Gulliver's Travels, a novel by Jonathan Swift written in 1726, is also a social and political commentary on his era. Like The Insect Play, it uses fantastic characters to underscore its themes and ideas about human vice.

Animal Farm, a novel by George Orwell written in 1945, also anthropomorphizes animals to comment on human society.

Fables and Would-Be Tales is a collection of narrative fiction written by Karel Capek between 1925 and 1938 and published in 1946. Many of the pieces are fables that take on an animal or inanimate object's point of view.

What Never Happened is a story written by Vsevolod Garsin in 1882. Many critics believe that it is a direct influence on The Insect Play.

The Fateful Game of Love, a play written by Karel and Josef Capek in 1910, is a one-act commedia dell'arte on the facade of real life. It is...