Bunker Bean

by Harry Leon Wilson, F.R. Gruger (Illustrator)

Bunker Bean leads a dull, gray life, his only bit of color provided by a red silk cravat buried at the bottom of his bottom drawer. But all of that changes after he consults the Countess Cassanova and she tells him of his past lives. Armed with the knowledge that he used to be Napoleon or an Egyptian Pharaoh, he begins to live a different life. Bunker Bean is populated with eccentric and exotic characters -- this is a lively and entertaining tale of the turning worm.

I had to live ten years in New York. It was then a simple town, with few street lights north of Forty-second street. Now the place is pretty terrible to me, perhaps the ugliest city in the world. I decided that the only way to get out of New York was to write a successful novel. So I tried with The Spenders and when I got a substantial advance from publishers, I quit my job and beat it for the high hills of Colorado. --Harry Leon Wilson

Genres: Fiction, Classics

307 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Editor of the humor magazine Puck 1896-1902.

Reviews

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book well enough, I suppose, but I would have liked it more if I could have found anything particularly sympathetic about the title character. I suspected he would eventually become sympathetic, and, at last, he did, but it took a heck of a long time. This is the forth Harry Leon Wilson novel I've read. I like him as an author, though this particular one is a notch or two below MERTON OF THE MOVIES and RUGGLES OF RED GAP.

[J.T.K. Gibbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satire of early 20th century manhood deftly showing that what a man believes about himself is who he is. Thinking himself at first a nobody with no prospects, Bunker Bean questions who he might have been in a past life. Two scam artists convince him he has a glorious, manly past and his behavior begins to reflect this belief. He "stands erect," and rights any number of wrongs he has observed, but never dared address. But what will he do if and when the deception is revealed?

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was different, in a good way. Think Walter Mitty meets Mr. Bean. While I had some sympathy for Bunker, I was laughing at him at the same time for being oh so very gullible. I didn't really get engaged with the story until after the childhood chapters but then I was hooked and wanted to see what would happen next. It was just a perfectly little old story (which statement you'll understand after you read it).