Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...

or verse, that features

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s, legendary creatures,

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

s, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise

maxim Maxim or Maksim may refer to: Entertainment * ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine ** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition ** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition *Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...

saying A saying is any concisely written or spoken expression that is especially memorable because of its meaning or style. Sayings are categorized as follows: * Aphorism: a general, observational truth; "a pithy expression of wisdom or truth". ** Adag ...

. A fable differs from a parable in that the latter ''excludes'' animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Conversely, an animal tale specifically includes talking animals as characters. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

, "" ("''

mythos Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

''") was rendered by the

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

as "fable" in the

First Epistle to Timothy The First Epistle to Timothy is one of three letters in the New Testament of the Bible often grouped together as the pastoral epistles, along with Second Timothy and Titus. The letter, traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, consists ma ...

, the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle of Peter. A person who writes fables is a fabulist.

History

The fable is one of the most enduring forms of

folk literature Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...

, spread abroad, modern researchers agree, less by literary anthologies than by oral transmission. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country.

Aesopic or Aesop's fable

The varying corpus denoted ''Aesopica'' or ''

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to ...

'' includes most of the best-known western fables, which are attributed to the

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

ary

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales c ...

, supposed to have been a slave in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...

around 550 BCE. When

Babrius Babrius ( grc-gre, Βάβριος, ''Bábrios''; century),"Babrius" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 21. also known as Babrias () or Gabrias (), was the author of a collection of Greek fables, many of whic ...

set down fables from the ''Aesopica'' in verse for a

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

Prince "Alexander," he expressly stated at the head of Book II that this type of "myth" that Aesop had introduced to the "sons of the Hellenes" had been an invention of "Syrians" from the time of " Ninos" (personifying Nineveh to Greeks) and Belos ("ruler"). Epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables. Many familiar fables of Aesop include "

The Crow and the Pitcher ''The Crow and the Pitcher'' is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 390 in the Perry Index. It relates ancient observation of corvid behaviour that recent scientific studies have confirmed is goal-directed and indicative of causal knowledge rather th ...

", "

The Tortoise and the Hare "The Tortoise and the Hare" is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations. The fable itself is a variant of a common folktale theme in w ...

" and " The Lion and the Mouse". In ancient Greek and Roman education, the fable was the first of the '' progymnasmata''—training exercises in prose composition and public speaking—wherein students would be asked to learn fables, expand upon them, invent their own, and finally use them as persuasive examples in longer forensic or deliberative speeches. The need of instructors to teach, and students to learn, a wide range of fables as material for their declamations resulted in their being gathered together in collections, like those of Aesop.

Africa

African oral culture has a rich story-telling tradition. As they have for thousands of years, people of all ages in Africa continue to interact with nature, including plants, animals and earthly structures such as rivers, plains, and mountains. Grandparents enjoy enormous respect in African societies and fill the new role of story-telling during retirement years. Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they become animated in their quest to tell a good fable.

Joel Chandler Harris Joel Chandler Harris (December 9, 1848 – July 3, 1908) was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a planta ...

wrote African-American fables in the Southern context of slavery under the name of

Uncle Remus Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris was a journalist in post-Reconstruction era Atlanta, a ...

. His stories of the animal characters Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear are modern examples of African-American story-telling, this though should not transcend critiques and controversies as to whether or not Uncle Remus was a racist or apologist for slavery. The Disney movie '' Song of the South'' introduced many of the stories to the public and others not familiar with the role that storytelling played in the life of cultures and groups without training in speaking, reading, writing, or the cultures to which they had been relocated to from world practices of capturing Africans and other indigenous populations to provide slave labor to colonized countries.

India

India has a rich tradition of fables, many derived from traditional stories and related to local natural elements. Indian fables often teach a particular moral. In some stories the gods have animal aspects, while in others the characters are archetypal talking animals similar to those found in other cultures. Hundreds of fables were composed in

ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

during the first millennium BCE, often as stories within

frame stories A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction * Framing (c ...

. Indian fables have a mixed cast of humans and animals. The dialogues are often longer than in fables of Aesop and often comical as the animals try to outwit one another by trickery and deceit. In Indian fables, humanity is not presented as superior to the animals. Prime examples of the fable in India are the Panchatantra and the

Jataka tales The Jātakas (meaning "Birth Story", "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to India which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is ...

. These included

Vishnu Sarma Sharma (Sanskrit: विष्णुशर्मन् / विष्णुशर्मा) was an Indian scholar and author who wrote the ''Panchatantra'', a collection of fables. Works Panchatantra is one of the most widely translated non-re ...

's '' Panchatantra'', the ''

Hitopadesha ''Hitopadesha'' (Sanskrit: हितोपदेशः, IAST: ''Hitopadeśa'', "Beneficial Advice") is an Indian text in the Sanskrit language consisting of fables with both animal and human characters. It incorporates maxims, worldly wisdom and ...

'', '' Vikram and The Vampire'', and

Syntipas Syntipas ( el, Συντίπας) is the Greek form of a name also rendered Sindibad ( ar, سندباد), Sandbad ( fa, سندباد), Sendabar ( he, סנדבר), Çendubete (Spanish) and Siddhapati ( sa, सिद्धपति) in other versions ...

' ''

Seven Wise Masters The ''Seven Wise Masters'' (also called the ''Seven Sages'' or ''Seven Wise Men'') is a cycle of stories of Sanskrit, Persian or Hebrew origins. Story and plot The Sultan sends his son, the young Prince, to be educated away from the court in t ...

'', which were collections of fables that were later influential throughout the Old World. Ben E. Perry (compiler of the "

Perry Index The Perry Index is a widely used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. The index was created by Ben Edwin Perry, a professor of classics at the Un ...

" of Aesop's fables) has argued controversially that some of the Buddhist ''Jataka tales'' and some of the fables in the ''Panchatantra'' may have been influenced by similar

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and Near Eastern ones. Earlier

Indian epics Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called ''Kavya'' (or ''Kāvya''; Sanskrit: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá''). The ''Ramayana'' and the ''Mahabharata'', which were originally composed in ...

such as Vyasa's ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the s ...

'' and

Valmiki Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on the attributio ...

's ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

'' also contained fables within the main story, often as

side stories A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

back-story A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of ...

. The most famous folk stories from the Near East were the '' One Thousand and One Nights'', also known as the ''Arabian Nights''. The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian assortment of fables. The earliest recorded work, ascribed to Vishnu Sharma, dates to around 300 BCE. The tales are likely much older than the compilation, having been passed down orally prior to the book's compilation. The word “Panchatantra” is a blend of the words "pancha" (which means "five" in Sanskrit) and "tantra" (which means "weave"). It implies weaving together multiple threads of narrative and moral lessons together to form a book.

Europe

Fables had a further long tradition through the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, and became part of European high literature. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695) saw the soul of the fable in the moral — a rule of behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the court, the church, the rising bourgeoisie, indeed the entire human scene of his time. La Fontaine's model was subsequently emulated by England's John Gay (1685–1732); Poland's

Ignacy Krasicki Ignacy Błażej Franciszek Krasicki (3 February 173514 March 1801), from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia (in German, ''Ermland'') and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno (thus, Primate of Poland), was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet"Ignacy Krasic ...

(1735–1801); Italy's Lorenzo Pignotti (1739–1812) and Giovanni Gherardo de Rossi (1754–1827); Serbia's

Dositej Obradović Dositej Obradović ( sr-Cyrl, Доситеј Обрадовић; 17 February 1739 – 7 April 1811) was a Serbian writer, biographer, diarist, philosopher, pedagogue, educational reformer, linguist, polyglot and the first minister of education ...

(1739–1811); Spain's

Félix María de Samaniego Félix María Serafín Sánchez de Samaniego y Zabala (12 October 1745 – 11 August 1801) was a Spanish neoclassical fabulist. Life He was born and died in Laguardia, Álava, in the Basque Country, and was educated at Valladolid Valladoli ...

(1745–1801) and Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa (1750–1791); France's

Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (March 6, 1755 in the château of Florian, near Sauve, Gard – September 13, 1794 in Sceaux) was a French poet, novelist and fabulist. Life Florian's mother, a Spanish lady named Gilette de Salgues, died whe ...

(1755–94); and Russia's

Ivan Krylov Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (russian: Ива́н Андре́евич Крыло́в; 13 February 1769 – 21 November 1844) is Russia's best-known fabulist and probably the most epigrammatic of all Russian authors. Formerly a dramatist and journali ...

(1769–1844).

Modern era

In modern times, while the fable has been trivialized in children's books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature.

Felix Salten Felix Salten (; 6 September 1869 – 8 October 1945) was an Austro-Hungarian author and literary critic in Vienna. Life and death Salten was born Siegmund Salzmann on 6 September 1869 in Pest, Austria-Hungary. His father was Fülöp Salzmann, t ...

's ''

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...

'' (1923) is a ''

Bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...

'' — a story of a protagonist's coming-of-age — cast in the form of a fable.

James Thurber James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected ...

used the ancient fable style in his books '' Fables for Our Time'' (1940) and ''Further Fables for Our Time'' (1956), and in his stories " The Princess and the Tin Box" in ''The Beast in Me and Other Animals'' (1948) and "The Last Clock: A Fable for the Time, Such As It Is, of Man" in ''Lanterns and Lances'' (1961).

Władysław Reymont Władysław Stanisław Reymont (, born Rejment; 7 May 1867 – 5 December 1925) was a Polish novelist and the 1924 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is the award-winning four-volume novel '' Chłopi'' (''The Peasant ...

's ''The Revolt'' (1922), a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

for the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

, described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce "equality." George Orwell's ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to c ...

'' (1945) similarly satirized Stalinist Communism in particular, and

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...

in general, in the guise of animal fable. In the 21st century, the Neapolitan writer Sabatino Scia is the author of more than two hundred fables that he describes as “western protest fables.” The characters are not only animals, but also things, beings, and elements from nature. Scia's aim is the same as in the traditional fable, playing the role of revealer of human society. In Latin America, the brothers Juan and Victor Ataucuri Garcia have contributed to the resurgence of the fable. But they do so with a novel idea: use the fable as a means of dissemination of traditional literature of that place. In the boo
"Fábulas Peruanas"
, published in 2003, they have collected myths, legends, and beliefs of Andean and Amazonian Peru, to write as fables. The result has been an extraordinary work rich in regional nuances. Here we discover the relationship between man and his origin, with nature, with its history, its customs and beliefs then become norms and values.

Fabulists

File:Velázquez - Esopo (Museo del Prado, 1639-41).jpg,

, by Velázquez File:Vyasa.jpg,

Vyasa Krishna Dvaipayana ( sa, कृष्णद्वैपायन, Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana), better known as Vyasa (; sa, व्यासः, Vyāsaḥ, compiler) or Vedavyasa (वेदव्यासः, ''Veda-vyāsaḥ'', "the one who cl ...

File:Valmiki_Ramayana.jpg,

File:Jean-de-la-fontaine.jpg, Jean de La Fontaine File:Sullhan saba.jpg,

Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani Prince Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani ( ka, სულხან-საბა ორბელიანი ) (November 4, 1658 – January 26, 1725) was a Georgian writer and diplomat. Orbeliani is noted in part due to his important role as an emissary of ...

File:John Gay - Project Gutenberg eText 13790.jpg, John Gay File:Christian Fürchtegott Gellert.jpg,

Christian Fürchtegott Gellert Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (4 July 171513 December 1769) was a German poet, one of the forerunners of the golden age of German literature that was ushered in by Lessing. Biography Gellert was born at Hainichen in Saxony, at the foot of th ...

File:Lessing in blue.jpg, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing File:Krafft the Elder Ignacy Krasicki (detail).jpg,

File:DositejObradović.jpg,

File:Samaniego.jpg,

File:Tomas de Iriarte Joaquin Inza.jpg, Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa File:Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian.jpg,

File:Ivan Krylov.jpg,

File:Andersen-hc.jpg, Hans Christian Andersen File:Abierce.jpg,

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by ...

File:Joel Chandler Harris ("Uncle Remus").jpg,

File:Wladyslaw Reymont.jpg,

File:Felix Salten 1910.jpg,

File:Don Marquis.jpg, Don Marquis File:James Thurber NYWTS.jpg,

File:GeoreOrwell.jpg, George Orwell

Classic

(mid-6th century

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

), author/s of ''

'' *

(ca. 200

), author of the anthropomorphic political treatise and fable collection, the '' Panchatantra'' *

Bidpai The ''Panchatantra'' (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, sa, पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.

(ca. 200

), author of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

(

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

) and

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...

(

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

) animal fables in verse and prose, sometimes derived from

(ca. 100

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n philosopher, reputed author of a collection of tales known in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

as '' The Story of the Seven Wise Masters'' * Gaius Julius Hyginus (Hyginus,

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

author, native of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

, ca. 64 BCE – 17 CE), author of ''Fabulae'' * Phaedrus (15 BCE – 50 CE),

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

fabulist, by birth a Macedonian *

Nizami Ganjavi Nizami Ganjavi ( fa, نظامی گنجوی, lit=Niẓāmī of Ganja, translit=Niẓāmī Ganjavī; c. 1141–1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was ''Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī'',Mo'in ...

(

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

n, 1141–1209) * Walter of England (12th century),

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

poet, published ''Aesop's Fables'' in

distich A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

s c. 1175 *

Marie de France Marie de France (fl. 1160 to 1215) was a poet, possibly born in what is now France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court o ...

(12th century) * Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (

n, 1207–73) *

Vardan Aygektsi Vardan Aygektsi or Vardan of Aygek ( hy, Վարդան Այգեկցի, died 1250) was an Armenian monk. Among his works is ''his Fables and a Geography'', both of which have been mistakenly attributed by some to Vardan Areveltsi. Aygektsi was bo ...

(died 1250), Armenian priest and fabulist *

Berechiah ha-Nakdan Berechiah ben Natronai Krespia ha-Nakdan ( he, ברכיה בן נטרונאי הנקדן; ) was a Jewish exegete, ethical writer, grammarian, translator, poet, and philosopher. His best-known works are '' Mishlè Shu'alim'' ("Fox Fables") and ''S ...

(Berechiah the Punctuator, or Grammarian, 13th century), author of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

fables adapted from

's Fables *

Robert Henryson Robert Henryson (Middle Scots: Robert Henrysoun) was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots ''makars'', he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renai ...

( Scottish, 15th century), author of ''

The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian ''The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian'' is a work of Northern Renaissance literature composed in Middle Scots by the fifteenth century Scottish makar, Robert Henryson. It is a cycle of thirteen connected narrative poems based on fables fr ...

'' *

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

(

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

, 1452–1519) * Biernat of Lublin (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

, 1465? – after 1529) * Jean de La Fontaine ( French, 1621–95) *

(

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

, 1658–1725), author of "

A Book of Wisdom and Lies ''The Book of Wisdom and Lies'' ( ka, წიგნი სიბრძნე სიცრუისა, tr) is a collection of fables and tales written by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani between 1686 and 1695, when he was 20–25 years old. The book refle ...

" *

Bernard de Mandeville Bernard Mandeville, or Bernard de Mandeville (; 15 November 1670 – 21 January 1733), was an Anglo-Dutch philosopher, political economist and satirist. Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, he lived most of his life in England and used English for ...

(

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, 1670–1733), author of '' The Fable of the Bees'' * John Gay (

, 1685–1732) *

(

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, 1715–69) * Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (

, 1729–81) *

(

, 1735–1801), author of ''

Fables and Parables ''Fables and Parables'' (''Bajki i przypowieści'', 1779), by Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801), is a work in a long international tradition of fable-writing that reaches back to antiquity. Krasicki's fables and parables have been described as being ...

'' (1779) and ''New Fables'' (published 1802) *

(

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

n, 1739–1811) *

(

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, 1745–1801), best known for "The Ant and the Cicade" *

Tomás de Iriarte Tomás may refer to: * Tomás (given name) Tomás is a Spanish, Portuguese, and Irish (also in the archaic forms ''Thomaz'', ''Thomás'' and '' Tomaz'') given name equivalent of ''Thomas''. It may refer to: * Tomás de Anchorena (1783–1847), ...

(

, 1750–91) *

, ( French, 1755–94), author of ''Fables'' (published 1802) *

Ivan Dmitriev Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev ( rus, Ива́н Ива́нович Дми́триев, p=ɪˈvan ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪf, a=Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriyev.ru.vorb.oga; – ) was a Russian statesman and poet associated with the sentimentalist ...

(

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, 1760–1837) *

(

n, 1769–1844) * Hans Christian Andersen (

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

, 1805–75)

Modern

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

(1828 – 1910) *

Rafael Pombo José Rafael de Pombo y Rebolledo (November 7, 1833 – May 5, 1912) was a Colombian poet born in Bogotá. Trained as a mathematician and an engineer in a military school, Rafael Pombo served in the army and he traveled to the United States of Ame ...

(1833 – 1912), Colombian fabulist, poet, writer *

(1842 – ?1914) *

(1848 – 1908) *

Sholem Aleichem ) , birth_date = , birth_place = Pereiaslav, Russian Empire , death_date = , death_place = New York City, U.S. , occupation = Writer , nationality = , period = , genre = Novels, sh ...

(1859 – 1916) * George Ade (1866 – 1944), ''Fables in Slang'', etc. *

(1868 – 1925) *

(1869 – 1945) * Don Marquis (1878 – 1937), author of the fables of

archy and mehitabel Archy and Mehitabel (styled as archy and mehitabel) are fictional characters created in 1916 by Don Marquis, a columnist for ''The Evening Sun'' newspaper in New York City. Archy, a cockroach, and Mehitabel, an alley cat, appeared in hundreds of ...

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

(1883 – 1924) *

Damon Runyon Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To N ...

(1884 – 1946) *

(1894 – 1961), '' Fables for Our Time'' and ''Further Fables for Our Time'' * George Orwell (1903 – 50) *

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...

(1904 – 91) *

Nankichi Niimi was a Japanese author, sometimes known as the Hans Christian Andersen of Japan. Niimi was born in Yanabe, in the city of Handa, Aichi, Handa, Aichi prefecture, on July 30, 1913. He lost his mother when he was four years old. His literary skill ...

(1913 – 1943), Japanese author and poet *

Sergey Mikhalkov Sergey Vladimirovich Mikhalkov (russian: link=no, Серге́й Влади́мирович Михалко́в; 27 August 2009) was a Soviet and Russian author of children's books and satirical fables. He wrote the lyrics for the Soviet and Russ ...

(1913-2009), Soviet author of children's books * Pierre Gamarra (1919 – 2009) * Richard Adams (1920-2016), author of ''

Watership Down ''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Berkshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natura ...

'' *

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which hec ...

(1922 – 2010),

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

writer, author of '' Ensaio sobre a cegueira'' *

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the '' Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the ''Cosmicomi ...

(1923 – 85), '' Cosmicomics'' etc. * Arnold Lobel (1933 – 87), author of ''Fables'', winner 1981

Caldecott Medal The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Servic ...

* Ramsay Wood (born 1943), author of ''Kalila and Dimna: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal'' *

Bill Willingham William Willingham (born 1956) is an American writer and artist of comics, known for his work on the series '' Elementals'' and '' Fables''. Career William Willingham was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. During his father's military career the f ...

(born 1956), author of ''

Fables Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral ...

'' graphic novels *

David Sedaris David Raymond Sedaris (; born December 26, 1956) is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay " Santaland Diaries.” He published his first c ...

(born 1956), author of '' Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk'' *

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

(born 1941),

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

filmmaker, director of ''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distrib ...

'' * Guillermo del Toro (born 1964), Mexican filmmaker, director of ''

Pan's Labyrinth ''Pan's Labyrinth'' ( es, El laberinto del fauno, lit=The Labyrinth of the Faun, links=no) is a 2006 dark fantasy horror film written, directed and co-produced by Guillermo del Toro. A Spanish-Mexican(78% Spanish production, 22% Mexican productio ...

'' * Pendleton Ward (born 1982), American animator, creator of ''

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

Notable fable collections

*''

'' by

*''

'' *'' Panchatantra'' by

*''

Baital Pachisi ''Vetala Panchavimshati'' ( sa, वेतालपञ्चविंशति, IAST: ) or ''Betaal Pachisi'' ("''Twenty-five (tales) of Betaal''"), is a collection of tales and legends within a frame story, from India. It is also known as inter ...

'' (also known as ''Vikram and The Vampire'') *''

'' *''

'' by

*''

'' by

*'' One Thousand and One Nights'' (also known as ''Arabian Nights'', ca. 800–900) *''

'' (1668–94) by Jean de La Fontaine *''

'' (1779) by

*'' Fairy Tales'' (1837) by Hans Christian Andersen *'' Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings'' (1881) by

*''Fantastic Fables'' (1899) by

*'' Fables for Our Time'' (1940) by

*''

99 Fables ''99 Fables'' is a book of fables by American author William March. The collection was first written around 1938 (there were ca. 125 fables then) but was never published as a whole. More than 40 had been published in journals and magazines such a ...

'' (1960) by

William March William March (September 18, 1893 – May 15, 1954) was an American writer of psychological fiction and a highly decorated United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marine. The author of six novels and four short-story collections, March was praised by ...

*''Collected Fables'' (2000) by

, edited by S. T. Joshi *'' Kalīla wa-Dimna''

Notes

References

*
King James Bible
''New Testament (authorised)''. *DLR avid Lee Rubin "Fable in Verse", ''The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics''. *Read fables b
Aesop
an
La Fontaine

History

Aesopic or Aesop's fable

Africa

India

Europe

Modern era

Fabulists

Classic

Modern

Notable fable collections

See also

Notes

References

Further reading