The Animal Fable in Modern Literature

The fable is one of the very early forms of literary writing. As a form it has fascinated writers down the ages from Aesop who lived in 620-564 B.C., the Renaissance writers to the present day fabulists. The book examines the animal stories of five modern writers: Kipling’s Jungle Books, De La Mare’s The Three Royal Monkeys, Orwell’s Animal Farm, James Thurber’s Fables and Further Fables For Our Times and Richard Adams’ Watershp Down, The Plague Dogs and Traveller. Any reader who has been captivated by the magic in the fables and animal stories will find in this work interesting observations, strange connections and wonderful insights, as the writer goes on to analyse and plumb the depths of these seemingly simple animal stories.