What is fable

Fable is among the oldest forms of folk literature. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country all over the world. The word "fable" comes from the Latin "fabula" ("little story"). In general, a fable consists of a story and a short moral conclusion at the end. The main characters in most fables are animals. The purpose of these stories is to mock negative human behavior.

Sometimes these fables are passed down from generation to generation and from place to place. Sometimes these fables are constructed by a literary tale-teller and its purpose is to impart a lesson or a value. The last sentence of that usually tells what lesson you can conclude from the fables.

Many collections of fables exist in the world: such as the Panchatantram from ancient India, Aesop's from ancient Greece, Phaedrus' from ancient Rome, La Fontaine's fables composed in France in the 17th century, and Joel Chandler Harris's African American fables, the Uncle Remus stories.

There are some famous Fable authors:
   Aesop (mid-6th century BCE), author of Aesop’s Fables.
   Vishnu Sarma (ca. 200 BCE), author of the anthropomorphic political treatise and fable collection, the Panchatantra.
   Phaedrus (15 BCE – 50 CE), Roman fabulist, by birth he is a Macedonian
   Jean de La Fontaine (French, 1621 – 1695).
   Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (German, 1729–1781).
   Ivan Krylov (Russian, 1769 – 1844)