Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable — Edition Insights

A Narrator Who Interprets

Bulfinch's voice is that of a Victorian educator, not a neutral storyteller. In the excerpts, he regularly steps back from the myth to offer explanation or moral judgment. For example, when describing the punishment of the mariners who tried to murder Arion, he has King Periander declare, "Ye slaves of avarice, begone!"—a line that feels more like Bulfinch's own censure than a classical source. He also inserts parenthetical clarifications, such as noting that the dolphin "offered him his back, and carried him mounted thereon safe to shore," as if anticipating a reader's need for concrete detail. This habit of interpretation extends to his chapter titles, which often list multiple events or themes (e.g., "Silenus. Midas. Bacchus's Reward to Midas. River Pactolus"), signaling that the text is a curated collection rather than a continuous narrative.

Shifts in Pace: From Catalogue to Scene

The excerpts display a marked contrast between rapid, encyclopedic passages and slower, more dramatic episodes. The table of contents reads like a list of mythological motifs—"Dawn, Sun, and Moon. Jupiter and the gods of Olympus"—and the early chapters move quickly through genealogies and origins. But when Bulfinch arrives at a story he deems important, such as the tale of Arion, the pace changes entirely. The Arion episode occupies several paragraphs, with direct speech, sensory details ("his well proportioned limbs were arrayed in gold and purple"), and a clear narrative arc: threat, rescue, return, and justice. This uneven pacing suggests that Bulfinch valued certain myths for their dramatic potential, while others served as filler or reference material. Readers may notice that the most vivid writing occurs when the narrator steps aside and lets the characters speak.

The Use of Quoted Verse as Commentary

A distinctive feature of The Age of Fable is Bulfinch's habit of concluding a myth with a poetic quotation, often from English poets like Spenser or Byron. After the Arion story, he appends stanzas from The Faerie Queene and Childe Harold, using them as a kind of literary echo. These quotations are not merely decorative; they serve to validate the myth's cultural importance and to connect it to a literary tradition that Bulfinch's readers would recognize. The quoted verses often repeat or rephrase the prose narrative, as when Spenser describes Arion "mounted on his dolphin." This technique creates a layered reading experience: the prose tells the story, the verse confirms its beauty, and the reader is invited to appreciate both. However, the quotations also interrupt the narrative flow, reminding us that Bulfinch's primary goal is not storytelling but cultural instruction.

Readers approaching The Age of Fable should expect a work that oscillates between reference book and literary anthology. The narrator's voice is constant, but the pace and texture vary widely from chapter to chapter. Pay attention to which myths receive extended treatment and which are merely summarized—this reveals Bulfinch's own tastes and the Victorian era's priorities. The quoted poetry, while sometimes jarring, offers a window into how 19th-century readers encountered classical myth: as a source of moral example and poetic inspiration, not just as ancient stories.