Aesops Fables, Volume One: Twenty Ancient Stories

by Aesop, Richard Briers (Narrator), Brenda Blethyn (Narrator)

This classic collection of Aesop's timeless tales will delight listeners of all ages. The stories included are: The Hare and the Tortoise – narrated by Richard Briers; The Frogs and the Ox – narrated by Jane Horrocks; The Fox and the Crow – narrated by Jonathan Pryce; The Monkey as King – narrated by Alison Steadman; The Bundle of Sticks – narrated by Brenda Blethyn; The Gnat and the Lion – narrated by Richard E. Grant; The North Wind and the Sun – narrated by Lindsay Duncan; The Fox and the Grapes – narrated by Alison Steadman; The Dog, the Cockerel and the Fox – narrated by Jane Horrocks; The Miller, His Son and the Donkey – narrated by Jonathan Pryce; The Wolf and the Heron – narrated by Brenda Blethyn; The Donkey in the Lion’s Skin – Richard Briers; The Ant and the Grasshopper – narrated by Alison Steadman; The Vain Jackdaw – narrated by Lindsay Duncan; The Frogs Who Wanted a King – narrated by Richard E. Grant; The Cat and the Mice – narrated by Jane Horrocks; The Lion and the Mouse – narrated by Richard Briers; The Caged Bird and the Bat – narrated by Brenda Blethyn; The Fox and the Goat – narrated by Jonathan Pryce; and The Lion and the Elephant – narrated by Alison Steadman.

2 pages, Audio CD

First published June 12, 2012

About the author

620 BC - 564 BC
Tradition considers Greek fabulist Aesop as the author of Aesop's Fables , including "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "The Fox and the Grapes."

This credited ancient man told numerous now collectively known stories. None of his writings, if they ever existed, survive; despite his uncertain existence, people gathered and credited numerous tales across the centuries in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Generally human characteristics of animals and inanimate objects that speak and solve problems characterize many of the tales.

One can find scattered details of his life in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. An ancient literary work, called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic, probably highly fictional version of his life, including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave (δοῦλος), whose cleverness acquires him freedom as an adviser to kings and city-states. Older spellings of his name included Esop(e) and Isope. A later tradition, dating from the Middle Ages, depicts Aesop as a black Ethiopian. Depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last two and a half millennia included several works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs.

Abandoning the perennial image of Aesop as an ugly slave, the movie Night in Paradise (1946) cast Turhan Bey in the role, depicting Aesop as an advisor to Croesus, king; Aesop falls in love with a Persian princess, the intended bride of the king, whom Merle Oberon plays. Lamont Johnson also plays Aesop the Helene Hanff teleplay Aesop and Rhodope (1953), broadcast on hallmark hall of fame.

Brazilian dramatist Guilherme Figueiredo published A raposa e as uvas ("The Fox and the Grapes"), a play in three acts about the life of Aesop, in 1953; in many countries, people performed this play, including a videotaped production in China in 2000 under the title Hu li yu pu tao or 狐狸与葡萄 .

Beginning in 1959, animated shorts under the title Aesop and Son recurred as a segment in the television series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, its successor. People abandoned the image of Aesop as ugly slave; Charles Ruggles voiced Aesop, a Greek citizen, who recounted for the edification of his son, Aesop Jr., who then delivered the moral in the form of an atrocious pun. In 1998, Robert Keeshan voiced him, who amounted to little more than a cameo in the episode "Hercules and the Kids" in the animated television series Hercules.

In 1971, Bill Cosby played him in the television production Aesop's Fables.

British playwright Peter Terson first produced the musical Aesop's Fables in 1983. In 2010, Mhlekahi Mosiea as Aesop staged the play at the Fugard theatre in Cape Town, South Africa.