Humorous American Short Stories: Selections from Mark Twain to Others Much More Recent

by Bob Blaisdell (Editor)

Includes James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," a 2013 motion picture!

Spanning nearly 300 years of American humor, this anthology of entertaining tales ranges from the inventive mind of Benjamin Franklin and his 1732 story, "Alice Addertongue," to Simon Rich's 2012 fable, "Center of the Universe." More than 30 witty short stories include works by Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, O. Henry, Langston Hughes, and other masters of the genre.
Nineteenth-century stories include Washington Irving's classic, "Rip Van Winkle: A Posthumous Tale of Diedrich Knickerbocker," "A Jersey Centenarian" by Bret Harte, and Lucretia P. Hale's "The Peterkins Decide to Learn the Languages." From later eras come Ring Lardner's "The Golden Honeymoon," "A Telephone Call" by Dorothy Parker, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber, Philip Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews," and "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

259 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Bob Blaisdell is a published adapter, author, editor, and an illustrator of children's books and young adult books. He teaches English in Brooklyn at Kingsborough Community College. He is a reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle and Christian Science Monitor and the editor of more than three dozen anthologies for Dover Publications. Email him at Robert.Blaisdell@Kingsborough.edu

Reviews

[w gall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a feel for the various times and places these stories were written, the culture, the lingo. They illicited a few chuckles from me, but no belly laughs. Some kept my interest and some I dutifully finished, except for the last one, which was blasphemous.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book is Humorous American Short Stories, so you'd expect all the stories to make you laugh -- or at least put a smile on your face. And many do, particularly the classics like those from Washington Irving, O. Henry and James Thurber. But, some stories here seem incredibly dated and didn't even amuse me. And there were a few, particularly the Crimson Thread, which were indeed amusing, but hardly humorous.

Still, did make pretty decent reading for the elliptical trainer at the gym. Good kindle read with several pearls of wisdom contained therein.

[Nia Nymue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good anthologies are hard to find. This book is not an exception. It confirms the rule.

(1) Not humorous, as promised.
(2) There is no real unifying theme.

There are too many voices. I liked a few of the stories but on the whole it was such a pain to finish this book.