Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes

Written by Thomas Bulfinch

Narrated by Jonathan Cowley

First published in three separate volumes from 1855 to 1863, Bulfinch's Mythology quickly became the standard source of classic tales from ancient Greece and Rome, the Norse tradition, and beyond. This edition contains the full text of The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes, the first volume of Bulfinch's seminal work. From stories of the Greek gods of Mt. Olympus to retellings of the Iliad and the Odyssey, from descriptions of mythological monsters to tales of Hindu and Egyptian deities, Bulfinch's versions of these classic stories bring their characters to life. Throughout the text, Bulfinch includes examples of literary interpretations of and allusions to the various stories and points out proverbial expressions that have their origins in the mythology he relates, making this a vital reference for students of literature as well as a delightfully vibrant collection of the stories that form our cultural heritage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452672199

Reviews for Bulfinch's Mythology

[byers2142_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent introduction into Western mythologies! If anyone is looking for a portal book into myth studies or just interested in reading a number of diverse myths, this is the book to start with.

[angelajmaher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a highly comprehensive book, so it's rather long, and took me quite some time to read it. It was great to see so many familiar names and tales presented in their original context. I'm not sure how much of it I really absorbed, but it's a great resource for anyone interested in mythology.

[henning_hartung · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An excellent introduction to the stories told by our ancestors to each other in the dark winter evenings. The tales are summarised, the characters listed, and the subject ready for you to explore deeper if you wish.

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thoroughly enjoyable. That is, if you love ancient tales.

[jwl_11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great all around resource for a variety of myths, mostly focused in Greek and Roman mythology but with some medieval ones as well.

[shmuffin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The only problem with Bulfinch's Mythology is how all of the stories are summarized. I would like to read translations of the stories instead.

[bleached_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic reference book that is also fun to read. My only disappointment was the fact that to contain all of the tales they had to be summarized and not written out in their entire splendor.

[keylawk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author was a well-educated and underemployed bank clerk in Boston who used his spare time to research classical mythology. Thomas Bulfinch was born in 1796, one of three sons of the great Unitarian architect. But unlike his two successful brothers, Thomas only failed in several businesses. At age 41, taking a modest clerical job, he began to write what became the definitive and important series of works on mythology, fables and legends. To this day, Bulfinch supersedes in quality and readership much of the scholastic materials written by academicians. This three-volume collection presents Bulfinch's studies first published in one combined volume in 1881: The Age of Fable presents the Greek and Roman myths of the classical period. The Age of Chivalry is a retelling of the legends of King Arthur, Robin Hood, and sundry British/Celtic folk tales. The third part, the Legends of Charlemagne, recounts tales drawn from France, Germany, and Africa.

[emscape · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The definitive collection of mythology, although from a decidedly Anglo Christian perspective. It's actually interesting to ferret out the slant Bulfinch brings to a text which would benefit from a less biased perspective. It is helpful to have a basic knowledge of the myths that have informed culture, both classical and popular over the years. It's also very useful for doing crosswords.

[mendoza_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

THE reference book for mythology. I may have gone on to other works as the years pass but I still come back to this work. It is very reminisent of high school and all that angst for me. I believe I had all the answers back then....THis book is definitely a must.

[rampaginglibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This along with Edith Hamilton's Mythology is one of THE classic texts of mythology (in fact this is probably considered THE ONE to most basic college mythology (read Old White Men --No Offense)professors) i know this was mine. And it does cover the basics and i still refer to it from time to time but i find it a little dry. (and really--mythology should be anything but dry!!!)

[thebooknerd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good addition to anyone's mythology collection. I am disappointed by the heavy focus Greco-Roman mythology, since books on that topic are easy to come by, and the sparse attention to Irish mythology. However, there is a nice portion of medieval myths that aren't commonly encountered. Remember, though, that this isn't a modern book, so you'll need to be prepared for that 1700-1800s style of writing, which some other reviewers have remarked as being dry or otherwise unappealing. If you can get beyond that, you'll find this book to be an essential resource.

[jbd1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I worked my way through this thick volume over the course of a few weeks in August, wanting to take my time with it and dig in a bit. I didn't find Bulfinch's summaries all that interesting, in the end, but I suspect it will be useful to have this book around for the occasional reference need. It's certainly a handy thing to have so many different mythologies highlighted within two covers.

[harperkingsley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting read. A lot of the myths I read elsewhere are completely different than the ones I read elsewhere. I'm not sure which myths are the more prevalent, but the differences were very interesting.

As I like to include some mythology and mythological stories into my writings, I think this will be a very helpful tool. My copy of "D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths" brings in the whimsical, while "Bulfinch's" bring in a more practical view.

[06nwingert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Probably the most definitive book on Greek and Roman mythology, but don’t try to read the book in one setting. Bullfinch does add Norse, Asian and Egyptian mythology as well, although those sections are much smaller than Greek and Roman mythology

[drardavis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More modern treatments of mythology might correct historical errors or fill in gaps in the stories, but this was a very interesting view of the early scholarly work in the field. Troy had not even been discovered by Schliemann when Bulfinch compiled this work. Slavery still existed in the United States. Yet the descriptions are sufficient for the overview that was intended. Bulfinch relates each chapter to their references in literature with verses from T. K. Harvey, Moore, Keats, Byron, and Shakespeare. Many of those references are to poets whose popularity has long since disappeared, but the contrast of that to the longevity of the mythology is worth some thought. In the 1942 edition that I read, the illustrations by Stanley William Hayter were a bonus. If you find this edition in a used book store somewhere, buy it.

[page.fault · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

No matter what other versions of the Greek myths you've read, there's a certain quaint charm to Bullfinch's take on the stories. Written in the 1850s, the book opens with a forward in which Bullfinch attempts to argue the value of mythology. He notes that without some background in mythology, the allusions of the famous poets will simply whizz over a reader's head, and also adds that despite its pagan beginnings, mythology contains pure and valuable moral lessons. He then proceeds to retell some of the most famous Greek stories, noting and laboriously explaining various later poetical allusions to each tale from writers such as Milton, Keats, Shakespeare, and more.

There's something rather precious about the Victorian writer's obvious discomfort with certain aspects of the myths. For one thing, Bullfinch has to work quite hard to extract his moral lessons; no matter how much you bowdlerize them, the major aesop of most Greek myths is, let's be honest, that you'd better "put out" whenever requested or someone is going to turn you into a tree. I also rather admire the complex feats of literary doublespeak that Bullfinch employs when handling the stories involving same-sex love; he does his best to either portray such relationships as (very) close "friendships" or simply obfuscates the pronouns. I had to laugh at his version of Sappho, as he tells the entire story without once revealing the gender of her lover.

I also found his emphasis rather interesting. The book is supposed to be a collection of myths and fables from around the world, yet almost the book focuses on Greek mythology (or, I suppose, Roman myths, as Bullfinch uses all the Roman names. Personally, I found that rather irritating as I had to keep translating them in my head.) After 35 chapters of Greek mythology, Bullfinch decides on a brief world tour--one chapter on Egyptian mythology, one chapter on "Eastern" mythology, three chapters on Norse mythology, and one chapter for the Celts. This actually can be seen as emblematic of the era; during Bullfinch's time, the Romans were venerated as having created a Utopian society that was lost to the dark ages, and--at least, according to the British--regained by Victoria's imperialistic regime. The fascination with Romans is then something of a self-congratulatory belief that the Victorian world recreated the splendour of the ancients.

Overall, Bullfinch's book exemplifies the Victorian attempt to both venerate and sterilize ancient folklore. Although perhaps not precisely true to their originals, I think Bullfinch's stories have a charm all their own.

[citizenjoyce · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bullfinch has written a sort of crib notes for The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Upanishads, The Vedas, plus information about myths without primary books, like the Druids. The information is fascinating, and the amount of work put into the project is overwhelming. Gods and goddesses throughout the ages are shown to be just and unjust, proud, vain, supportive, vengeful, faithful and arbitrary. It's a little amusing to see him use Christianity as the basis of truth while he refers to all the other religions as superstitions, but what a wealth of information never the less. He gives both the stories of gods and heroes and how they have been referred to in literature, up to that time. Now when I hear of someone's reading Stones For Ibarra, I know who Ibarra was.I recommend this book to anyone interested in classics, literature, religion or geography.

[stephenbarkley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bulfinch's Age of Fable is a classic reference work that lives up to its reputation. The book is packed with anecdotes of deities, monsters, and heroes, some of whom I had never heard of before. Thanks to the "Index of Names", it will be my first reference when I come across an unfamiliar character (okay, my second after Wikipedia).The book attempted to do two things: acquaint the reader with the legends, and show how they are alluded to in poetry. While the legends were terse and informative, I found the poetry references tedious and arbitrary.I was also confused by the scope of the book. The contents are overwhelmingly stacked toward Greek and Roman mythology, but there's also chapters on Egyptian, Norse, and even Eastern myths. These chapters felt like unnecessary additions that didn't do justice to their subject matter.I should also say that my edition (I scanned my own cover, above) is beautiful. The fabric wrapping on the hardcover is embossed. The maps inside both covers are printed in two colours. Even the pages themselves are printed on high quality paper. Unfortunately, this edition isn't in print—the link directs to a mere Dover Thrift edition.