Books with author George Fyler Townsend

Aesop's Fables is a collection of stories 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 Aesop's name have descended to modern times through a number of sources and include such favorites as The Fox and the Grapes, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Farmer and the Stork, The North Wind and the Sun, The Ant and the Grasshopper and hundreds more. This new digital edition of The Complete Aesop’s Fables includes an image gallery.

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 560 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with Aesop's name have descended to modern times through a number of sources. They continue to be reinterpreted in different verbal registers and in popular as well as artistic media. The fables were in the first instance only narrated by Aesop, and for a long time were handed down by the uncertain channel of oral tradition. Socrates is mentioned by Plato as having employed his time while in prison, awaiting the return of the sacred ship from Delphos which was to be the signal of his death, in turning some of these fables into verse, but he thus versified only such as he remembered. Demetrius Phalereus, a philosopher at Athens about 300 B.C., is said to have made the first collection of these fables. Phaedrus, a slave by birth or by subsequent misfortunes, and admitted by Augustus to the honors of a freedman, imitated many of these fables in Latin iambics about the commencement of the Christian era. Aphthonius, a rhetorician of Antioch, A.D. 315, wrote a treatise on, and converted into Latin prose, some of these fables. This translation is the more worthy of notice, as it illustrates a custom of common use, both in these and in later times. The rhetoricians and philosophers were accustomed to give the Fables of Aesop as an exercise to their scholars, not only inviting them to discuss the moral of the tale, but also to practice and to perfect themselves thereby in style and rules of grammar, by making for themselves new and various versions of the fables. Ausonius, the friend of the Emperor Valentinian, and the latest poet of eminence in the Western Empire, has handed down some of these fables in verse, which Julianus Titianus, a contemporary writer of no great name, translated into prose. Avienus, also a contemporary of Ausonius, put some of these fables into Latin elegiacs, which are given by Nevelet (in a book we shall refer to hereafter), and are occasionally incorporated with the editions of Phaedrus. Seven centuries elapsed before the next notice is found of the Fables of Aesop...

"[Æsop] was owned by two masters in succession, both inhabitants of Samos, Xanthus and Jadmon, the latter of whom gave him his liberty as a reward for his learning and wit. One of the privileges of a freedman in the ancient republics of Greece, was the permission to take an active interest in public affairs; and Æsop, like the philosophers Phædo Menippus, and Epictetus, in later times, raised himself from the indignity of a servile condition to a position of high renown. . ."

Aesop's Fables is a collection of fables written by a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. Aesop's Fables are mostly short animal stories with each fable ending with a moral advice. His fables are some of the most well known in the world. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as "The Fox and the Grapes", "The Tortoise and the Hare", "The North Wind and the Sun", and "The Ant and the Grasshopper" are well-known throughout the world. In this book, there are about 240 fables written by Aesop and are heavily illustrated. These stories teach moral lessons, often with animals. It is a pleasure to publish this new, high quality, and affordable edition. Passed down for thousands of years, Aesop’s Fables is a collection of moral stories by the famed storyteller from ancient Greece. Reprinted and translated thousands of times over the past two millennia, this collection represents some of the most widely known and famous children’s literature. Many of these fables bestow human traits upon animal characters and place them in human situations to highlight desirable and less desirable traits. Their intent, through the telling of these tales, is to teach readers important moral lessons such as “Self-help is the best help” or “Do not attempt too much all at once.”

In this collection of over three hundred fables, Aesop masterfully unravels the morals behind every action in human nature. Included are the favouries "The Shepherd-Boy and the Wolf," "The Tortoise and the Hare," and "The Dog and the Shadow." These time-honoured morals teach children that persuasion is better than force, slow but steady wins the race, and to look before you leap. A fable is often thought of as a story intended to help children learn wholesome values and how to behave within society at large. However, in ancient Greece, fables were used as a means of persuasion, as the moral of a fable can be delivered in an indirect manner. This helped philosophers such as Plato, Aristophanes, and Socrates argue controversial points without offending their audience.

‘Many people are not in the least disturbed at the harm that befalls them, provided they can see their enemies’ downfall first’In a series of pithy, amusing vignettes, Aesop created a vivid cast of characters to demonstrate different aspects of human nature. Here we see a wily fox outwitted by a quick-thinking cicada, a tortoise triumphing over a self-confident hare and a fable-teller named Aesop silencing those who mock him. Each jewel-like fable provides a warning about the consequences of wrong-doing, as well as offering a glimpse into the everyday lives of Ancient Greeks.

‘Many people are not in the least disturbed at the harm that befalls them, provided they can see their enemies’ downfall first’In a series of pithy, amusing vignettes, Aesop created a vivid cast of characters to demonstrate different aspects of human nature. Here we see a wily fox outwitted by a quick-thinking cicada, a tortoise triumphing over a self-confident hare and a fable-teller named Aesop silencing those who mock him. Each jewel-like fable provides a warning about the consequences of wrong-doing, as well as offering a glimpse into the everyday lives of Ancient Greeks.

Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with Aesop's name have descended to modern times through a number of sources. They continue to be reinterpreted in different verbal registers and in popular as well as artistic mediums. Aesop's Fables originally belonged to the oral tradition and were not collected for some three centuries after Aesop's death. By that time a variety of other stories, jokes and proverbs were being ascribed to him, although some of that material was from sources earlier than him or came from beyond the Greek cultural sphere. The process of inclusion has continued until the present, with some of the fables unrecorded before the later Middle Ages and others arriving from outside Europe. The process is continuous and new stories are still being added to the Aesop corpus, even when they are demonstrably more recent work and sometimes from known authors. Manuscripts in Latin and Greek were important avenues of transmission, although poetical treatments in European vernaculars eventually formed another. On the arrival of printing, collections of Aesop's fables were among the earliest books in a variety of languages. Through the means of later collections, and translations or adaptations of them, Aesop's reputation as a fabulist was transmitted throughout the world. Initially, Aesop's Fables were addressed to adults and covered religious, social and political themes. They were also put to use as ethical guides and from the Renaissance onwards were particularly used for the education of children. Their ethical dimension was reinforced in the adult world through depiction in sculpture, painting and other illustrative means, as well as adaptation to drama and song. In addition, there have been reinterpretations of the meaning of Aesop's Fables and changes in emphasis over time.

Reverend George Fyler Townsend (1814-1900) was the translator of the standard English edition of Aesop’s Fables. Although there are more modern collections and translations, Townsend's volume of 350 fables introduced the practice of stating a succinct moral at the conclusion of each story, and continues to be influential. Aesop's Fables refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop(620–560 BC), a Slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a Blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving anthropomorphic animals. His fables are some of the most well known in the world. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, are well-known throughout the world.