Fables Ancient and Modern was the first book the philosophical anarchist, William Godwin, wrote for his children’s imprint eventually known as the Juvenile Library. Godwin’s adaptation presents traditional fables of Aesop and others in a lively, conversational voice that occasionally suggests his personal life and radical politics. The illustrator of its over 70 plates, William Mulready, was only 19 when the first edition was published in 1805.