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Fables by Aesop
Real genius: Saying something that can be taken in several ways
If people had to choose only one literary work to send in a rocket ship out to distant galaxies, one that would be representative of our lives on earth, that work might likely be Aesop’s Fables. These stories are among the oldest and most widely distributed on our planet.
When printing was a new technology and decisions had to be made about which works were important enough to appear in this new medium, Aesop’s Fables was the first choice. And when in the Eighteenth Century John Newbery proposed that the young should have their own books and created the whole business of children’s publishing, one of his earliest offerings reflected what he believed should be in every child’s hands: Aesop’s Fables.
Aesop’s Fables is one book that should be on every child’s bookshelf.
That is still the case today. Pamela Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, was once asked what stories she would recommend for contemporary children and she replied: “The nursery rhymes, the fairy tales, the Bible, and, of course, Aesop’s Fables.”
Indeed, another measure of these fables’ importance is the way they have generated common expressions still in use today: “sour grapes,” “a wolf in…
