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fable

(Encyclopedia) fable, brief allegorical narrative, in verse or prose, illustrating a moral thesis or satirizing human beings. The characters of a fable are usually animals who talk and act like…

Bidpai

(Encyclopedia) Bidpai or BidpayBidpayboth: bĭdˈpī [key], supposed name of the author of the fables of the Panchatantra. The name first appears in an Arabic version of these fables—hence they are…

La Fontaine, Jean de

(Encyclopedia) La Fontaine, Jean deLa Fontaine, Jean dezhäN də [key], 1621–95, French poet, whose celebrated fables place him among the masters of world literature. He was born at Château-Thierry to…

Phaedrus

(Encyclopedia) PhaedrusPhaedrusfēˈdrəs [key], fl. 1st cent. a.d., Latin writer, a Thracian slave, possibly a freedman of Augustus. He wrote fables in verse based largely on those of Aesop. The prose…

Krylov, Ivan Andreyevich

(Encyclopedia) Krylov, Ivan AndreyevichKrylov, Ivan Andreyevichēvänˈ əndrāˈəvĭch krĭlôfˈ [key], 1769–1844, Russian fabulist. Some of his more than 200 fables were adapted from Aesop and La Fontaine,…

Aesop

(Encyclopedia) AesopAesopēˈsəp, ēˈsŏp [key], legendary Greek fabulist. According to Herodotus, he was a slave who lived in Samos in the 6th cent. b.c. and eventually was freed by his master. Other…

Ade, George

(Encyclopedia) Ade, George, 1866–1944, American humorist and dramatist, b. Kentland, Ind., grad. Purdue Univ., 1887. His newspaper sketches and books attracted attention for their racy and slangy…

Bewick, Thomas

(Encyclopedia) Bewick, ThomasBewick, Thomasby&oomacr;ˈĭk [key], 1753–1828, English wood engraver. Bewick pioneered in the revival of original wood engraving. Among his famous early works are his…

Panchatantra

(Encyclopedia) PanchatantraPanchatantrapŭnˌchətŭnˈtrə [key] [Sanskrit,=five treatises], anonymous collection of animal fables in Sanskrit literature, probably compiled before a.d. 500 (see Bidpai).…

Bulfinch, Thomas

(Encyclopedia) Bulfinch, Thomas, 1796–1867, American author, b. Newton, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1814. He wrote a series of works popularizing fable and legend, including The Age of Fables (1855), The…