Readings in Fiction : History of Children's Literature to 1837 - ENG 360 Resource Guide

from The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English
Notional author of the most important body of fables in Western literature. It is not certain that Aesop actually existed as a historical figure; the first extant written collection of fables attributed to him is by the Latin poet Phaedrus in the first century AD. However there are a number of references to him in earlier classical literature - particularly Herodotus, Plutarch and Plato - which appear to establish key features of his identity: that he was a slave originally living in Asia Minor who achieved fame as a result of his extraordinary talent for telling apt and memorable stories.

from The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English
Short narratives in prose or verse, often accompanied by a moral. Fables are generally stories about animals, although they may also include human subjects. The classic tradition in the West derives from Aesop (sixth century BC), although, in the long history of their transmission the Aesopic fables have absorbed many innovations and additions from other traditions.

Illustrator

from Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Popular in her own time for delving into the labyrinths of the heart, Fielding was later eclipsed by her brother Henry FIELDING and friend, Samuel RICHARDSON. Rediscovered by feminist scholars in the 20th c., Fielding is lauded for her prose fiction experiments, use of irony, allegory, and sentimentalism, and explorations of gender.

Sarah Fielding's The Governess has been called the first children's novel. But by conflating two separate genres, critics risk oversimplifying both the novel and children's literature. This article brings together children's literature studies and novel studies in order to address the narrative form of The Governess, and to suggest that the term "moral tale" better captures the complex origins of the eighteenth-century children's novel.

from Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World
One of the first individuals to harness literature as a tool in the fight against slavery, the English writer and social reformer Thomas Day, wrote publications ranging from poetry to political tracts. He is remembered primarily as the author of the three-volume History of Sandford and Merton (1783-1789), one of the earliest novels written for children.

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Irish novelist. Her first novel, Castle Rackrent (1800), dealt with Anglo-Irish country society and was the first regional novel in English. Other novels about Ireland include The Absentee (1812) and Ormond (1817). She also wrote four novels about English society, beginning with Belinda (1801). She was a fervent proponent of women's education.