The English Fable: Aesop and Literary Culture, 1651-1740 (Cambridge Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Thought) [Hardcover]

Jayne Elizabeth Lewis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521481112 | ISBN-13: 978-0521481113 | Publication Date: March 29, 1996

Between 1651 and 1740 hundreds of fables, fable collections, and biographies of the ancient Greek slave Aesop were published in England. Jayne Elizabeth Lewis decribes the explosion of interest in fable from its origins at the end of the English Civil Wars to its decline, and shows how three Augustan writers--John Dryden, Anne Finch and John Gay--experimented with fable as a literary form. Often underestimated because of its links with popular nonliterary forms, fable is shown to have played a major role in the formation of the modern English culture.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Between 1651 and 1740 hundreds of fables, fable collections, and biographies of the ancient Greek slave Aesop were published in England. In The English Fable, Jayne Elizabeth Lewis describes the explosion of interest in fable from its origins at the end of the English Civil Wars to its decline, and shows how three Augustan writers -- John Dryden, Anne Finch and John Gay -- experimented with fable as a literary form. Often underestimated because of its links with popular non-literary forms, fable is shown to have played a major role in the formation of modern English culture.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 29, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521481112
• ISBN-13: 978-0521481113
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,885,599 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Model of Scholarship, March 17, 2006

By 

Willis G. Regier "Billinois" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The English Fable: Aesop and Literary Culture, 1651-1740 (Cambridge Studies in Eighteenth-Century English Literature and Thought) (Hardcover)

This is a very well written book by a scholar who is clearly master of her material. The book surveys the translations of Aesop (or rather, of the collections of fables that were attributed to Aesop) that competed for English readers for the better part of a century. The book is particularly good with the three major collections--those by Ogilby, L'Estrange, and Croxall--and deals very nicely with Samuel Richardson's arbitration between the Stuart L'Estrange and the Hanoverian Croxall. Lewis herself recommends Annabel Patterson's FABLES OF POWER as a turning point in Aesop scholarship, a well deserved tribute, but this book is no less valuable and important. Like Patterson's study, it pays due attention to the LIFE of Aesop as it morphed through the decades.