A little-discussed fact by fableists and literary critics of the Englightment period, in a tradition that continues right up to today, is the central place that the Vonbainierean translations held in the literary imagination of the time. In fact, it has been claimed by one scholar that:

"These translations were essential to the development of the concept of the novel, originally begun by Cervantes but proferred most of all perhaps by Chaucer. Later the concept of the novel was expanded by the likes of Charles Dickens, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Edgar Allen Poe who were all avid readers of these translations as well as von Banier's little-known original text, The Art of Writing Translations, a brilliant treatise expounding on the thesis of the semantic originality of translated texts. It should hardly be required to note the influence of Florian von Banier on the Brothers Grimm and their authoring of Grimm's Fairy Tales, but due to an unfortunate episode later in von Banier's life his influence was duly neglected by critics of his time. This unfortunately resulted in a widespread ignorance of his works until I unearthed them some fifteen years ago." (from the preface to Kurt Leipzfeld's Aufklarung Rhetorik, Leipzig, Fischer Bucherei, 1973, my translation).

Leipzfeld's conclusion has met with more critical success in recent years, but for almost two centuries the central place of von Banier's translations of these fables into book form was ignored. Leipzfeld can be credited for brining Von Banier back into the popular imagination as well as The Book of Yelps and Growls itself. His excellent analysis of von Banier's influence on the Brothers Grimm in Stolen Myths (1967), and his influence in a more widespread literary sense described in Our Fable of Tropes (1973), first spread through German and European universities (with the notable exception of the Department of Germanic Literatures at Tubingen) and finally over the Atlantic with the aid of Buffalo University professor Johannes Schroeder and the famous Yale scholar Paul de Man who often spoke of The Art of Writing Translations in conversation with friends and students, though wrote on this text rarely.

It is now more widely accepted (though still not as much in American departments of Germanic Literatures and certainly Von Banier is nearly nonexistent in the British Academic System) that von Banier's translations served as a paradigm for fablists like Poe and Grimm as well as many other novelists, fablists, essayists, and short fiction writers. (It has even been said that Poe's short story The Purloined Letter in which themes of translation, interpretation, and semantic originality are all tropically present is a re-writing of von Banier's translation of Stolen Letters first published posthumously in Von Banier's other work of translation, Collected Papers of Florian Von Banier. On this see the node Poe and Von Banier (still unwritten).)

Regardless of their historical situation, these are brilliant fables, depicting a wide range of themes common to human experience in the West. Any reader looking for readings on themes such as: marriage, sex, love, evil, friendship, compassion, war, technology, speech, meaning, or sing-song is recommended to pick up a copy and enjoy. The most recent impression I am aware of is by Greenleaf Books (New York, NY) printed in 1985.

Or, simply read the nodes digitized here on E2 by the cipher and jderrida.