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I listened to these as an audiobook. I've taught or translated many of the fables before and I admit I found it a bit repetitive listening to them all at once like this. They were only a three star read for me. It felt a bit like I imagine reading the Bible as literature would: it’s helpful to be aware of these stories because they come up again and again in other stories, but by themselves they aren’t terribly entertaining. Though I’m sure I enjoyed them more as a child.

Rating: 3.75
Read 12/2/2017
short little proverbs usually using animals to tell a morality stories. Some of these proverbs are often spoken but wonder how many know whence they come? Remind me of the Proverbs from the Bible.

3 stars

I read most of these as a child and believe I would have rated them much higher at that time, as they are sweet, charming, and full of lovely lessons on life. But as a 56 yo woman they felt dated and too childlike.

I've read or heard many of these over the years, but it was interesting to me to see all of them together and realize how many I don't think I've ever read before. The ones I recognized were all about animal characters, and I did not realize there were so many with human characters or even gods. Overall, I found them an interesting perspective on the moral stories of the time in which they were recorded but not especially enjoyable. Too many of them seemed to emphasize that you are just stuck with the lot in life which you are given. It is not possible to change your place in the world.

*Read for October 2020 TBR Takedown

I have never read a version of this as a child, and I thought I would hate it, to be honest. Wrong. I was amazed by how many fables I knew from other contexts and just how entertaining they were.

Best read a few at a time rather than trying to read them like a novel. This book should never have been removed from the 1001 books list.

5 stars.

I found it startling how many of these stories have become part of our European-based culture - in fact, beyond Europe, any culture that was influenced by the Greek and Roman empires. There are a lot of lions in the stories, so some of them may have come from Africa. I've often noticed that people from other countries have the same proverbs as we do, in slightly different words - and a lot of them turn out to come from Aesop's fables. 'Don't count your chickens before they're hatched', 'He who laughs last laughs longest', and many more.

I recognised some of the stories from a book I had as a child, but others I hadn't seen before. Enjoyable, easy to read, and some of the oldest stories that we have.

*** 1/2

Being more familiar with de la Fontaine's version of the Fables from my childhood, I was curious to see how they compared with the original source. Some stories were familiar, even though they were told slightly differently (e.g. The Ant and the Cicada, The Fox and the Crow); but I discovered a whole lot more, including the origin of some common expressions (e.g. "sour grapes" from The Fox and the Bunch of Grapes). The Penguin edition translated by Robert Temple contains several notes about the dubious origins of some Fables (as well as their authorship), the historical and context necessary for their understanding as well as some of the difficulties in translating these stories from ancient Greek into modern English. A necessary read, with some repetitions.