Resumo de Aesop S Fables

FableFable, short literary composition in prose or verse, conveying a universal cautionary or moral truth. The moral is usually summed up at the end of the story, which generally tells of conflict among animals, which are given the attributes of human beings. The fable differs from the parable, also a short narrative designed to convey a moral truth, in that the fable is concerned with the impossible and improbable, whereas the parable always deals with possible events. Both fables and parables are forms of allegory.One of the earliest and also the most notable collection of animal fables is that of Aesop, reputedly a freed Greek slave who lived in the 6th century bc. Aesop circulated his fables orally and they were transmitted in this manner for a considerable time. Greek and Roman writers subsequently wrote down versions of Aesop's fables in either prose or verse. A Latin edition by the Byzantine monk Maximus Planudes is the source from which the best-known fables of modern Europe have come. Another famous collection of beast fables is the Sanskrit collection Panchatantra, compiled before the 5th century ad. Attributed to a Brahman sage, Bidpai, the Panchatantra was subsequently translated into more than 50 languages; more than 200 versions of it are known.During the medieval period fables were written in monasteries, but few of any consequence have survived. The writing of fables was revived in France during the 12th century, and from that time on the fable literature of France was more voluminous than that of any other European country. The most important French fabulist of the 12th century was the poet Marie de France. Between the 12th and 14th centuries a collection of animal stories entitled Roman de Renart, the principal character of which was a wily fox known as Reynard, appeared in France. These fables had a wide vogue in Europe both before and after this very popular collection was made.Many collections of fables were published in France from the 16th to the late 18th century. The greatest of all French fabulists was Jean de la Fontaine whose fables, extensively imitated by later writers in all countries, were published between 1668 and 1694.All through the medieval period a German version of the Reynard the Fox stories, Reinecke Fuchs, was popular. Among the important German fabulists of the 18th century, all influenced by La Fontaine, was Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.The best-known early fable in English is the Nun's Priest Tale in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The best of all English writers of fables was John Gay, whose Fables (first series, 1727; second, 1738), written in sprightly verse, are characterized by great originality and wit.Among other important modern European fabulists are the 18th-century Spanish poet Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa, author of Fábulas literarias (Literary Fables, 1782); and the famous 19th-century Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, many of whose fairy tales are actually fables. In the United States, beginning with Fables in Slang (1890) by George Ade, a contemporary form of fable developed, the chief exponents of which included Ambrose Bierce (Fantastic Fables, 1899), James Thurber (Fables for Our Time, 1940), and William Saroyan (Fables, 1941).

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