SOURCE: Anita C. Wilson, "To Instruct and To Amuse: Some Victorian Views of Aesop's Fables," in Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 2, Sum mer, 1984, pp. 66-68.

In the following essay, Wilson surveys opinions of various Victorian writers regarding the explicit moral statements in Aesop's fables, showing that writers believed their readers wanted to be amused or instructed through an amusing story rather than through explicit moral statements.

During the Christmas season of 1847, the Spectator featured a notice of a new book entitled A Selection of Aesop's Fables versified and set to Music, "with Symphonies and Accompaniments for the Pianoforte" (11 December 1847). The appearance of such a work testifies to the popularity of Aesop's Fables during the Victorian era. Among numerous editions were the translations by Thomas James (1948; illustrated by Tenniel) and George Fyler Townsend (1867), and the illustrated editions by Charles Bennett (1857), who also wrote his own text; by Harrison...