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Æsop's Fables

by Aesop (1870–1937)

  • Free to read
  • 10 min read
  • 11 chapters
  • Reading level: 8th & 9th grade

"Æsop's Fables" by Aesop is a collection of fables credited to a storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. These tales, featuring talking animals and plants, were part of oral tradition before being collected centuries after Aesop's death. The stories teach moral lessons through simple narratives, addressing religious, social, and political themes. Originally meant for adults, these fables later became central to children's education and continue to be reinterpreted across cultures and media worldwide.

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  • Fables
  • Aesop's fables · Adaptations
  • Fables, Greek · Adaptations

Read the opening

The Daw in Borrowed Feathers

A conceited jackdaw was vain enough to imagine that he wanted nothing but the coloured plumes to make him as beautiful a bird as the Peacock. Puffed up with this wise conceit, he dressed himself with a quantity of their finest feathers, and in this borrowed garb, leaving his old companions, tried to pass for a peacock; but he no sooner attempted to stray with these splendid birds, than an affected strut betrayed the sham. The offended peacocks fell upon him with their beaks, and soon stripped him of his finery. Having turned him again into a mere jackdaw, they drove him back to his brethren.

But they, remembering what airs he had once given himself, would not permit him to flock with them again, and treated him with well-deserved contempt.

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Contents

  1. The Daw in Borrowed Feathers
  2. The Sun and the Wind
  3. Mercury and the Woodman
  4. The Fox and the Stork
  5. The Ants and the Grasshopper
  6. The Lion and the Mouse
  7. The Crow and the Pitcher
  8. The Frogs Asking for a King
  9. The Fox and the Grapes
  10. The Wolf and the Lamb
  11. The Fox and the Crow

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About this edition

This free edition of Æsop's Fables by Aesop comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #53103, released 2016-09-20. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Short Stories, Mythology, Legends & Folklore, Classics of Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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