I really like Aesop's Fables more than I should, in a three-year-old's sort of wondering, "Really, people tried to make the world work like this?" Sort of a way. This edition, however, excels at lovely art and layout, which makes for much niftier uptake than usual. ( )

I was one of those babies born in the late '80s who was raised with morals under Disney, Aesop and just knowing that God makes us all unique. Every cartoon and children's shows that we had was healthy while also being put together so you learned a very good lesson. And it is these stories that have influenced some of my own adult actions whether they were from the Serendipity series of stories, the Wee Sing series and even Aesop.

This was definitely a good compilation of Aesop stories - bringing both some old favorites and some new lesser known fables together in one book. Each fable is numbered while there is an index included in the back so you can easily look up the story by its main character while some of the more well-used morals are included in the beginning of the book or at the end.

To also keep the mind attentive the book includes a variety of illustrations - none of them colored. Some are you sketch-like drawings, some are probably oil work without the color and there a few others as well that maintains with the variety of stories that you will encounter.

The book includes a glossary that explains the various Greco-Roman deities that can be found in the stories and some of the geological locations. And if you are the type of person who is also interested in reading and learning you will find a good sturdy introduction that welcomes you to the fable, the idea about the unknown writers, the history of the fables in our world and of course whether Aesop was an actual author or not.

All in all this book is a good educational read while also bringing back timeless favorite stories that are simple to read, to understand and timeless classics. ( )

Some were great, some were dull (or even rather mean), and some were in-between. Overall, not super crazy about it, but glad to have read the collection of them. ( )

I think that "Grimm's Fairy Tales" is the best "book" ever "written", but some of these are just irritating to read, and that's all. Also, incidentally, the academic's glossary and such is real dross.... I think that I've read 1000 one-line briefs of Juno in my life, and they are all pretty much the same.... Have you ever heard that guy on the radio who's shy about playing "Stabat Mater", because he's afraid that it's not *really* early music.... Yeah, anyway.

{And anyway it's so funny, because if you asked one of Aesop's, he'd tell you that there are really only a few gods, Jupiter and Mercury, and Juno and Venus.... But if you consulted the glossary you'd think that there were dozens and dozens.... and anyway, it's all about George Orwell! George Orwell.... and Victorian newspapers!}

Anyway.

Wikipedia quality.

The the stuff itself is so variable.... well, I mean, and they can't even tell if the source material is Greek or Latin, or whatever their problem is.... And I know that they're both.... Eh, icky, but.... I mean, the Latin word for "woman" is "mulier", and the Greek is "gyne". {It sounds vaguely hickish, doesn't it?.... "Juno MacGuff".... "China Syndrome"!} I mean, that's similar, right, just like the quality of the source material. (And just like Juno is *kina like Hera*, as everyone mentions literally every time that anyone mentions Juno.... the Wife-Goddess appreciates, you guys. She doesn't need to be distinct; she's just the Wife-Goddess.... yeah.)

And the quality.... I mean, it's everything from "The Goose Who Laid The Golden Eggs", to "The Witch" ~ hahaha witch, you got sworded! To which the only response is: shut up kid, or I'l beat you up with a flashlight! One day you'll know what it's like!.... When you, 'Meet the Parents', hahaha. ^^ And, you know, Jonah Hill could be a goose too: "I just want to buy these boots, so I can take them home and wear them."

So, yeah.

Wikipedia quality.

It's like when the TV is playing a nebula documentary in one room, and the radio is playing a vision care speech in the other, so that you can't hardly hear either one, and yet neither one is any good.... But whatever this is, it's science!

And those one-sentence moralic-acid summaries, oh my.... I didn't know that it was possible to be both monkish and sloppy at the same time, hahaha.

{And there are no princesses in Aesop; nobody is a king's son.

Everybody is some sort of beast, and they tend to act trashy and end up dead.

And, just generally, though not every single time, the attitude of the country yokel overplays itself.... it's not so much charming millers as sooty blacksmiths!}

{Okay, and one more comment: I don't put much stock in the current (?-- I mean, you could crack open, the introduction, even, to one of these Barnes & Noble, Special!, books, and think that Tolstoy was still alive, and Ben Stiller not born yet.... but I suppose that the more priggishly outdated you actually are, the more progressively forward-thinking you theoretically are) system of classification of old tales and such, ("Aarne-Thompson".... "I call it the Nefario Principle!"), any more than I believe in the classification system for novels, (aside from 'alphabetically by author's last name, which, although obviously practical in obvious contexts, is really just a shelving system), i.e.-- '1. Title, 2. Author, 3. Name of Book'.... And they come up with these most delightful phrases, like, 'Social life and customs'-- (*Marshall Eriksen voice*) like, what does *not* fall under the general heading of, 'Social life and customs'?

Oh, and the Dewey Decimal System, too. I think that I've improved upon it, to be honest. Librarians might not agree with me, but they never liked me before, why would they start now?

Anyway.

" 'Lie down on the coach.' 'What does that mean?' 'You're a nut! *a coocoo clock, coocoos, and there's a cat* You're crazier than a coconut!'

Yeah.

And it's not like 'Grimm', it's really just not-- even the name, there really were two brothers named 'Grimm', but 'Aesop' might as well be 'Bede' or somebody, in fact, he almost is....

I mean, the source material is so confused, that it's not even all in the same language-- memories of that, much?-- and there are these uneven editorial intrusions.... I mean, uneven is one thing, but it's so inappropriate, it's like they weren't even commenting on the right book, the one that they were reading....

And the thing itself gives you a nice sense of the 'verbal' quality, and it is old, very old, sure, but it's also sloppy and pessimistic.... And we don't all like reading Mark Twain, or whoever it was.... so dreary, so unromantic.

Could be worse, but it's not, like Maupassant's "In The Moonlight" tale, or something like that, I mean, the Greeks could be fine, but they could also be cookoo.

It's a mixed bag.}

(7/10) ( )

I remember trying to read these little stories when I was younger, but getting very bored with them very quickly. A few months ago I picked them up again. Charming, raw, and yes, I see where I got bored before. But the stories have their unique kind of sparkle, even if I still think there's something lacking from something considered a classic. ( )