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The necessity of a work on Snobs, demonstrated from History, and proved by felicitous illustrations:—I am the individual destined to write that work—My vocation is announced in terms of great eloquence—I show that the world has been gradually preparing itself for the WORK and the MAN—Snobs are to be studied like other objects of Natural Science, and are a part of the Beautiful (with a large B). They pervade all classes—Affecting instance of Colonel Snobley. (Summary excerpted from Prefatory Remarks from the book by W. M. Thackeray)...

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Humor

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Pretty but socially clueless Bernice lets her know-it-all cousin push her around, but eventually, something's gotta give! (Introduction by BellonaTimes)...

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Humor, Short stories

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The Wit and Humor of America is a 10 volume series. In this, the seventh volume, 43 short stories and poems have been gathered from 35 authors. This volume is sure to delight listeners. (Summary by Linette Geisel)...

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Humor, Fiction, Poetry

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volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Cheese Curd for Bait by James McIntyre. This was the Weekly Poetry project for September 23, 2012. James McIntyre, born in Scotland, came to Canada in 1841. He finally settled in Ingersoll (a town in central Ontario on the banks of the Thames River), the then-heart of Canadian dairy country. He was well loved in the community, from which he often received aid in hard times, due in part to his poesy and oratorical skills — he was called on to speak at every kind of social gathering in Ingersoll. The region seems to have inspired him, and it was in celebration of the proud history of Canada, the natural beauty and industry of the region, and especially its cheese, that the majority of his oeuvre was written. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Adventure, Humor, Instruction, Nature, Poetry

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Uneasy Money is a romantic comedy by P.G. Wodehouse, published during the First World War, it offers light escapism. More romantic but only a little less humorous that his mature works, it tells of the vicissitudes of poor Lord Dawlish, who inherits five million dollars, but becomes a serially disappointed groom. When the story opens Bill (Lord Dawlish, a thoroughly pleasant man) is engaged to a demanding actress. His first thought when hearing of his massive legacy from a stranger whose tendency to slice he once cured on a West Country golf course is of the disappointed relatives. His trip to the USA attempting to give back the windfall results in complication after complication, including firearms and burglaries as well as the usual human misunderstandings that accompany any human life. Uneasy Money was first published as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post in the USA from December 1915, and in the UK in Strand Magazine starting December 1916. It first appeared in book form on March 17, 1916 by D. Appleton & Co., New York, and later in the UK (on October 4, 1917) by Methuen & Co., London. A silent, black-and-white film version w...

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Fiction, Humor, Romance

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Set in Victorian times, the novel concerns business man Paul Bultitude and his son Dick. Dick is about to leave home for a boarding school which is ruled by the cane wielding headmaster Dr. Grimstone. Bultitude, seeing his son's fear of going to the school, foolishly says that schooldays are the best years of a boy's life, and how he wished that he was the one so doing.At this point, thanks to a handy magic stone brought by an uncle from India which grants the possessor one wish, they are now on even terms. Dick, now holding the stone, is ordered by his father to turn him back into his own body, but Dick refuses, and decides instead to become his father, and so the fun begins. Mr. Bultitude has to begin the new academic term at his son's boarding school, while Dick gets a chance to run his father's business in the City. In the end, they are both restored to their own bodies, with a better understanding of each other. ≤...

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Humor

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First Part[edit] It describes the naive Parvateesam running away from home in Mogaliturru, a small town that he calls a "famous historical city" in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, to become a barrister.[1] The novel depicts the troubles he faced in dealing with other languages, and the naive way he behaves with people from the outside world. It ends with his reaching the shores of England. With the struggle for independence barely beginning in south India, Parvateesam decides to leave for England because of the way he is taunted by his teacher and friends; he thinks becoming a barrister is the only way to redeem himself. He runs away from home without much money. He knows no language other than Telugu (spoken in Andhra Pradesh), and believes that once he reaches Madras (the capital city of Tamil Nadu; now Chennai) he can take a ship to England. He knows nothing of the hardships of this journey. Second Part[edit] The second part begins with him reaching the shores of England. After spending a few days in London, he travels to Edinburgh in Scotland on the advice of a recent acquaintance to study at university th...

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Barrister Parvateesam part 1 Barrister Parvateesam part 2 Barrister Parvateesam part 3 Barrister Parvateesam part 4 Barrister Parvateesam part 5 Barrister Parvateesam part 6 Barrister Parvateesam part 7...

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P. T. Barnum exposes some of the chief humbugs of the world with his usual entertaining style. He looks at medicine and quacks, ghosts, witchcraft, religious humbugs, money manias, adventurers, personal reminiscences, and much more. (Summary by Barry Eads)...

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Humor, Instruction, Memoirs

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Mr. Stanley Fulton is worth millions, but he has no one to leave his money to except some unknown distant cousins. In order to find out how they would handle a fortune, he decides to give each of them $100,000 dollars during his life, and go – incognito - to live in their midst! Who will prove worthy to inherit his millions and will his deception be discovered? Eleanor H. Porter was an early 20th century author of children’s literature and novels. Her most well known book was “Pollyanna” and it’s sequel, “Pollyanna Grows Up”. (Summary by Maria Therese)...

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Humor, Fiction, Teen/Young adult

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The story revolves around Montgomery Brewster, a poor man who inherits a large sum of money. However, there is a catch — he has to spend every penny within 30 days, and end up with nothing at that time. Should he make the deadline, he stands to gain an even larger sum; should he fail, he remains penniless. Brewster finds that spending so much money is more difficult than he first thinks, especially when the lawyers are trying to make him fail so that they can claim the money. What makes it worse is that he starts to be a little too successful with some ventures, actually making money from them. Can Brewster empty his pockets in time for the deadline, or will he end the book as he started it, with nothing?...

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Fiction, Humor

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Foreword from the author, Edna Ferber - And so, the story writers used to say, they lived happily ever after. Um-m-m—maybe. After the glamour had worn off, and the glass slippers were worn out, did the Prince never find Cinderella's manner redolent of the kitchen hearth; and was it never necessary that he remind her to be more careful of her finger-nails and grammar? After Puss in Boots had won wealth and a wife for his young master did not that gentleman often fume with chagrin because the neighbors, perhaps, refused to call on the lady of the former poor miller's son? It is a great risk to take with one's book-children. These stories make no such promises. They stop just short of the phrase of the old story writers, and end truthfully, thus: And so they lived. E. F.(Summary from the Foreword to Buttered Side Down)...

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Short stories, Humor, Fiction, Romance

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Following the Equator (American English title) or More Tramps Abroad (English title) is a non-fiction travelogue published by American author Mark Twain in 1897. Twain was practically bankrupt in 1894 due to a failed investment into a revolutionary typesetting machine. In an attempt to extricate himself from debt of $100,000 (equivalent of about $2 million in 2005) he undertook a tour of the British Empire in 1895, a route chosen to provide numerous opportunities for lectures in the English language. In Following the Equator, an account of that travel published in 1897, the author unmasks and criticizes racism, imperialism and missionary zeal in observations woven into the narrative with classical Twain wit. Of particular interest, historically, are Twain's references to Cecil Rhodes in Australia and South Africa, the in-depth description of Thugs and Thuggee in India and the Boer War period and diamonds in South Africa. (Summary by Wikipedia and John Greenman)...

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Travel, Humor

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“Now I have said again and again (and I shall continue to say again and again on all the most inappropriate occasions) that we must hit Capitalism, and hit it hard, for the plain and definite reason that it is growing stronger. Most of the excuses which serve the capitalists as masks are, of course, the excuses of hypocrites. They lie when they claim philanthropy; they no more feel any particular love of men than Albu felt an affection for Chinamen. They lie when they say they have reached their position through their own organising ability. They generally have to pay men to organise the mine, exactly as they pay men to go down it. They often lie about the present wealth, as they generally lie about their past poverty. But when they say that they are going in for a constructive social policy, they do not lie. They really are going in for a constructive social policy. And we must go in for an equally destructive social policy; and destroy, while it is still half-constructed, the accursed thing which they construct.” (Summary from Gilbert Keith Chesterton, d. 1936)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Humor, Religion

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This is a small collection of whimsical poems by the American physician and author Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. The Deacon's Masterpiece describes the logical outcome of building an object (in this case, a two-wheeled carriage called a shay) that has no weak points. The economic term one hoss shay, referring to a certain model of depreciation, derives its name from this poem. How the Old Horse Won the Bet is a lighthearted look at a horse race. Finally, The Broomstick Train is a wonderfully Halloween-y explanation of how an electric tram really works. (Summary by Laurie Anne Walden)...

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Poetry, Humor

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From Alice in Blunderland: Certain of our members claim that they have a right to sell their votes for $500 apiece-- Mercy! cried Alice, Why, that is--that is terrible. It certainly is, said the March Hare ruefully, it's rotten. Here I've been holding out for $1,250 for mine, and these duffers want to go in for a cut rate that will absolutely ruin the business. John Kendrick Bangs takes Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and turns it into a political satire in many ways as fresh, keen and relevant today as it was a hundred years ago. (Summary by Ruth Golding)...

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Humor, Satire

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The thirty-five year-old (hence utterly over-the-hill) Miss Margaret Mackenzie, having devoted her life to others, suddenly finds herself with no one to care for, and in possession of a moderate fortune. Having money, she is now much sought-after and no longer universally deemed too old to marry. Partly because she has spent her life taking care of the brother whose money she has now inherited, she has no experience of wealth or popularity. Miss Mackenzie is the definition of “other-oriented. (Indeed, Trollope originally considered naming the novel, and his heroine, “Griselda”, presumably to invoke the folkloric character’s qualities of stolid obedience and endless patience.) These circumstances are the perfect set-up for classic Trollopian swipes and snipes at various fortune-hunters and other obsequies, and more broadly at society’s sexism, classism, and Mammonism. She comes into her own and begins to try to enjoy life, at first juggling, but ultimately rejecting, three serious suitors. As the story unfolds, the particulars of her deceased brother’s life and death reveal themselves, Miss Mackenzie becomes increasingly able to know...

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Historical Fiction, Humor, Romance

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A Man of Means is a collection of six short stories written in collaboration by P. G. Wodehouse and C. H. Bovill. The stories all star Roland Bleke, a nondescript young man to whom financial success comes through a series of lucky chances, the first from a win in a sweepstake he had forgotten entering. Roland, like many a timid young man seeks love and marriage. In this pursuit his wealth is regularly a mixed blessing. The plot of each story follows its predecessor, sometimes directly, and occasionally refer back to past events in Bleke's meteoric career. The writing style is crisp and droll, and shows much of the skill and polish of the later Wodehouse. The disasters that befall the hapless Bleke are entertainingly recounted and his unforeseen rescues surprise and delight. In the character of the butler, Mr Teal, we meet an early draft of the ingenious Jeeves. The stories first appeared in the United Kingdom in The Strand in 1914, and in the United States in Pictorial Review in 1916. They were later published in book form in the UK by Porpoise Books in 1991; the collection was released on Project Gutenberg in 2003. (Summary by Wiki...

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Short stories, Humor

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It wasn't Archie's fault really. It's true he went to America and fell in love with Lucille, the daughter of a millionaire hotel proprietor and if he did marry her--well, what else was there to do? From his point of view, the whole thing was a thoroughly good egg; but Mr. Brewster, his father-in-law, thought differently, Archie had neither money nor occupation, which was distasteful in the eyes of the industrious Mr. Brewster; but the real bar was the fact that he had once adversely criticised one of his hotels. Archie does his best to heal the breach; but, being something of an ass, genus priceless, he finds it almost beyond his powers to placate the man-eating fish whom Providence has given him as a father-in-law. (Summary from the Gutenberg text)...

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Fiction, Humor

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(Summary by Mike Vendetti) Sinclair Lewis’ George F. Babbitt is a complicated and conflicted character. When you think you have his next move figured out he surprises you. As you begin to like him, he does something to evoke the “what a rat” response. Male menopause wasn’t a pre Great Depression term, but I would say George has all the symptoms. At a pudgy balding forty six he looks at his life, wife, family and business. He sees himself as a pretty successful business man, but when Tanis, the lonely widow has a leaky roof, he sees an opportunity for perhaps a more fulfilling relationship then he has at home. Add to Tanis a foray into radical politics, and we are about to whiteness an emotional and financial train wreck with Babbitt at the throttle. This is a long story, but well worth listening to. Human nature hasn’t changed much in the last ninety years. Enjoy the novel, Mike Vendetti...

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Historical Fiction, Humor, Satire

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Bennett's essays always provide food for thought and bring a wry smile to the lips. Human nature, it appears, changes little over the ages, and Bennett, as always, stands the test of time, though in the case of some of the essays in this eclectic collection, it is well to remember that they were written at the time of the First World War and the fight for women's suffrage. (Summary by Ruth Golding)...

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Essay/Short nonfiction, Humor, Philosophy, Satire

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Semi-autobiographical series of incidents in the life of an intellectual American family in the late 19th - early 20th Century as seen by favored daughter, Sylvia Marshall. Her father is an economics professor in a Midwestern state university and she is following in his inquisitive footsteps. Canfield writes this in a matter-of-fact manner with Tarkingtonesque good humor. ( Summary by BellonaTimes )...

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Humor, Romance, Teen/Young adult