Why read The Complete Fables?

Book cover of The Complete Fables

Book description

A slave who represented his masters in court and negotiations, Aesop relied on allegorical animal stories, collected here in The Complete Fables, to convey his key points. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the Greek by Olivia and Robert Temple with an introduction by Robert Temple.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Complete Fables as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Susan Price

Author

I don’t know how old I was when I first read some version of Aesop’s Fables.

Probably very young, as many are retold for small children, and have become proverbial. For instance, the fox who, unable to reach the bunch of grapes he wants, sulks and says, "I don’t want them anyway, they’re sour." Thereby giving us the expression, "Sour grapes."

Almost all of the stories feature animals. There’s the tale of the tortoise and the hare, where the tortoise wins the race, and the tale of the strong, fierce lion whose life is saved by a tiny mouse. These…

From Susan's list on animals and folklore.