What do you think?
Rate this book
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
American humorist James Thurber’s classic short story is about a man who escapes the tedium of his mundane life by retreating into his vivid imagination. This e-book features the original story, a selection of Thurber drawings and a new introduction by Rosemary A. Thurber, the author’s daughter.
150 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1939
447 people are currently reading
11487 people want to read
About the author
James Thurber
361 books610 followersThurber was born in Columbus, Ohio to Charles L. Thurber and Mary Agnes (Mame) Fisher Thurber. Both of his parents greatly influenced his work. His father, a sporadically employed clerk and minor politician who dreamed of being a lawyer or an actor, is said to have been the inspiration for the small, timid protagonist typical of many of his stories. Thurber described his mother as a "born comedienne" and "one of the finest comic talents I think I have ever known." She was a practical joker, on one occasion pretending to be crippled and attending a faith healer revival, only to jump up and proclaim herself healed.
Thurber had two brothers, William and Robert. Once, while playing a game of William Tell, his brother William shot James in the eye with an arrow. Because of the lack of medical technology, Thurber lost his eye. This injury would later cause him to be almost entirely blind. During his childhood he was unable to participate in sports and activities because of his injury, and instead developed a creative imagination, which he shared in his writings.
From 1913 to 1918, Thurber attended The Ohio State University, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. He never graduated from the University because his poor eyesight prevented him from taking a mandatory ROTC course. In 1995 he was posthumously awarded a degree.
From 1918 to 1920, at the close of World War I, Thurber worked as a code clerk for the Department of State, first in Washington, D.C. and then at the American Embassy in Paris, France. After this Thurber returned to Columbus, where he began his writing career as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch from 1921 to 1924. During part of this time, he reviewed current books, films, and plays in a weekly column called "Credos and Curios," a title that later would be given to a posthumous collection of his work. Thurber also returned to Paris in this period, where he wrote for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers.
In 1925, he moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, getting a job as a reporter for the New York Evening Post. He joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1927 as an editor with the help of his friend and fellow New Yorker contributor, E.B. White. His career as a cartoonist began in 1930 when White found some of Thurber's drawings in a trash can and submitted them for publication. Thurber would contribute both his writings and his drawings to The New Yorker until the 1950s.
Thurber was married twice. In 1922, Thurber married Althea Adams. The marriage was troubled and ended in divorce in May 1935. Adams gave Thurber his only child, his daughter Rosemary. Thurber remarried in June, 1935 to Helen Wismer. His second marriage lasted until he died in 1961, at the age of 66, due to complications from pneumonia, which followed upon a stroke suffered at his home. His last words, aside from the repeated word "God," were "God bless... God damn," according to Helen Thurber.
Thurber had two brothers, William and Robert. Once, while playing a game of William Tell, his brother William shot James in the eye with an arrow. Because of the lack of medical technology, Thurber lost his eye. This injury would later cause him to be almost entirely blind. During his childhood he was unable to participate in sports and activities because of his injury, and instead developed a creative imagination, which he shared in his writings.
From 1913 to 1918, Thurber attended The Ohio State University, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. He never graduated from the University because his poor eyesight prevented him from taking a mandatory ROTC course. In 1995 he was posthumously awarded a degree.
From 1918 to 1920, at the close of World War I, Thurber worked as a code clerk for the Department of State, first in Washington, D.C. and then at the American Embassy in Paris, France. After this Thurber returned to Columbus, where he began his writing career as a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch from 1921 to 1924. During part of this time, he reviewed current books, films, and plays in a weekly column called "Credos and Curios," a title that later would be given to a posthumous collection of his work. Thurber also returned to Paris in this period, where he wrote for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers.
In 1925, he moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, getting a job as a reporter for the New York Evening Post. He joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1927 as an editor with the help of his friend and fellow New Yorker contributor, E.B. White. His career as a cartoonist began in 1930 when White found some of Thurber's drawings in a trash can and submitted them for publication. Thurber would contribute both his writings and his drawings to The New Yorker until the 1950s.
Thurber was married twice. In 1922, Thurber married Althea Adams. The marriage was troubled and ended in divorce in May 1935. Adams gave Thurber his only child, his daughter Rosemary. Thurber remarried in June, 1935 to Helen Wismer. His second marriage lasted until he died in 1961, at the age of 66, due to complications from pneumonia, which followed upon a stroke suffered at his home. His last words, aside from the repeated word "God," were "God bless... God damn," according to Helen Thurber.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,017 reviews
Want to read
January 21, 2020Warning: if you want to know what The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is about, you won't find out here. But if you want to hear the terrible joke that our Russian teacher told us in 1974, you've come to the right place.
Ready?
So there's this Viking, and he figures he's got too old for the raping and looting and pillaging. What's he going to do? Well, he decides he's going to go back to school and get a degree in Eng Lit.
So he goes back to school and the other people kind of like him, it's cool having a Viking in the class. But he seems more and more unhappy as the term wears on. And one day the guy who sits next to him walks past a bar and there's the Viking slumped miserably over a large collection of empty glasses. He looks like he might start bawling at any minute.
His friend is shocked! Ragnar, he says, what's wrong?
It's this damn term paper, says Ragnar. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It's due in tomorrow and I haven't written a word, I don't even know how to start. All I know is raping and looting and pillaging.
Look, says his friend, it's not so bad. Just write whatever came into your head when you read it. Doesn't matter if it's a bit weird. The instructor will say you're 'creative', she's a doll.
Haven't even read it says Ragnar, and he orders another beer.
Now, says his friend firmly, that's enough beer. We're going off to the library and we're going to read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and you're going to write your term paper and it'll all be fine.
So they go off to the library and Ragnar's friend finds The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and they sit down together and the friend reads it all to him very quietly, so as not to disturb the other people studying there. And then he gets out his iPad and he says okay Ragnar, now tell me what came into your head when you heard that. I'll even write it down for you.
Nothing came into my head, says Ragnar stubbornly.
But something must have come into your head, says the friend. Think, Ragnar, think!
I can't, says Ragnar stubbornly. And so he flunked his course and had to go back to raping and looting and pillaging, even though he was too old and hated it nearly as much as he hated writing term papers on Eng Lit.
You're probably wondering what the moral of this story is, so I'll tell you. It's
Ready?
So there's this Viking, and he figures he's got too old for the raping and looting and pillaging. What's he going to do? Well, he decides he's going to go back to school and get a degree in Eng Lit.
So he goes back to school and the other people kind of like him, it's cool having a Viking in the class. But he seems more and more unhappy as the term wears on. And one day the guy who sits next to him walks past a bar and there's the Viking slumped miserably over a large collection of empty glasses. He looks like he might start bawling at any minute.
His friend is shocked! Ragnar, he says, what's wrong?
It's this damn term paper, says Ragnar. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It's due in tomorrow and I haven't written a word, I don't even know how to start. All I know is raping and looting and pillaging.
Look, says his friend, it's not so bad. Just write whatever came into your head when you read it. Doesn't matter if it's a bit weird. The instructor will say you're 'creative', she's a doll.
Haven't even read it says Ragnar, and he orders another beer.
Now, says his friend firmly, that's enough beer. We're going off to the library and we're going to read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and you're going to write your term paper and it'll all be fine.
So they go off to the library and Ragnar's friend finds The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and they sit down together and the friend reads it all to him very quietly, so as not to disturb the other people studying there. And then he gets out his iPad and he says okay Ragnar, now tell me what came into your head when you heard that. I'll even write it down for you.
Nothing came into my head, says Ragnar stubbornly.
But something must have come into your head, says the friend. Think, Ragnar, think!
I can't, says Ragnar stubbornly. And so he flunked his course and had to go back to raping and looting and pillaging, even though he was too old and hated it nearly as much as he hated writing term papers on Eng Lit.
You're probably wondering what the moral of this story is, so I'll tell you. It's
July 25, 2014
To every single one out there who's won wars, destroyed enemy ships, rescued the cat in the tree, saved the world, graduated from college, lost a few pounds, fallen in love and had their happy ending... in their minds.
Because daydreaming is underrated.
Because daydreaming is underrated.
February 9, 2017
Meet Walter Mitty.
He's a Husband.
He's a Captain of a Navy ship
He's a toughest man on the trial
He's the man who can a woman from distress and is a hero to all man kind.
He's also worrying his wife, his co-workers, his boss and his shrink.
Walter Mitty has dreams. Dreams of being a hero. But he's not dreaming them in bed, like everyone else is. He's dreaming these events while driving, while shopping, talking to his wife, walking down the street. He "sees" himself as a hero to everyone, but doesn't really do anything about it. He's just your average Joe that is taking his wife to get her hair done. And while she is getting her hair done, he runs errands. But everyday life, everything that we see, feel, touch, hear generates this scene in his head where he is the hero to the story and he's living it right then and there!! While everyone looks at him like he's weird, he doesn't see what wrong with this!!
As a writer I was thrilled that I am not the only person that this is happening too!!! I can't tell you how many times I will be sitting at the Library that I work at and there will be an event that will take place, or someone says something to me and it triggers a scene playing in my head and I'm living that story out (in my head of course). I am a writer and I am always getting scenarios playing out in my head that sometimes leave me speechless until I am writing that out in my laptop. Sometimes I talk out loud the scenes but hey, I'm a writer it's allowed. (I think....)
He's a Husband.
He's a Captain of a Navy ship
He's a toughest man on the trial
He's the man who can a woman from distress and is a hero to all man kind.
He's also worrying his wife, his co-workers, his boss and his shrink.
Walter Mitty has dreams. Dreams of being a hero. But he's not dreaming them in bed, like everyone else is. He's dreaming these events while driving, while shopping, talking to his wife, walking down the street. He "sees" himself as a hero to everyone, but doesn't really do anything about it. He's just your average Joe that is taking his wife to get her hair done. And while she is getting her hair done, he runs errands. But everyday life, everything that we see, feel, touch, hear generates this scene in his head where he is the hero to the story and he's living it right then and there!! While everyone looks at him like he's weird, he doesn't see what wrong with this!!
As a writer I was thrilled that I am not the only person that this is happening too!!! I can't tell you how many times I will be sitting at the Library that I work at and there will be an event that will take place, or someone says something to me and it triggers a scene playing in my head and I'm living that story out (in my head of course). I am a writer and I am always getting scenarios playing out in my head that sometimes leave me speechless until I am writing that out in my laptop. Sometimes I talk out loud the scenes but hey, I'm a writer it's allowed. (I think....)
August 2, 2013
Shamelessly read in preparation for the movie.
Genuinely excited for this.
Genuinely excited for this.
July 9, 2022
I was inspired to reread this story by a Goodreads friend who recently read it, and I'm glad I did. My first reading was a few years back and was inimpressive. I still don't think the story is particularly impactful.
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY is about a hen-pecked husband who lives a number of different, gallant lives in his head while he goes about his ordinary life. None of these fantasies ever play out to satisfaction before being interrupted by normal life. I agree with another Goodreads reviewer who said the story is sad. Only I think it is sad specifically because of the ending, and how the story's fantasy/real life pattern concludes. Sad, but this was a bit of fine writing.
I won't say anymore, though, in case you read it! I don't want to ruin it for you!
Also, 2 movies have been made from this story, most recently with Ben Stiller. I haven't seen either one, but I've heard good things and I want to see both of them. That should be Goodreads new motto! Goodreads. Finish a book, discover a series, an anthology, a poetry collection, and four films.
*edit July 2022 I just finished watching the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which is only loosely based on this short story, I would say. Walter Mitty is the basis for the film's protagonist by the same name, to a greater or lesser degree. I loved this film, starring Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty. Though I thought it very different from the short story, I enjoyed it much more for its narrative, themes, and style.
Rating 4 stars
2nd Reading, Finished July 2022
Recommended for fans of short fiction, literary fiction, modern fiction, psychological fiction, mental health fiction
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY is about a hen-pecked husband who lives a number of different, gallant lives in his head while he goes about his ordinary life. None of these fantasies ever play out to satisfaction before being interrupted by normal life. I agree with another Goodreads reviewer who said the story is sad. Only I think it is sad specifically because of the ending, and how the story's fantasy/real life pattern concludes. Sad, but this was a bit of fine writing.
I won't say anymore, though, in case you read it! I don't want to ruin it for you!
Also, 2 movies have been made from this story, most recently with Ben Stiller. I haven't seen either one, but I've heard good things and I want to see both of them. That should be Goodreads new motto! Goodreads. Finish a book, discover a series, an anthology, a poetry collection, and four films.
*edit July 2022 I just finished watching the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which is only loosely based on this short story, I would say. Walter Mitty is the basis for the film's protagonist by the same name, to a greater or lesser degree. I loved this film, starring Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty. Though I thought it very different from the short story, I enjoyed it much more for its narrative, themes, and style.
Rating 4 stars
2nd Reading, Finished July 2022
Recommended for fans of short fiction, literary fiction, modern fiction, psychological fiction, mental health fiction
May 4, 2022
One Christmas, we were looking for a movie to watch as a family and landed on The Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring Ben Stiller. Each member of our family thoroughly enjoyed it and we enjoyed some lively discussion afterward, still warm in the afterglow of a positive experience.
I decided to follow up by reading the book that had inspired the movie. It's very different. Walter Mitty comes across as a dreamer and henpecked husband using his imagination to escape from his nagging wife into a hero's existence where he's a somebody, such as a pilot flying skillfully through rough weather, or a published surgeon saving an important person's life MacGyver-like with a fountain pen.
His wife demands, "I've been looking all over the hotel for you," and follows up with, "Why do you have to hide in this old chair?" Walter Mitty responds mutters some vagaries and the adds, "I was thinking. Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?" To which, she responds, "I'm going to take your temperature when I get you home." How sad.
I like the movie better than the book, however, without the book, the movie wouldn't exist.
I decided to follow up by reading the book that had inspired the movie. It's very different. Walter Mitty comes across as a dreamer and henpecked husband using his imagination to escape from his nagging wife into a hero's existence where he's a somebody, such as a pilot flying skillfully through rough weather, or a published surgeon saving an important person's life MacGyver-like with a fountain pen.
His wife demands, "I've been looking all over the hotel for you," and follows up with, "Why do you have to hide in this old chair?" Walter Mitty responds mutters some vagaries and the adds, "I was thinking. Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?" To which, she responds, "I'm going to take your temperature when I get you home." How sad.
I like the movie better than the book, however, without the book, the movie wouldn't exist.
April 26, 2025
Thurber's 1945 collection transforms ordinary American life into absurdity. Walter Mitty dreams of surgical heroics while his wife drags him through errands ("'Back it up, Mac! Look out for that Buick!' Walter Mitty jammed on the brakes"). The five distinct fantasies—surgeon, accused witness, wartime pilot, patient targeted for experimental surgery, and man facing a firing squad—progressively intensify as Mitty's real-world frustrations mount, culminating in that final poignant image: "Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last."
"The Catbird Seat" introduces meek Mr. Martin plotting against office-disruptor Ulgine Barrows, whose catchphrase "Are you tearing up the pea patch?" might justify homicide in courts worldwide. "The Lady on the 142" examines mistaken identity on public transportation, showcasing Thurber as Ohio's greatest literary export and America's keenest observer of neurotic behavior.
Autobiographical stories shine brightly—"The Night the Bed Fell" chronicles domestic chaos where his cousin, convinced he would stop breathing during sleep, would "sit up every hour or so during the night, and forcibly inflate his lungs". "The Dog That Bit People" presents cantankerous Muggs, who "bit everybody except mother" and whose funeral attracted "a host of friends and relatives who had been bitten by him." In "The Secret Life of James Thurber," the author confesses, "I used to insist, during a psychoanalytical phase, that I killed my brother...I now know that I never killed my brother," an admission both hilarious and telling.
"A Couple of Hamburgers" depicts marital discord when lunch becomes warfare. "Doc Marlowe" and "The Luck of Jad Peters" explore small-town American characters with anthropological precision yet comic intent.
Thurber exists as literary humor's essential voice, read globally in translation from French to Japanese. His observations equal Chekhov's insight and Gogol's strangeness—capturing specific anxieties of mid-century America yet speaking to global human experience.
"The Greatest Man in the World" satirizes celebrity worship through aviator Jacky Smurch, whose heroic feat contrasts with his unsuitable personality. "The Evening's at Seven" and "One is a Wanderer" consider time and solitude with wisdom and wit. "The Remarkable Case of Mr. Bruhl" and "The Macbeth Murder Mystery" display Thurber's literary playfulness, while "A Ride with Olympy" and "Snapshot of a Dog" contain observations about daily life funnier and wiser than entire philosophy departments.
These deceptively simple tales resonate with anyone who has ever constructed an alternate reality to escape life's disappointments—which is to say, all of us. This collection is an exploration of how imagination becomes our most precious resource when reality proves too constraining for our spirits to soar. Thurber shows us our eccentricities as badges of honor rather than failings—a gift worth all five stars.
Rating: ★★★★ 1/2 - Reading Thurber equals discovering your quirks qualify you for club membership in humanity: devastating yet consoling, exactly why cocktails exist.
"... He never killed, or even chased, a squirrel. I don’t know why. He had his own philosophy about such things. He never ran barking after wagons or automobiles. He didn’t seem to see the idea in pursuing something you couldn’t catch, or something you couldn’t do anything with, even if you did catch it. A wagon was one of the things he couldn’t tug along with his mighty jaws, and he knew it. Wagons, therefore, were not a part of his world. Swimming was his favourite recreation. The first time he ever saw a body of water (Alum Creek), he trotted nervously along the steep bank for a while, fell to barking wildly, and finally plunged in from a height of eight feet or more. I shall always remember that shining, virgin dive. Then he swam upstream and back just for the pleasure of it, like a man. It was fun to see him battle upstream against a stiff current, struggling and growling every foot of the way. He had as much fun in the water as any person I have known. You didn’t have to throw a stick in the water to get him to go in. Of course, he would bring back a stick to you if you did throw one in. He would even have brought back a piano if you had thrown one in. That reminds me of the night, way after midnight, when he went a-roving in the light of the moon and brought back a small chest of drawers that he found somewhere — how far from the house nobody ever knew; since it was Rex, it could easily have been half a mile. There were no drawers in the chest when he got it home, and it wasn’t a good one — he hadn’t taken it out of anybody’s house; it was just an old cheap piece that somebody had abandoned on a trash heap. Still, it was something he wanted, probably because it presented a nice problem in transportation. It tested his mettle..."
"The Catbird Seat" introduces meek Mr. Martin plotting against office-disruptor Ulgine Barrows, whose catchphrase "Are you tearing up the pea patch?" might justify homicide in courts worldwide. "The Lady on the 142" examines mistaken identity on public transportation, showcasing Thurber as Ohio's greatest literary export and America's keenest observer of neurotic behavior.
Autobiographical stories shine brightly—"The Night the Bed Fell" chronicles domestic chaos where his cousin, convinced he would stop breathing during sleep, would "sit up every hour or so during the night, and forcibly inflate his lungs". "The Dog That Bit People" presents cantankerous Muggs, who "bit everybody except mother" and whose funeral attracted "a host of friends and relatives who had been bitten by him." In "The Secret Life of James Thurber," the author confesses, "I used to insist, during a psychoanalytical phase, that I killed my brother...I now know that I never killed my brother," an admission both hilarious and telling.
"A Couple of Hamburgers" depicts marital discord when lunch becomes warfare. "Doc Marlowe" and "The Luck of Jad Peters" explore small-town American characters with anthropological precision yet comic intent.
Thurber exists as literary humor's essential voice, read globally in translation from French to Japanese. His observations equal Chekhov's insight and Gogol's strangeness—capturing specific anxieties of mid-century America yet speaking to global human experience.
"The Greatest Man in the World" satirizes celebrity worship through aviator Jacky Smurch, whose heroic feat contrasts with his unsuitable personality. "The Evening's at Seven" and "One is a Wanderer" consider time and solitude with wisdom and wit. "The Remarkable Case of Mr. Bruhl" and "The Macbeth Murder Mystery" display Thurber's literary playfulness, while "A Ride with Olympy" and "Snapshot of a Dog" contain observations about daily life funnier and wiser than entire philosophy departments.
These deceptively simple tales resonate with anyone who has ever constructed an alternate reality to escape life's disappointments—which is to say, all of us. This collection is an exploration of how imagination becomes our most precious resource when reality proves too constraining for our spirits to soar. Thurber shows us our eccentricities as badges of honor rather than failings—a gift worth all five stars.
Rating: ★★★★ 1/2 - Reading Thurber equals discovering your quirks qualify you for club membership in humanity: devastating yet consoling, exactly why cocktails exist.
"... He never killed, or even chased, a squirrel. I don’t know why. He had his own philosophy about such things. He never ran barking after wagons or automobiles. He didn’t seem to see the idea in pursuing something you couldn’t catch, or something you couldn’t do anything with, even if you did catch it. A wagon was one of the things he couldn’t tug along with his mighty jaws, and he knew it. Wagons, therefore, were not a part of his world. Swimming was his favourite recreation. The first time he ever saw a body of water (Alum Creek), he trotted nervously along the steep bank for a while, fell to barking wildly, and finally plunged in from a height of eight feet or more. I shall always remember that shining, virgin dive. Then he swam upstream and back just for the pleasure of it, like a man. It was fun to see him battle upstream against a stiff current, struggling and growling every foot of the way. He had as much fun in the water as any person I have known. You didn’t have to throw a stick in the water to get him to go in. Of course, he would bring back a stick to you if you did throw one in. He would even have brought back a piano if you had thrown one in. That reminds me of the night, way after midnight, when he went a-roving in the light of the moon and brought back a small chest of drawers that he found somewhere — how far from the house nobody ever knew; since it was Rex, it could easily have been half a mile. There were no drawers in the chest when he got it home, and it wasn’t a good one — he hadn’t taken it out of anybody’s house; it was just an old cheap piece that somebody had abandoned on a trash heap. Still, it was something he wanted, probably because it presented a nice problem in transportation. It tested his mettle..."
July 8, 2022
I have something of a weakness for reading books and stories that were later turned into big Hollywood movies, to see how they compare. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was originally published as a short story in New Yorker magazine in 1939. It’s available to read for free online, and won’t take you more than about 10 minutes.
The hapless Walter is a mild-mannered chap who is constantly badgered and criticised by his domineering wife. His self-respect is further dented with a series of minor humiliations he experiences in his dealings with, well, just about everyone. As we all know, the poor chap takes refuge in daydreams in which he casts himself as a series of heroic characters.
In itself, the story seemed to me to be mildly amusing but otherwise unremarkable. It gave rise, of course, not only to two major movies but also to the phrase “a Walter Mitty character” to describe someone who appears to live in a make-believe world. Quite an impact!
The hapless Walter is a mild-mannered chap who is constantly badgered and criticised by his domineering wife. His self-respect is further dented with a series of minor humiliations he experiences in his dealings with, well, just about everyone. As we all know, the poor chap takes refuge in daydreams in which he casts himself as a series of heroic characters.
In itself, the story seemed to me to be mildly amusing but otherwise unremarkable. It gave rise, of course, not only to two major movies but also to the phrase “a Walter Mitty character” to describe someone who appears to live in a make-believe world. Quite an impact!
July 26, 2018
“After all, we only live once— or do we?”
I liked the movie too but it has been a long time. Ben Stiller read this. Good job.
Edit: 7/26/18
I have to say that one of my favorite literary characters of all time recently referred to another character that ticked him off as ‘ a Walter Mitty’. I was so glad I knew what that meant. For that set of you who have read or are reading the Pendergast series this happens in Blue Labyrinth where the agent has a discussion with a parking cop that I know wishes he could shrink and run away. One more thing NOT to do to Pendergast. Put a ticket on his car.
I liked the movie too but it has been a long time. Ben Stiller read this. Good job.
Edit: 7/26/18
I have to say that one of my favorite literary characters of all time recently referred to another character that ticked him off as ‘ a Walter Mitty’. I was so glad I knew what that meant. For that set of you who have read or are reading the Pendergast series this happens in Blue Labyrinth where the agent has a discussion with a parking cop that I know wishes he could shrink and run away. One more thing NOT to do to Pendergast. Put a ticket on his car.
December 10, 2015
James Thurber had me rooting for Walter Mitty from sentence number one. Adventure after adventure, Mitty dives in and out of wonderlands to escape his boring life. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty sort of reads like a children's short-story for adults--which is uniquely awesome if you ask me...
December 6, 2013
I have known about Walter Mitty almost all of my life. I never heard his words though, just that he was a thinker/dreamer. Aren't we all? Thank you, James Thurber for being the writer you were.
I am so glad Audible and Ben Stiller brought him to life for me. I listened to his story on the drive home from my daughters appartment last night. I started it at the end of her driveway and finished just as I turned into mine. I did not have to sit in the car to finish listening, as Ben Stiller had indicated that he has done, and as I have done so many times before. Lovely.
I am so glad Audible and Ben Stiller brought him to life for me. I listened to his story on the drive home from my daughters appartment last night. I started it at the end of her driveway and finished just as I turned into mine. I did not have to sit in the car to finish listening, as Ben Stiller had indicated that he has done, and as I have done so many times before. Lovely.
January 7, 2015
I downloaded this free audiobook from audible and decided to finally take the time to listen to it during my walk today. I was not impressed. The narration was great and I thought that Ben Stiller did a fantastic job but I found the story lacking. I really cannot believe that this is a well loved classic story to be honest. Maybe I am missing something as I often do.
Basically the story focused on a man who lives in a world of daydreams as his wife nags him constantly. This story was VERY short and only took about 15 minutes to complete. I haven't seen the movie but I wonder if this may be a case where the movie could be better than the written story.
Basically the story focused on a man who lives in a world of daydreams as his wife nags him constantly. This story was VERY short and only took about 15 minutes to complete. I haven't seen the movie but I wonder if this may be a case where the movie could be better than the written story.
May 24, 2016
Not great literature, but I had to smile because occasionally my 10 year old imagination takes over my brain as well. And it's hard to fault poor Walter, after all, he's married to Mrs Walter Mittty.
June 9, 2021
Dreams are somewhat differently interpreted by different people. To some of us dreams are just literal dreams. But to many dreams are untouchable fragments of longing. Dream can be a life we wanna live. Dream can be a life we never lived. Walter Mitty, the protagonist of this short story of James Thurber, a soft-spoken solemn elderly, never lived his dreams. He leads a monotonous life overwhelmed by his astute wife. The short story illustrates just a short span of a usual day of Walter Mitty while he roams around the town of Winterbury with his wife. He keeps roleplaying his cherished lives in his daydreams. He is nothing outside, in the real world. But he is the hero in his imaginary world, he becomes a fighter pilot, a surgeon, a shooter and what not. You might say, the guy is a complete looser, living a disoriented and ramshackle life, shaken from his existential roots. But you are seeing the empty half of the glass here. Walter Mitty embraces his day dreams as if it all happened. That's how his actual life feels inferior. “We only live once, Sergeant — or do we?” Or we can live as many as we want simultaneously. Life's too short for living enough. There lies a dormant Walter Mitty within ourselves. But we're too busy or too serious to acknowledge it. We all can't be Walter Mitty as he, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faces the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful. Walter Mitty, the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last, living his dream coldly but boldly.
January 25, 2015
3.5
A story for all those daydreamers. Walter Mitty has a bitter-sweet way of coping with life. There's nothing really wrong with his life. It's just plain ordinary, so he incorporates anything he sees or hears around him into his his daydream.
I prefer reading to listening (my mind starts wandering), but the audio of this story is also wonderful. Highly recommended.
A story for all those daydreamers. Walter Mitty has a bitter-sweet way of coping with life. There's nothing really wrong with his life. It's just plain ordinary, so he incorporates anything he sees or hears around him into his his daydream.
I prefer reading to listening (my mind starts wandering), but the audio of this story is also wonderful. Highly recommended.
November 27, 2014
This snippet of cozy brilliance by Thurber is his best short story ever, a story that makes the ordinary feel extraordinary. A story that gives the reader open permission to do the same in their life. A way to take a trip in your coziest chair without more than simply using your mind.
Walter Mitty is a regular chap who likes to day dream a few times a day; his adventurous second life is rich and riveting and so often interrupted by his whiny wife and life’s demands. Without worry he’s able to perform his tasks while shuffling his head dreams as if one was shuffling his ipod or playlist walking down a crowded street or working away on their computer with their head in better places. Mitty does his best to balance his wonderful imagination with the daily grind, even if his life isn’t too hard, his mental happy trips seem physical to his wife who is on a whole other plane ready to take his temperature. This is a delightful story that can be read and re-read in a short amount of time and it will always be delicious and imaginative.
- Kasia S.
Walter Mitty is a regular chap who likes to day dream a few times a day; his adventurous second life is rich and riveting and so often interrupted by his whiny wife and life’s demands. Without worry he’s able to perform his tasks while shuffling his head dreams as if one was shuffling his ipod or playlist walking down a crowded street or working away on their computer with their head in better places. Mitty does his best to balance his wonderful imagination with the daily grind, even if his life isn’t too hard, his mental happy trips seem physical to his wife who is on a whole other plane ready to take his temperature. This is a delightful story that can be read and re-read in a short amount of time and it will always be delicious and imaginative.
- Kasia S.
February 9, 2017
This was a quick read! And I should have done it long ago after I have watched the movie.
Anyway, like most modernists, for me at least, James Thurber nails it! This is a perfect depiction of man’s need for autonomy, individualism and self-assertion among the ranks of men … even when it is only through the magnificent realm of imagination and visualization.
Check this out:
"Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last."
How about that for an assertion of courage, valor and masculinity! And only because and after a series of imaginative experiences Walter has: first as a resourceful marine commander, second as a shrewd doctor, third as a courageous world war pilot, and fourth as a defiant martyr in the face of his executors in the quotation above.
Walter zones out into these daytime fantasies as he drives his blabbering wife to the hairdresser. No kidding! I’d throw myself out of the car after steering it towards a cliff if I end up with someone like her!
The moral here is this: men will do anything for freedom.
Anyway, like most modernists, for me at least, James Thurber nails it! This is a perfect depiction of man’s need for autonomy, individualism and self-assertion among the ranks of men … even when it is only through the magnificent realm of imagination and visualization.
Check this out:
"Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last."
How about that for an assertion of courage, valor and masculinity! And only because and after a series of imaginative experiences Walter has: first as a resourceful marine commander, second as a shrewd doctor, third as a courageous world war pilot, and fourth as a defiant martyr in the face of his executors in the quotation above.
Walter zones out into these daytime fantasies as he drives his blabbering wife to the hairdresser. No kidding! I’d throw myself out of the car after steering it towards a cliff if I end up with someone like her!
The moral here is this: men will do anything for freedom.
February 21, 2014
I do not understand the hype around James Thurber. He's allegedly this great American humorist. But his stories are rarely funny. Take this story, for example. It's very well written. And I enjoyed the Ben Stiller narration of the audiobook. But the story is sad and depressing; it's not remotely funny. To each his own, I guess.
March 2, 2019
A bored, distracted, mild-mannered, soft-spoken husband drives and goes with his domineering wife to various weekly shoppings and then wife's visit to beauty parlor. Dealing with this frustratingly dull, monotonous weekly routine and by extension his dull, monotonous life, all the while he keeps daydreaming about himself in thrilling, larger-than-life heroic adventures: a daring Navy pilot in a sea storm; a flawless surgeon performing a critical surgery; a deadly assassin keeping his cool while being interrogated in courtroom; a fearless Air Force pilot volunteering in a secret suicide bombing mission; and finally, facing a firing squad disdainfully with a smile on his lips and head held high in pride. He maybe is living a dull, boring, monotonous life now, but he could very well have been a hero in different lives who regularly gets involved in audacious, one-of-a-kind adventures and goes to exotic locations. And maybe one day he will.
At least this was the essence I understood, and felt from this brilliant little short story. Then I watched the 2013 film adaptation, and it was equally brilliant, breathtakingly imaginative, highly inspiring, and moving. To me of course. The film is not a literal adaptation with the story, but a thematic one, as it followed a similar mild-mannered, soft-spoken, always-distracted person in his frequent daring daydreams, who then one day in spite of himself and without planning, has to get off his ass and actually go on an impromptu grand adventure around the world like his imaginations. Where the short story left to the imaginations, the film picks up to the realizations. They both compliment each other perfectly in their themes of our urban solitude in crowds, with visions of living life at its fullest and aching to fulfill those visions into reality.
A 35-year old middle-aged person. Solitary. Disconnected. Lonely. Left the job. No purposes. Sits on his chair all life without leaving his four walls and his prison. And daydreams of big adventures to reach the end of the worlds, and to climb the highest mountains, and time travel to different universes, and fly beyond the galaxies. But never 'been anywhere', 'done anything'. I guess that makes me a Walter Mitty.
I haven't gone to Greenland, Iceland, North Sea, Himalayas. Not yet. One day. One day to scale the Everest. Its in my bucket list. Maybe one day I will.
Both the short story and the film touched me somewhere deep inside. To the dusted, decaying, hardened soul of this disconnected gray urban existence with colors of life. Of Hope. To feel alive.
Short story to read:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/19...
At least this was the essence I understood, and felt from this brilliant little short story. Then I watched the 2013 film adaptation, and it was equally brilliant, breathtakingly imaginative, highly inspiring, and moving. To me of course. The film is not a literal adaptation with the story, but a thematic one, as it followed a similar mild-mannered, soft-spoken, always-distracted person in his frequent daring daydreams, who then one day in spite of himself and without planning, has to get off his ass and actually go on an impromptu grand adventure around the world like his imaginations. Where the short story left to the imaginations, the film picks up to the realizations. They both compliment each other perfectly in their themes of our urban solitude in crowds, with visions of living life at its fullest and aching to fulfill those visions into reality.
A 35-year old middle-aged person. Solitary. Disconnected. Lonely. Left the job. No purposes. Sits on his chair all life without leaving his four walls and his prison. And daydreams of big adventures to reach the end of the worlds, and to climb the highest mountains, and time travel to different universes, and fly beyond the galaxies. But never 'been anywhere', 'done anything'. I guess that makes me a Walter Mitty.
I haven't gone to Greenland, Iceland, North Sea, Himalayas. Not yet. One day. One day to scale the Everest. Its in my bucket list. Maybe one day I will.
Both the short story and the film touched me somewhere deep inside. To the dusted, decaying, hardened soul of this disconnected gray urban existence with colors of life. Of Hope. To feel alive.
'Walter Mitty lighted a cigarette. It began to rain, rain with sleet in it. He stood up against the wall of the drugstore, smoking... He put his shoulders back and his heels together. He took one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.'
Short story to read:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/19...
January 4, 2014
Took advantage of the free download from Audible, in anticipation of the film. Ben Stiller has a nice reading voice, which was a tad shocking to me, because I mean, it's Stiller. I've never really thought of him as a narrator and was pleasantly surprised.
The length of the story itself is shocking as well. A 32 page tale(or 15 minute long narration) translated onto the screen as a full length feature? Obviously a lot of liberties have been taken (as was the case with Where The Wild Things Are when it was adapted for film), and it'll be interesting to see what Walter gets himself into!
I didn't find the writing to be all that amazing or the story to be all that engaging. No better or worse than a hundred other short stories I've read. Heck, I've read stories that knocked my socks off so hard... that I'm curious to know WHY THIS ONE and not those?
The length of the story itself is shocking as well. A 32 page tale(or 15 minute long narration) translated onto the screen as a full length feature? Obviously a lot of liberties have been taken (as was the case with Where The Wild Things Are when it was adapted for film), and it'll be interesting to see what Walter gets himself into!
I didn't find the writing to be all that amazing or the story to be all that engaging. No better or worse than a hundred other short stories I've read. Heck, I've read stories that knocked my socks off so hard... that I'm curious to know WHY THIS ONE and not those?
June 23, 2014
No sé si a todos les parecerá que merece cinco estrellas, pero a mí sí. Estaba buscando algo corto para descansar de los trabajos de la universidad y me acordé de este. Y elegí bien.
No repongo el argumento porque es un cuento (o short story, como le dicen) muy breve y, además, algunos deben conocer las versiones cinematográficas (que no vi y que, según lo que leí por ahí, distan del libro). Lo que sí puedo decir es que divierte, pero deja una sensación agridulce que perdura después de terminarlo. Hay una cruel verdad detrás de lo absurdo. Sin embargo, arranca una sonrisa y atrapa desde el principio, porque uno quiere saber qué está pasando.
Hay muy pocos personajes (tampoco se necesitan más, de hecho) pero Walter Mitty vale por varios. La identificación con él es posible. Está escrito con sencillez, sin rodeos, y usa un narrador que particularmente me gusta. Me abstengo de señalar otros detalles de mi agrado porque tienen relación con lo que sucede en el cuento.
En fin, me alegro de haberme determinado a leerlo. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty fue una especie de sorpresa en medio de mi caos cotidiano y seguramente haya sido o pueda ser la de alguien más.
No repongo el argumento porque es un cuento (o short story, como le dicen) muy breve y, además, algunos deben conocer las versiones cinematográficas (que no vi y que, según lo que leí por ahí, distan del libro). Lo que sí puedo decir es que divierte, pero deja una sensación agridulce que perdura después de terminarlo. Hay una cruel verdad detrás de lo absurdo. Sin embargo, arranca una sonrisa y atrapa desde el principio, porque uno quiere saber qué está pasando.
Hay muy pocos personajes (tampoco se necesitan más, de hecho) pero Walter Mitty vale por varios. La identificación con él es posible. Está escrito con sencillez, sin rodeos, y usa un narrador que particularmente me gusta. Me abstengo de señalar otros detalles de mi agrado porque tienen relación con lo que sucede en el cuento.
En fin, me alegro de haberme determinado a leerlo. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty fue una especie de sorpresa en medio de mi caos cotidiano y seguramente haya sido o pueda ser la de alguien más.
July 19, 2016
I first read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty when I was just out of high school, and I found myself totally relating to Walter Mitty in a big way. Not that I imagine myself being a surgeon or a pilot, but I often spend my time daydreaming and wishing for things that realistically will never happen for me. This time I listened to the audio version with Ben Stiller narrating, and it was a lovely little treat (as the whole thing is only 14 minutes long). I look forward to watching the movie again this week.
Booktube-a-thon 2016 challenge: Read and watch a book-to-movie adaptation [or] read a book that's older than you.
Booktube-a-thon 2016 challenge: Read and watch a book-to-movie adaptation [or] read a book that's older than you.
March 13, 2016
A very short short story :D if you wanna know what's maybe going on in someone's head :D very light, different from the movie but still a good one
February 29, 2024
Loved it.
Charming. Utterly charming. I felt very sorry for Walter Mitty, clearly dissatisfied with his humdrum life and making up stories to improve it.
Charming. Utterly charming. I felt very sorry for Walter Mitty, clearly dissatisfied with his humdrum life and making up stories to improve it.
January 21, 2015
The book was quite advanced and confusing to read, but however still made for a good read because it was just one of those books that grabs your attention and makes you want to keep reading. I think there was only one bad thing about it which was how confusing it was other than that a great read.
It was good that the story was in third-person because it helped control how confusing everything in the book was. Because it was in third-person everything was easier to understand because you could tell what was going on everywhere in the book.
"He took one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last." (James Thurber), this was quite confusing because of the amount of adjectives in this one, really long, sentence. I also do not remember anything about a firing squad which just added even more confusion to the whole story.
It was good that the story was in third-person because it helped control how confusing everything in the book was. Because it was in third-person everything was easier to understand because you could tell what was going on everywhere in the book.
"He took one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last." (James Thurber), this was quite confusing because of the amount of adjectives in this one, really long, sentence. I also do not remember anything about a firing squad which just added even more confusion to the whole story.
February 1, 2014
It was an American classic, a short story written in 1930's. I love how the prose became poetic, and how the author switched Mitty from an ordinary husband doing a weekly chore to become a surgeon. And a hero - inscrutable to the last.
There is something about onomatopoeia that made the short story appealing. It adds up to the reader imagining how Mitty quickly triggers a daydream. At one moment he is an assassin. And then he became a surgeon.
The thing with this short story is it leaves you a sort of a plot hang-over. He just waited. Stood there. And just like death via firing squad, he stayed motionless. Yet proud.
I guess this is what the author wanted to impart to the reader. Once the pen stopped he became still. And he was proud of his creation.
There is something about onomatopoeia that made the short story appealing. It adds up to the reader imagining how Mitty quickly triggers a daydream. At one moment he is an assassin. And then he became a surgeon.
The thing with this short story is it leaves you a sort of a plot hang-over. He just waited. Stood there. And just like death via firing squad, he stayed motionless. Yet proud.
I guess this is what the author wanted to impart to the reader. Once the pen stopped he became still. And he was proud of his creation.
January 21, 2015
This book is not deserving of even one star. It is all confusing and puts and strange picture in your mind. If you are going to introduce the story don't start in a day dream with different character. The plot in the story makes no sense what so ever. Walter Mitty's wife is always rude which in so boring and mean.
Works Sited
Thurber, James. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." Thenewyorker.com. Conde Nast 18 Mar. web. 12 Jan. 2015.
Works Sited
Thurber, James. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." Thenewyorker.com. Conde Nast 18 Mar. web. 12 Jan. 2015.
December 11, 2015
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a very short read, where an ordinary man keeps escaping from his mundane life by virtue of his highly imaginative daydreams, in which he is a hero of sorts!
It is this basic idea which is the only thing common between this short story and the movie, which was one of the first movies I had seen last year :)
It is this basic idea which is the only thing common between this short story and the movie, which was one of the first movies I had seen last year :)
December 22, 2013
A SHORT, short story and you now I am not into short stories. Still, I liked it. Why? Because Thurber lets you escape with Mitty into his fantasy world, and you understand why he flees there. This has to be short, or it will be longer than the story itself.
January 19, 2016
I wish it is a Novel than a short story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,017 reviews