 Kaye called the book "possessed of such extraordinary literary merit" but focused his commentary on its implications for moral philosophy, economics, and utilitarianism.Harry L. Jones wrote in 1960 that the "Fable" "is a work having little or no merit as literature; it is a doggerel, pure and simple, and it deserves no discussion of those aspects of form by which art can be classified as art".Mandeville is today generally regarded as a serious economist and philosopher.