gibbs
The fables of Aesop have become one of the most enduring traditions of European culture, ever since they were first written down nearly two millennia ago. Aesop was reputedly a tongue-tied slave who miraculously received the power of speech; from his legendary storytelling came the collections of prose and verse fables scattered throughout Greek and Roman literature. First...more
Paperback, 306 pages
Published
April 1st 2003
by Oxford University Press
(first published -560)
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I was looking for a Christmas present for my nephew the other day when I noticed an edition of Aesop's Fables in Blackwells. I had a copy myself when I was a kid, and it was one of my favourite books. I can't guess how many times I read it.
Thinking about it now, it surprises me to realise how fresh and up-to-date it still feels. Most of the stuff from that period is starting to slip away; most people don't read the Bible any more, or Homer, or Euripides, or Seneca. Obviously, they're still ackno...more
Thinking about it now, it surprises me to realise how fresh and up-to-date it still feels. Most of the stuff from that period is starting to slip away; most people don't read the Bible any more, or Homer, or Euripides, or Seneca. Obviously, they're still ackno...more
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قرأت طبعة مكتبة (مصر) التي ترجمها د. مصطفى السقا وسعيد جودة السحار عن ترجمة (تاونْسِنْد) الإنجليزية. اشتريت الكتاب جديدا من معرض الكتاب بالقاهرة - في عام 2010 - بمئة وستين قرشا بعد الخصم! ووجدت فيه أكثر من ثلاثمائة حكاية كان معظمها فائق الإمتاع والعمق، بلا تكلف. والكتاب مزين برسوم رشيقة بليغة. الخلاصة أنني سأدعو للقائمين على مكتبة (مصر) حتى تُمحى آخر حكاية من حكايات إيسوب - حكيم اليونان - من ذاكرتي، ولست أظنه ممكنا!
أحمد الديب
مايو 2010
أحمد الديب
مايو 2010
I am writing this and the only thing that's resonating in my mind is 'the last thing this book needs is another review'
I am still writing this because I suppose I owe this anyone who have not read this book yet. All of us have read,seen or heard of many of these fables at different points in our life.
Here are some stories that have been read for so long a time and adapted to so many forms that they border on being cliched.
Many of these are being immortalized by addition to modern english in fo...more
I am still writing this because I suppose I owe this anyone who have not read this book yet. All of us have read,seen or heard of many of these fables at different points in our life.
Here are some stories that have been read for so long a time and adapted to so many forms that they border on being cliched.
Many of these are being immortalized by addition to modern english in fo...more
I am a student of fairy tales. I have multiple editions of Grimms'. I have read everything ever written by Hans Christian Anderson. I had never read Aesop's Fables, though, understanding them from a young age to be folksy and devoid of conflict. But I have tasted regret often lately for my precocious judgements, so when this collection of several hundred tales caught my eye, I decided to give them a try. I'm so very glad I did, for each of these fables is a revelation. In their simplicity, these...more
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A fascinating read. Like most people, I have read a few of these fables, and heard a few more. They are quick and fun to read, and any one of them could spark a fascinating discussion.
For example--the King of the Frogs: The frogs ask for a king, and are given a piece of wood. After a time, they complain that the wood does nothing, and are given a crocodile instead, who eats them. The moral: better a do-nothing ruler than an evil tyrant.
Does this lesson still apply today? Has our complex system o...more
For example--the King of the Frogs: The frogs ask for a king, and are given a piece of wood. After a time, they complain that the wood does nothing, and are given a crocodile instead, who eats them. The moral: better a do-nothing ruler than an evil tyrant.
Does this lesson still apply today? Has our complex system o...more
A delightful quick read, but repetitive at times--
This collection of Aesop's fables contains 600 fables, including the classic fables known universally like the boy who cried wolf, the north wind and the sun, the tortoise and the hare, and the ant and the cricket. Never for once was I bored plowing through all 600 fables in 2.5 days, although there were a number of repetitive fables that could have been better consigned to an appendix section or something.
Though simple, short, and overtly corny,...more
This collection of Aesop's fables contains 600 fables, including the classic fables known universally like the boy who cried wolf, the north wind and the sun, the tortoise and the hare, and the ant and the cricket. Never for once was I bored plowing through all 600 fables in 2.5 days, although there were a number of repetitive fables that could have been better consigned to an appendix section or something.
Though simple, short, and overtly corny,...more
3 1/2 - The fables varied in quality, and all pretty much blended together after a while. This one stood out:
Demandes and His Fable
Demades the orator was once speaking in the Assembly at Athens; but the people were very inattentive to what he was saying, so he stopped and said, "Gentlemen, I should like to tell you one of Aesop's fables." This made everyone listen intently. Then Demades began: "Demeter, a Swallow, and an Eel were once traveling together, and came to a river without a bridge: the...more
Demandes and His Fable
Demades the orator was once speaking in the Assembly at Athens; but the people were very inattentive to what he was saying, so he stopped and said, "Gentlemen, I should like to tell you one of Aesop's fables." This made everyone listen intently. Then Demades began: "Demeter, a Swallow, and an Eel were once traveling together, and came to a river without a bridge: the...more
Read this book and remember all the life lessons you learned as a little kid and should remember as an adult:
Hard work pays off (Farmer and his Sons); don’t lie (Boy and the Wolf); there is a time for work and a time for play (Ant and Grasshopper); some people can’t change (Wolf and the Shepherd); ability is not judged by size (Mouse and the Lion); greed is bad (Goose that Laid the Golden Egg); careful the company you keep (Farmer and the Stork); things get less scary with time (Fox and the Lion...more
Hard work pays off (Farmer and his Sons); don’t lie (Boy and the Wolf); there is a time for work and a time for play (Ant and Grasshopper); some people can’t change (Wolf and the Shepherd); ability is not judged by size (Mouse and the Lion); greed is bad (Goose that Laid the Golden Egg); careful the company you keep (Farmer and the Stork); things get less scary with time (Fox and the Lion...more
Aesop's fables are still around today because of their message, not the storytelling quality. They translate well into the digital age not least as a tool in powerpoint presentations to distract people from the dubiousness of your research, and in backing up tenuous arguments on internet forums.
Aesop's comfort with doling out seemingly contradictory morals from story to story never fails to reassure me, befitting the messy world we live in. There are several handy resources available which compl...more
Aesop's comfort with doling out seemingly contradictory morals from story to story never fails to reassure me, befitting the messy world we live in. There are several handy resources available which compl...more
If you know what a fable is, then you know that it most likely includes animals or other things with human qualities that are put in situations that demonstrate a moral lesson. This is the entirety of The Fables of Aesop, and I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed. While it seems like reading one moral story after another would get boring, it really wasn't. In fact, some of the fables were very interesting and familiar, such as "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "The Lion and the Mouse".
The...more
The...more
I'd heard a lot of Aesop's fables, here and there, but I'd never read them all. There are a lot, it turns out, and most are fewer than 100 words long.
They all have similar elements, but these elements aren't there in all of them. Sometimes animals stand in for human traits (like the fox almost always represents cleverness, the lion danger and strength, the wolf is sneaky and scary, the crow a big dope, the monkey cute and clever), but some of the stories have only human characters. The stories d...more
They all have similar elements, but these elements aren't there in all of them. Sometimes animals stand in for human traits (like the fox almost always represents cleverness, the lion danger and strength, the wolf is sneaky and scary, the crow a big dope, the monkey cute and clever), but some of the stories have only human characters. The stories d...more
ISBN 0590438808 - Aesop's fables really do deserve the "Classics" title - these stories have been around for so long and still remain accurate, educational and informative. Perhaps this is due to the use of animals, whose behaviors don't hinge upon technology, rather than people.
Short stories, each highlighting a lesson, which is printed in italics (in case you might miss it otherwise!). Adults might be surprised to find some lessons attributed to Aesop - things you've heard all your life and ne...more
Short stories, each highlighting a lesson, which is printed in italics (in case you might miss it otherwise!). Adults might be surprised to find some lessons attributed to Aesop - things you've heard all your life and ne...more
Okay, so not a novel in the traditional sense, but actually a collection of these fables. The first time I consciously read some of these fables was during my first year of teaching. A practice standardized test used the fables as reading passages with multiple choice questions to answer. Since then, I had always thought that they would be great to use in a middle school classroom. Not only do you read the fables, but you also have to read into them. The lesson isn’t always explicitly stated (th...more
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 mo...more
These are immortal tales and will remain so for eons to come. The mo...more
- I'm sure everyone has heard an Aesop tale or two. They are so common, yet not a lot of people know it is an Aesop fable.
- Some of my favorites are: The Peacock and the Crane, Mercury and the Woodman, The Ass The Fox and The Lion, The Crow and The Pitcher, The North Wind and The Sun, The Bear and the Travelers, The Bee and Jupiter, Father and Sons, The Two Bags, The Blacksmith and His Dog, The Farmer and The Fox, The Farmer and The Viper, The Lion and The Hare, The Crow and The Raven, and The M...more
- Some of my favorites are: The Peacock and the Crane, Mercury and the Woodman, The Ass The Fox and The Lion, The Crow and The Pitcher, The North Wind and The Sun, The Bear and the Travelers, The Bee and Jupiter, Father and Sons, The Two Bags, The Blacksmith and His Dog, The Farmer and The Fox, The Farmer and The Viper, The Lion and The Hare, The Crow and The Raven, and The M...more
Remember the beginning of The Alchemist? The retelling of the legend of Narcissus at the lake? Only the alchemist deviates from the original story in order to give us an unexpected amplification of the morale: the lake mourns the god's passing because it can no longer view its own beauty. That, my friend, is a fable. In comparison with Aesop's highly simplistic and mostly uninspired yarns, I'm ready to return to Coelho.
I won't be too hard on this collection of stories, because Aesop does have so...more
I won't be too hard on this collection of stories, because Aesop does have so...more
This was my first read through of Aesop's Fables in its entirety. Obviously I have encountered many of these fables before individually but was somewhat surprised by how dark they are. Aesop as a freedman was brilliant at seeing into the psyche of humankind. The Fables have held up well over the last 2500 years. I found it odd that the translator used the names of the Roman gods as opposed to the original greek gods.
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I like the fables, though in the end they become a bit repetitive, and the good thing about this edition is that they're presented as short stories, not rhymes. But which idiot wrote that introduction? It rambles on about how fables are better than other kinds of stories because they're about animals, not people, but plenty of these fables are about people or have people in them! And why are there taglines behind some of the stories? If, like the introduction suggests, they show which popular sa...more
![Tori [Book Faery]](http://d.gr-assets.com/users/1301449340p2/3322973.jpg)
I was not required to read all of the fables for my class, but the ones I did delve into were quick and painless. Although most of these are less than a paragraph, I think it is important to note that simply scanning the text will not allow you to fully appreciate the messages each one conveys. You have to read between the lines to realize the political commentary Aesop was making.
Also, for those stating in your reviews that the morals contradict the actual fable: that was not a mistake. The wri...more
Also, for those stating in your reviews that the morals contradict the actual fable: that was not a mistake. The wri...more
The translation that I read (by S.A. Handford) was sadly not a great one. I remember many of Aesop's fables from my growing up years and I really enjoyed them. But this translation was done very poorly. I think part of my problem with the fables was the shortness of each tale. Almost all of them took up only one small page, and many of them were no bigger than a single paragraph. I read many that I was familiar with from my younger years, and they were missing all of the details that had made th...more
Schopenhauer once joked that a child of the Enlightenment would scoff at Aesop and say, "How irrational." What Schopenhauer missed in saying this is what a social advance, something he thought was impossible, such a reaction would really be. Nothing, as we know now, serves power quite like the de-humanization of those around you, but Schopenhauer, who was anti-human to the degree that he was anti-rational (he said, "life must be a mistake"), naturally found comfort in the reading of such stories...more
Aesop's Fables are on the list of the 1001 Must Reads because a number of the fables, such as the Tortoise and Hare and The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, were familiar to the ancient world, and have lived into modern times, and inspire stories in modern literature. The reviewer in the Boxall book claims that without the fables, there would be no "The Romance of Reynard the Fox", no Kafka's "Metamorphosis", no Kiplings "Just So Stories" and no Orwell's "1984" (although I actually wonder if the review...more
Aesop’s Fables
By Aesop
269pp. New York, NY
Barnes & Nobles Classics $5.95
ISBN: 1-59308-062-X
Remember the tale of “The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs” or “The Fox and the Crow?” Aesop’s Fables is a collection of Ancient Greek stories put together by Aesop, a Greek slave who was also a storyteller. Most of these fables would be familiar, in that they were retold over and over in different forms. Aesop uses animals and gods to create fables which are both humorous and insightful. Each int...more
By Aesop
269pp. New York, NY
Barnes & Nobles Classics $5.95
ISBN: 1-59308-062-X
Remember the tale of “The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs” or “The Fox and the Crow?” Aesop’s Fables is a collection of Ancient Greek stories put together by Aesop, a Greek slave who was also a storyteller. Most of these fables would be familiar, in that they were retold over and over in different forms. Aesop uses animals and gods to create fables which are both humorous and insightful. Each int...more
There were so many fables in this collection than I thought ever existed credited to Aesop. I was expecting two dozen at the most, and the actual count far exceeded that. I was also expecting the moral to be stated at the end of each fable, but that happened maybe once out of every five or so fables. In the rest of the fables, the moral of each story is merely implied.
I recognized many of the fables, some of which I never even knew were Aesop's — which is a credit to how prevalent his stories tr...more
I recognized many of the fables, some of which I never even knew were Aesop's — which is a credit to how prevalent his stories tr...more
This is a book I probably would have NEVER read had it not been for the obsession I have with Abraham Lincoln and that period. In one of the books I read about Lincoln, it said he would read this to his kids. I enjoy "reading-what-they-read". It gives me perspective into their lives.
Aesop's Fables is an assortment of fables authored by a slave and who lived in Ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. Mostly of the fables involve animals which attempts to inculcate some moral value in the reader. T...more
Aesop's Fables is an assortment of fables authored by a slave and who lived in Ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. Mostly of the fables involve animals which attempts to inculcate some moral value in the reader. T...more
Some books remind me that English is not my native language, that there are plenty of words that i don't know , that there is still so much i cannot understand, this book was definitely one of them.
It's usual for me to use a dictionary, or a translator , whenever i read English books, but at some extent , it just gets boring, and i become incapable of remembering half of the words and i start forgetting the meaning of half the others as soon as i close the book , or the computer on my case.
The t...more
It's usual for me to use a dictionary, or a translator , whenever i read English books, but at some extent , it just gets boring, and i become incapable of remembering half of the words and i start forgetting the meaning of half the others as soon as i close the book , or the computer on my case.
The t...more
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At school, there was a story that stuck in my head from being told at an assembly when I was young. I have no idea why this one in particular stayed with me, but I always wondered where it came from. Now I know - it was one of Aesop's fables.
This is a real treasure trove for anyone wanting short stories to tell to youngsters to encourage them to prize their friends, the good things they have in their life and the virtue of patience. There are other stories which have more to do with accepting yo...more
This is a real treasure trove for anyone wanting short stories to tell to youngsters to encourage them to prize their friends, the good things they have in their life and the virtue of patience. There are other stories which have more to do with accepting yo...more
I first read this when i was 6.
it was my first book that wasn't exactly a childreans book.
having read it numerous amount of times since then. i have found that each time i read the stories, i have interpreted the stories differently each time.
Take the tortise and the hare for example (the most famous of aesops fables).
age 6 - Poor fluffy rabbit lost :o( i'm glad the tortise won.
age 12 - why does everyone pick on the poor tortise? big bully for the hare.
age 20 - ah Slow and steady wins the race.....more
it was my first book that wasn't exactly a childreans book.
having read it numerous amount of times since then. i have found that each time i read the stories, i have interpreted the stories differently each time.
Take the tortise and the hare for example (the most famous of aesops fables).
age 6 - Poor fluffy rabbit lost :o( i'm glad the tortise won.
age 12 - why does everyone pick on the poor tortise? big bully for the hare.
age 20 - ah Slow and steady wins the race.....more
Baru selesai baca buku ini beberapa hari yang lalu di tengah-tengah kesibukan produksi film terbaru..
Kebetulan saya dapet yang saduran/terjemahan Andrew Bailey dan bukunya pun tipis banget. Saya nggak tahu tebal sebenarnya karya Aesop. Tapi buku yang saya dapat juga sebenarnya sudah lumayan asyik dibaca.
Sebenarnya, buku ini berisi kumpulan hikayat, anekdot-anekdot ringan dan fabel yang sudah jamak kita temui. Kisah kura-kura yang mengalahkan kelinci pemalas dalam lomba lari, kisah gagak yang keh...more
Kebetulan saya dapet yang saduran/terjemahan Andrew Bailey dan bukunya pun tipis banget. Saya nggak tahu tebal sebenarnya karya Aesop. Tapi buku yang saya dapat juga sebenarnya sudah lumayan asyik dibaca.
Sebenarnya, buku ini berisi kumpulan hikayat, anekdot-anekdot ringan dan fabel yang sudah jamak kita temui. Kisah kura-kura yang mengalahkan kelinci pemalas dalam lomba lari, kisah gagak yang keh...more
This little collection, bringing together the complete collection of fables has sat in the bathroom for most of the last year. Short and sweet, they're quite different to the moralistic, sugary Victorian tainted fables I grew up with as a child (I've never heard of 'The Camel who shat in the river' before, for example).
The intro from Robert Temple sets the historical scene, detailing the little we know of Aesop and the development of the fables, merging with those of other storytellers and tale...more
The intro from Robert Temple sets the historical scene, detailing the little we know of Aesop and the development of the fables, merging with those of other storytellers and tale...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morality and Techicality | 4 | 27 | Jan 29, 2013 07:27am |
Aesop (also spelled Æsop), known only for the genre of fables ascribed to him, was by tradition a slave (δούλος) who was a contemporary of Croesus and Peisistratus in the mid-sixth century BC in ancient Greece. The various collections that go under the rubric "Aesop's Fables" are still taught as moral lessons and used as subjects for various entertainments, especially children's plays and cartoons...more
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“A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy. Let a man be one thing or the other, and we then know how to meet him.”
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“The injury we do and the one we suffer are not weighed in the same scales.”
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