Philo Gubb: Correspondence-School Detective

by Ellis Parker Butler

A hilarious parody of the detective genre - Gubb emulates Sherlock Holmes and maintains an office for his two occupations: correspondence-school detective and wallpaper hanger. One of the first and best detective parodies. "Detecktating is my aim and my profession." Thus speaks Philo Gubb in this classic volume of criminally silly comic exploits; with irresistible period illustrations by Rea Irvin. Philo Gubb: Correspondence-School Detective was picked by none other than Ellery Queen (Queen's Quorum #61) as one of the most important detective books ever written. Ellis Parker Butler (1869- 1937) was a native of Muscatine, Iowa. Dropping out of high school to help support the family he worked in a number of jobs including ones in a spice mill, an oatmeal mill, a china store, and a wholesale grocery. Moving to New York City in 1896, he began writing for trade magazines such as the Tailor's Review, the Wall Paper News, and The Decorative Furnisher. In 1905, his humorous short story, Pigs is Pigs appeared in the American Magazine, and the following year it was published in book form. Its phenomenal success allowed Butler to give up editing trade papers and turn to full-time authorship.

Genres: Humor, Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Ellis Parker Butler was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays. His career spanned more than forty years, and his stories, poems, and articles were published in more than 225 magazines.

Reviews

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before reading Philo Gubb, I had read two short stories by Ellis Parker Butler: That Pup, and Pigs is Pigs. Those two stories are among my favorite humorous short stories, both of which are laugh out loud funny, at least to me. So I came to Philo Gubb with high expectations.

Philo Gubb is a Sherlock Holmes parody. The lead character is a paper hanger that takes a correspondence course to become a detective. Unlike Holmes, he isn’t a master at deductions. In fact he is rather simple, to put it kindly. If you remember the leads from Dumb and Dumber, you can imagine how he stacks up against Holmes. When Gubb solves the cases he works on, it’s usually because of luck rather than skill.

This may sound good on paper, and there are some interesting plot twists, and turns in it. For example it’s got one seriously strange twist in a story called Philo Gubb’s Greatest Case.

But what it lacks is humor that still works. When I consider how funny the two short stories I had read before this book, I almost find it surprising that the same author wrote them. It’s amusing at best, occasionally it is painful, but mostly it is just mediocre. I don’t think I laughed once during this read, and that is not a good result when reading comedy.

I haven’t researched this well enough to make this assumption, but I’m starting to think that the sub genre of comedy that tends to age worst is the parody. I’ve read quite a few of them in the last few years, and they tend to be rather unfunny. That is the case with this one.

I think I may have to read Pigs is Pigs again to recover from this.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a moderately amusing book most of the way through. I wouldn't say it's wildly funny, but it held my interest. Much of the humor is low-key and rather dated. (The book was originally published in 1913; I read the Project Gutenberg EPUB version, based on a 1918 reprint.) Some of the humor, as common for the period, relies on racial and socio-economic stereotypes that are, at best, "questionable" these days, so that might be a consideration for many people when reading it in 2014. The book doesn't stand up to the ages as well as Sherlock Holmes does, but it's amusing enough. The narrative is a series of brief cases with an over-arching connection and temporal progression. The title character, Philo Gubb, is a wall-paper hanger by profession, but he graduated from a correspondence school for detection, hence the title. He's one of those bumbling detectives, of stereotypical appearance himself, who mostly solves his cases by dumb luck or fortuitous circumstances.

[Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilariously epic!

[Adam Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.
It took me quite a long time to read it, but it was almost a series of short stories and you could pick it up, read a chapter for 10 minutes and put it down, each chapter was a case.
Another thing I experienced while reading this that I hadn't before is after the first couple of chapters I was enjoying it so much and I went on Goodreads to check what everyone else thought. When I saw that ALL the reviews on here were negative it slowed me down. I had been excited by this find and gung-ho but seeing as no one else seemed to like it I questioned myself for a while, was I missing something others saw?
I would say the fun of this book is camp. I didn't know camp existed like this in 1913. I can't wait to read other books by this author. Not everyone gets camp, and it seemed one reviewer's children did, but not many. Camp is the detective learning by correspondence school and dressing in disguises that fool no one. It's the Faulty Towers aspect of the story, where a series of coincidences make it all work out in the end.
The book was a lot of fun.

[Melora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this aloud to my kids, and I'd have given it up after the first couple chapters if they hadn't been enjoying it, but they were. They enjoyed it "ironically," but, being teens, they like doing that. Some of the stories were just weird, others were very moderately amusing. The style of the humor, and also a few rather appalling examples of racism, are typical of the period (the stories were written in the early 1900's), but Philo Gubb reminded us of a slightly deflated Sponge Bob. He is well meaning and ever optimistic, despite the derision of the other residents of Bikini Bottom/Riverbank, and he can't imagine a more distinguished profession than that of fry cook/correspondence school detective & paper hanger, and, despite all probabilities, he always solves his cases.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philo Gubb is a "deteckative" who learns his craft through a correspondence school. The man gets involved in little cases and is not very respected by the law enforcement or others in town. He is laughed at a lot--he tends to dress in outlandish disguises and is pretty gullible. Amazingly, he solves many puzzles and even catches some real thieves and other criminals usually by some mistake or turn of circumstance that puts the criminals in his lap. The author tells the stories with her tongue in cheek--entertaining and you get to really like the little detective and sad when something huge does not work out in his life.

[RetroHound · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather amusing tale of one Philo Gubb, a person for whom the phase "dumb luck" would be invented. He's not too smart, but he is very lucky. As the book begins, Gubb is just finishing his course through the Rising Sun Correspondence School of Detecting in Twelve Lessons.

Each chapter is a different "case" in which Gubb solves some misdeed, mostly by con-men it seems. All the while being taken by a con-man he thinks is the father of his true love. Sometimes he seems to have what it takes, other times he's so dumb I can hardly finish the chapter.

Some interesting turns of phrase here where he repeats something, as in, "I presume to suppose" or "this exact moment and time" and he uses the word deteckating or deteckative.

One interesting thing that gives it the time-capsule flavor: "...selling broiled frankfurters (known as "hot dogs)..." Were hot dogs so new that they had to be explained?

Overall a decent read if you like amusing stories and a dumb protagonist.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellis Parker Butler introduces the reader to Philo Gubb a young, ambitious man from Riverbank, Iowa in this gentle detective farce. Philo does decorating and wallpaper hanging for work, but has recently started a correspondence course to become a full fledged detective. He will even get a star after completing all twelve lessons! The book is divided into short cases with charming illustrations. One of my favorite cases was “The Anonymous Wiggle” which refers to the signature of confusing letters a woman has received. Most of the letters are just facts found in any newspaper or non-fiction book. However, the first letter instructed her to follow what was written on page 14 of any book and do what was in the first sentence on that page! The client tells Philo that every book in her house was missing page 14- except for one cookbook! She is afraid who has been in her house! Please note this is historic fiction, first published in 1913, and reflects some of the attitudes of the time. But when this book ended, I wished I could visit Riverbank and meet Mr. Gubb and his neighbors.

[Timothy Ferguson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this book up after the second chapter. Imagine Forrest Gump as a detective, but without the folksy wisdom. Imagine a comedic bit being played over and over and over. Then add a bit of racism, and then some fetishization of a woman of non-conventional shape, and it all becomes a bit too wearysome. Available through Internet Archive (free e-book) and Librivox (free audio).


This review was first posted on book coasters

[107rinoNeko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iowa州のMississippi River沿いの町を舞台にしたミステリ短編集。
直球でベタなコメディ・ミステリ。サイコな本ばかり読んでいると、こののどかさが好ましく感じられる。
Holmesにあこれているにしては、名前がVance寄りというズレっぷりからして、Philo君がヘッポコなのはお約束。彼が検討はずれなことをしていても、どういうわけか事件が解決する。最初の事件はパッとしないのだけど、だんだんおもしろくなって行く。
彼は利用されやすいのだけど、大抵そのことに気づかないので、読者ほど苦にしていないようだ。だから、読みながらずっと「だまされてるよ！」と言いたい気持ちでいっぱいだったけど、伝えないほうが親切なんだろうな。物事を疑っても人は疑わない愚直さが彼の良さだろうから。

[Andy Febrico Bintoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mysteries are jokes

Funny and the mysteries are not really mysteries, lot of them are serious jokes. The novel is a compilation of short stories how the MC solved the humorous cases.

[JoAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have read "The Hard-Boiled Egg," "The Pet," and "The Eagle's Claw." Will read other chapters when they are available.

[Elizabeth (Betty) Thomsen]

Philo Gubb: Correspondence School Detective by Ellis Parker Butler by Ellis Parker Butler by Ellis Parker Butler (1918)

[Andy Febrico Bintoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humorous detective novel

Not really a mystery case, more likely this is a humor novel with the casting of detectives. The cases also presented in short story.

[Janelle]

Dnf. Some of the Librivox narrators weren’t to my taste.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: a parody of Holmes; Gubb runs a detective correspondence-school and wallpaper business.