The Thurber Carnival

By James Thurber

"An authentic American genius. . . . Mr. Thurber belongs in the great lines of American humorists that includes Mark Twain and Ring Lardner." —Philadelphia Inquirer

James 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 talent and the breadth of his wit. The stories compiled here, almost all of which first appeared in The New Yorker, are from his uproarious and candid collection My World and Welcome to It—including the American classic "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"—as well as from The Owl in the Attic, The Seal in the Bathroom, Men, Women and Dogs. Thurber’s take on life, society, and human nature is timeless and will continue to delight readers even as they recognize a bit of themselves in his brilliant sketches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Aug 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063075771

James Thurber

James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1894. Famous for his humorous writings and illustrations, he was a staff member of The New Yorker for more than thirty years. He died in 1961.

Reviews for The Thurber Carnival

[mykl8s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Here is one place where I learned that humor could be good without being laugh-out-loud.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

fiction/short stories (with the occasional "autobiographical essay"). These are good stories but I find myself unable to follow the multiple characters very easily. I have to keep re-reading the pages, which takes the fun out of it. Still, I enjoyed revisiting "Walter Mitty" (since the Ben Stiller version comes out this Christmas).

[stef7sa-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Light prose, merely anecdotical or sketchy at points. The best are not the memories but the stories and among these the two about the husband who has left his wife and is living in a hotel. In these stories the light tone clashes with the depressing content, creating a strong impression, real literature.

[unclebob53703 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of some of his best stories and cartoons, the best of which are superb. It's another book I thought was only available in paperback, until I found there was this gorgeous leather-bound edition from Franklin Library, which I got for less than you'd expect to pay for a standard hardcover.

[aliceap-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I find it difficult to categorize the genre which will fully describe The Thurber Carnival. It is humor with a generous helping of autobiography sprinkled with cartoons. There's short stories such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty which I mentioned previously. There are also twists on fairytales (of which you know I'm overly fond). It was obvious from the preface that this was going to be an interesting read because Thurber wrote the preface himself in the third person. O_O A contemporary of E.B. White (remember Charlotte's Web), Thurber was a well-known essayist, humorist, and cartoonist of his time (early to mid 20th century) and was one of the leading voices of The New Yorker. He's considered the Mark Twain of the 20th century in fact and I'm sad to say I had never heard his name before I had watched the Ben Stiller film (thanks, Hollywood!). I found the anthology to be quite good but I do caution you all to remember the time it was written in as it's definitely not politically correct (sexism, racism, etc). If you're looking for a quick, fun read that features some rather interesting cartoons this is probably the book for you.

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A large miscellaneous collection of Thurber's writings and drawings. On the whiole I prefer the drawings. When young my favorite was the series "War Between Men and Women" though nowadays it would probably be considered sexist, since the men win.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Thurber carnival is another short story collection of timeless pieces by James Thurber. It is a parade of deviance. In each story one of the characters is either eccentric, weird or totally nuts. However, in each case there is sufficient suspense to let the reader gradually discover where the screw is loose.In "The secret life of Walter Mitty" a war veteran "has not come home" so to speak. He sees the enemy hidden behind every tree, while out shopping with his wife. It is a classic story, with an almost endearing touch. "The catbird seat" tells the story of envy and backstabbing in the office, and how to get rid of troublesome colleagues. A very humourous, and cruel story. "In "The MacBeth murder mystery" a reader get Shakespeare all wrong, or all right, depending on your perspective.Most stories are rather short, the volume as a whole being just over 60 pages. The stories are highly original, and hardly dated, so they can be enjoyed by contemporary readers. Great stuff.

[fundevogel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of lighthearted stories and essays by James Thurber. I picked it up after getting hooked on the former Keith Olberman segment "Fridays With Thurber". The stories are good, but I enjoyed it less than I hoped for two reasons. The first is that these shine brightest when read aloud and theatrically as Olberman performs them. Sadly, I do most of my reading on my own and am far to lazy to read aloud to myself. The second reason was unexpected. I've read a decent amount of fiction in the last year and a half that was at least 50 years old. For the most part it was fairly predictable which I found unbearably dated (The Turn of the Screw) and surprising how many felt almost contemporary (Tropic of Cancer). This collection had a way of sticking in my craw when I just wanted to be entertained. I mean, this was supposed to be my spoonful of sugar to help Gulag go down.The thing is Thurber dates his writing. While his primary concern is humor he draws a healthy dollop of his humor from conflict between a changing world and unchanging people. And even when he isn't specifically highlighting things contemporary to his writing he very much sets a scene in the time. Cars are cranked, Freud is cutting edge, grandfather spends half his time thinking the Civil War is still on. All that is fine, it's the casual sexism and racism that got me. I'm talking about the sort of prejudice that doesn't come from malice, but from casually steeping in a world where it's just a fact that women like baubles and can't possibly understand their husbands and "colored" people invariably speak in a manner both quaint and confounding. Without ever meaning to get into racial or gender politics Thurber draws a line between men and women, black and white. And while he probably didn't even know he was doing it he outlines a world where men and women, blacks and whites are classed and divided by the perceived inability of the female and the black to engage the white male.Certainly Thurber is not setting up the white male as a heroic figure. Thurber is quick to make light of human weakness. And yet, too often there seems to be a beastly woman in the background bringing the worst out of the man. I tried to enjoy it as much as much as possible, but I kept remembering that saying that when you don't notice the bigotry, that's because it coincides with your own bigotry. So here it is in a nutshell. I can handle reading a lot of awful things. But what bothered me about this was the awful things were clearly not a blip in Thurber's mind. They were just things. That ignorance of and indifference to how he wrote an impassable wall between the sexes and races pissed me off.

[figre · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

How disappointing.I admit, all I really knew of James Thurber was “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and a few cartoons and his reputation. But that was enough to make me really look forward to this collection. I was greatly disappointed.I have no real explanation other than the humor must be just too dated. I know for a fact that many of the pieces definitely are. I realize these are from a certain period of time, but some hold racist (unintentional) overtones and others are particularly demeaning to women. But even the pieces that don’t suffer from such problems just don’t rise above the mundane. They are clever, a couple are humorous, one or two are downright funny. But, as a whole, the collection is depressing for how little there is that makes it worth reading.

[devil_llama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great collection of wonderfully funny stories. I can't open it to much of any page without getting a laugh, though I'm well aware that the humor doesn't date well in the modern world. Fortunately, my retro sense of humor allows me to enjoy the dry, droll wit.

[gregory_gwen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love this! I have read it many times since childhood, had to buy a new copy recently.

[ltfl_jmls · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love this! I have read it many times since childhood, had to buy a new copy recently.

[tloeffler_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful collection of some of Thurber's best essays from his books, along with some fables and cartoons. Some I had read in other collections, some I had not seen before. Even so, I could read Thurber stories over a hundred times and still laugh out loud. Timeless hilarity.

[la_femme_jennifer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you haven't read anything by Thurber, you need to immediately go out and get one of his books. Seriously. This is probably my favorite because it has a little of everything. Thurber's writing is witty and I often laugh out loud as I read it. Especially the stories about his childhood. They're just outlandish enough to be believable, kind of like a Seinfeld episode.

[schmerguls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I often laughed as I read this book, but there were also pieces which did not cause so much as a smile. There are also cartoons and my favorite is the one on page 340 captioned "Touche!" Put it in Google and you will be able to see the cartoon, if you are not familiar with it.

[darla_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I remember reading all the books of his they had in the library when I was a kid--inspired by the short-running TV show "My World and Welcome to It" which was based on his work. Amazingly, I found him just as entertaining as I did as a child. The Thurber Carnival is a hodge-podge of essays, stories, and drawings culled over several decades and from several other collections. Some are better than others, of course, and quite a few of them are very dated--unsurprisingly, since the book was originally published in 1945, and compiled at that time from earlier sources.It doesn't really seem to matter. Even though I can't really relate to the early days of the automobile, it didn't stop me from laughing aloud at "Recollections of a Gas Buggy." Human nature hasn't changed all that much in the past 60 or 70 years.There are quite a few classic stories in here, including "The Catbird Seat," which is a delicious story of revenge, and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," which I hadn't even realized was Thurber's.His drawings are just as entertaining, which is even more startling after reading in the biography what poor eyesight he had. With just a few lines, he manages to do the same thing he does in the stories and essays with just a few words.Most of the humor has to do with human nature--specifically, with the way people communicate, or don't. One of the best (i.e. most hilarious) examples is "What Do You Mean It Was Brillig?" in which he lampoons both his housekeeper's accent and his own misunderstanding of and reaction to it. There's also a darkly humorous story, "The Breaking Up of the Winships," about a couple who divorces over a disagreement about Greta Garbo. Change a few minor details, and these stories are as true today as they were when they were written.I'm really happy I bought this. Not only was it wonderfully nostalgic, and still entertaining today, but I've got this lovely book of very funny, very short pieces that are easy to share with my family. I don't even begrudge the 3 days it took me to read.

[rossryanross · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Does anyone read Thurber anymore? I don't think many people do, and it's a damn shame, because that gawky misfit of a man wrote some of the greatest stories of the past century. His drawings are loveable, and the stab in his voice is mild (much less brutal than Dorothy Parker's) but penetrating and funny in a way that makes you think and laugh at the same time. Thurber is an American master who is slipping through the cracks.

[aulsmith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A collection of cartoons, short stories, essays and other zany writing (Great poems illustrated, for example) reprinted from Thurber's earlier books. This collection was a constant companion of mine in my childhood. As I grew up, I understood more and more of the irony in these pieces, and appreciated their brilliance even more. My favorites are: The MacBeth Murder Mystery and the Pet Department. The first is about a inveterate murder mystery reader, who can find no mysteries in the bookshop and picks up a copy of Macbeth instead. She proceeds to "solve" the mystery, using modern mystery conventions, including the fact that the obvious suspects couldn't have done it. The Pet Department are drawings, supposedly sent in by bewildered pet owners and questions about their pets condition along with Thurber's diagnosis. If you have read Thurber, this is a great place to start.

[ablueidol · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read if not owned at times all the Thurber books and have experienced via James writing the development of the New Yorker and Harold Ross. Every time I read them I "see" a very different urban America. You sense/glimpse this in the film Capote. Not sure if they would have met as James died in 1961 and would have been ill in the 1950's and in his 70's. Although Capote started work at The New Yorker in 1941 and James continue to write until the mid 50's so who knows