American humorist James Thurber’s classic short story is about a man who escapes the tedium of his mundane life by retreating into his vivid imagination. This title features a new introduction by Rosemary A. Thurber, James Thurber’s daughter, as well as a selection of Thurber drawings.

A giant of American humor makes his Penguin Classics debut with “probably the best book in the world” (Neil Gaiman, from the Introduction), in a stunning Deluxe Edition featuring the original, full-color illustrationsThe hands of all thirteen clocks stand still in the gloomy castle on a lonely hill where a wicked Duke lives with his niece, the beautiful Princess Saralinda. The Duke fancies he has frozen time, for he is afraid that one day a Prince may come and win ...

Walter Mitty, a mild-mannered forty-year-old man, drives into Connecticut with his wife for their weekly shopping trip. Tired of his drab, schedule-driven life, Walter escapes into five elaborate daydreams, and finally becomes the hero he always hoped to be.“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was originally published in a 1939 issue of The New Yorker. It is considered to be an American classic, and author James Thurber’s masterpiece. It has been adapted for film, first in 19...

The evil Duke of cold Coffin Castle fancies he has frozen time by stopping all of the clocks. He is fearful that one day a Prince may come and win away the hand of his niece, beautiful Princess Saralinda—the only warm hand in the castle. Several suitors have tried to court the Princess, but the Duke assigns them impossible tasks to thwart that fate. A few days before Saralinda's twenty-first birthday, a mysterious prince arrives to complete a seemingly impossible task and free Saralinda fr...

A collection of humorous essays, accompanied by the author's own bizarre drawings, presenting Thurber's unremitting retort to the multitude of "self-help" books which were widespread in the 1930s and whose successors are still with us today.

In "My Life and Hard Times," James Thurber constructs a masterful blend of memoir and humor, meticulously weaving together anecdotes from his upbringing in Columbus, Ohio, during the early 20th century. The literary style is characterized by its vivid imagery, sharp wit, and whimsical narrative voice, making the mundane aspects of life resonate with comedic brilliance. As part of the American literary canon, the book reflects the early 20th-century shift towards personal narrative and absu...

Great American humorist James Thurber’s beloved, madcap, and eerily timely fairy tale about an island society robbed of the wonders of the letter O—in a stunning Deluxe Edition featuring flaps, deckle-edged paper, and the original, full-color illustrationsLittlejack has a map that indicates the existence of a treasure on a far and lonely island, and Black has a ship to get there. So the two bad men team up and sail off on Black’s vessel, the Aeiu. The name...

The Wonderful O tells of a man named Black who despised the letter "O." He deleted it from his language and omitted it from his words. Opals, moonstones, owls, and oaks could not possibly be his items of choice. Instead, he preferred emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and maps since they contained not a single "O" among them. Soon he wanted his entire village to omit the letter "O," but the villagers found words they would not do without—words such as HOPE, LOVE, VALOR, and the most imp...

"An authentic American genius . . . Mr. Thurber belongs in the great lines of American humorists that includes Mark Twain and Ring Lardner." — The Philadelphia InquirerJames Thurber's unique ability to convey the vagaries of life in a funny, witty, and often satirical way earned him accolades as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century. A bestseller upon its initial publication in 1945, The Thurber Carnival captures the depth of his tal...

"These tiny stories, in which a wide variety of animals show us how human we really are, are completely uproarious." — Saturday Review of Literature"These fables are as cogent and necessary today as they were before and after the Great War when Thurber's plainspoken, satiric fables provided a way to speak out in an era of political suspiciousness, false hopes, and mistrust. These fables are, indeed, for our time." —Michael J. Rosen, from the Introductio...

The Classic Collection of James Thurber gathers four of the author’s most iconic works into one beautifully illustrated volume, celebrating the wit, imagination, and sharp social insight that made Thurber one of America’s most beloved humorists. At the heart of the collection is “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, the timeless story of an ordinary man who escapes the dullness of everyday life through extraordinary daydreams. Mitty’s richly comic fantasies, shifting from heroism to absurdity...

From iconic American humorist James Thurber, a celebrated and poignant memoir about his years at The New Yorker with the magazine's unforgettable founder and longtime editor, Harold Ross"Extremely entertaining. . . . life at The New Yorker emerges as a lovely sort of pageant of lunacy, of practical jokes, of feuds and foibles. It is an affectionate picture of scamps playing their games around a man who, for all his brusqueness, loved them,...