Customer Reviews

The Complete Fables (Penguin Classics)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This translation claims to contain the complete fables of Aesop, but this is not correct: Ben E. Perry's edition of Aesopic fables for the Loeb Classical Library (ISBN: 0674994809) contains approximately twice as many fables as the Temples' supposedly "complete" fables. Robert and Olivia Temple do not know very much about the sources of Aesopic fables, and they do a poor job of describing the history of this wonderful body of folklore. People who are really interested in Aesop would do well to look for a copy of Lloyd Daly's Aesop without Morals (out of print) or they can read the brilliant collection of Aesop's fables in seventeenth-century English by Roger L'Estrange (published in Everyman's Library Children's Classics, ISBN: 0679417907).

The translators justify calling this edition "Complete" because no one can say for sure what a "complete Aesop" would be. That's a lame excuse for an assertive title. Especially vexing is the lack of an index or table of contents; if you are looking for a particular fable, you must hunt through the whole book. It is good that they based their translations on the Chambrey edition, though the Perry edition (1952) is much more comprehensive. I am stunned by the comment made by "Fluid Artist" that the Perry edition (AESOPICA, 1952) is full of falsities; it'd be good to know what those falsities are. Fluid Artist claims to have read Perry's book, which would be marvelous, since it is almost 800 pages long and almost entirely in Greek and Latin. Laura Gibbs's AESOP'S FABLES (Oxford) is better in every respect.

I think perhaps some of the reviewers here are missing the point of this book. And please don't go read Ben E. Perry's book because it's just full of falsities. I know, I've read it. Here's the thing: the fables that I and many others have grown up with are really adaptations and distortions of the real fables. And as the author points out, those fables may have been attributed to Aesop but he didn't think all of them up. He had other sources he drew from. These fables are probably not best read to children but if you're going to use them to help teach morals then adapting them to your own purpose is fine. However, I read this edition for a scholarly purpose because I'm interested in the origins of fables and folk tales. It is a really good book for that purpose. Morality was not Aesop's thing, the morals were attached later. If you're into morality then try another book.

This is not an everyman's book of folklore, but good if you have an academic interest in he roots of some of the most famous stories in the world. This ain't what your first grade teacher told you folks, but it's interesting to say the least. One can compare this with the uncensored versions of Grimm's Fairy Tales in that these originals are quite brutal and "politically incorrect" in comparison to the children's versions that most of us are familiar with today...if you are a purist and /or a student of folklore, then this is for you.

This book reveals a whole new and uncencored translation of all the 358 surviving Aesop fabels. As it turns out, the cute children's fabels that we have grown to relate Aesop with were originally quite rude and even vulgar jokes and one-liners. I love the book! The stories give supprisingly deep insingt to the everyday life of ancient Greek. And of course, the stories have often (though not always) a stunning wit conceild in them. Needless to say, this book is a classic.

I picked up this book hoping to find really a good academic telling of the fables. Instead, I find a poorly written book full of grammatical errors. Plus, I think there is definitely something lost in the translation of the original fables as most of the "morals" make no sense in relation to the story. The introduction to the book, which really could have used a good editor, is very wishy washy about saying anything definitive as to the origins of these fables. The notes attached after some of the fables shed very little if any light on the meaning of the fable or the symbolism used. I get the feeling that the the Temple's got bored with their subject matter and just threw something together to be done with it.

There has to be a better translation of the source material out there.

Good book to review these days when we think we are so civilized and yet live in societies that are not that far away in conducts from those encountered in the times Aesop . Check these fables out with economy, politics, education,friendship etc, in mind it will enlighten the present in a humorous way.

The translations are very easy and enjoyable to read. I cannot speak to the "completeness" of the works, and I doubt most critics could either--ancient authorship of fables is a field of controversy. Indeed, even this translation outlines certain fables which the Temples feel may not be Aesop's. The introduction is insightful, though forgettable.

This is not a cute, illustrated book for your children. This a serious (and at times, maturely comical) outline of an ancient writer.

The organization feels a bit haphazard, with characters woven in threads of unity and then appearing misplaced twenty fables later.

Having read comments about this volume in some of A.B.E. bookseller's descriptions, I was intrigued and picked up a copy. If your only exposure to Aesop's Fables has been through the collections aimed at very young children, cartoons, PG movies, and similarly age-oriented materials this will be a very different experience for you. A FEW are graphic, the vast majority are not, but several "clean" ones (as written) will be beyond the level of comprehension of young children.

Most of the "fables" contained in this book are extremely short ones, more observations or one-liners than stories. Only a few exceed a paragraph or 2, and those most reasonably connected to having been created closely to (or no later than) Aesop's era if not proveable to have been ORIGINATED by him personally (NO FABLES SPECIFIC FABLES HAVE EVER BEEN SO PROVEN) have very appropriate "morals" accompanying them, while others less likely to have been "his" may originally have had no moral or one was later attached (for reasons the husband and wife authors explain). What is also very interesting is how our now-familiar complete and detailed story lines have been constructed over the years around such ofttimes pithy observations.

This book includes those fables that have been previously been in other important "Aesop" collections by eminent writers, and the footnotes alone are worth the price of the book where this author duo expands upon the exact wordage having been used in prior translations and corrects sometimes very important mistakes in plotline or details having been made previously-some made through those translation errors or by difference in cultural practices from Aesop's time. These notes and the foreward help to point out where some of the fables included are likely to have actually come from and why certain ones are obviously from other regions-as the animals involved do not exist in Aesop's area, and the substitutions act sometimes humorously inappropriately to their species (such as flesh-eating herbivores).

In short, many of the "Aesop's Fables" are very likely from several different cultural and regional sources, including the sizeable fraction written in such a way that their style, the exact verbiage used prior to translation, the cultural practices and the political aspects referenced in them are at least consistent with the historical dating of Aesop's life. A thoroughly enjoyable read, and one that can be taken in small doses with no loss of plot line-like Reader's Digest, a good bathroom book.

While this opus may be complete, it disappoints the reader. The joyful flavor of Aesop's work is entirely lost--in favor of erudite footnotes treating inflections of unusual ancient Greek nouns and what-not. David Levine's work, by way of comparison, may only present 120 or so fables, but they are deftly and cheerfully conveyed, and the accompanying cartoons leave you with a palpable sense of satisfaction and of having learned something significant. Penguin leaves us only with a palpable sense of having slogged through 300+ mundane textual exercises.