The English fable : Aesop and literary culture, 1651-1740
Between 1651 and 1740 there was in England an explosion of interest in Aesop's fables, and in the fable as a literary form. Jayne Elizabeth Lewis shows how the fable, often underestimated because of its links with popular non-literary forms, played a major role in the formation of modern English culture.
book jackets
x, 234 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780521481113, 0521481112
32276263
Introduction: the English fable
Aesopian examples: the English fable collection and its authors, 1651-1740
"The first pieces of wit": Augustan fable theory and the birth of the book
Common and uncommon characters: the lives of Aesop
Brutal transactions, "mysterious writ": Aesop's fables and Dryden's later poetry
In her "transparent laberynth": obstructions of poetic justice in Anne Finch's fables
Risking contradiction: John Gay's Fables and the matter of reading
The moral