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Hyman Kaplan #2
The Return of Hyman Kaplan
Twenty years after his first collection of tales about that Don Quixote of adult education, Leo Rosten brought Hyman Kaplan back for a second term on the bottom rung in the beginner's grade at the American Night Preparatory School for Adults.
192 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1959
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129 people want to read
About the author
Leo Rosten
50 books41 followersLeo Calvin Rosten was born in Lodz, Russian Empire (now Poland) and died in New York City. He was a teacher and academic, but is best known as a humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism and Yiddish lexicography.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 18, 2017
I am going to copy my review of the first book, and add a few comments.
I first read this and the sequel as a kid and loved it. Having just finished them again, I still love the books. These would be excellent books to bring to a wider audience at this anti-immigrant moment. The setting is an adult education classroom of mostly immigrants who are trying desperately to learn English. Their teacher is Mr. Parkhill. Hyman Kaplan is a student in this classroom. But to say that Hyman Kaplan is a student is to miss the point. He is the creative center of the class. He can get out of almost any argument about English and win, no matter how wrong he might be. He is both a stereotype of the eager immigrant and a unique individual ferociously proud to be American. As a side note, you can learn a lot about language in this book. I think the first book is not quite as good as the second book, simply because I found myself laughing out loud more with the second book. Both the first and the second book were composed of individual stories in The New Yorker and Harper magazine. The second was also written 20 odd years later, when the author was considerably more experienced. I took a look at the final chapter, which apparently was first published separately and ran for dictionary assistance online. If you do the same, keep going to the second page of google because the first page of answers does not give an actual definition. After I finally found the definition, I returned to the story and discovered that the rarity of the word was the point of the story. I dare you to read the ending of the story, and book without one last laugh while also admiring Hyman Kaplan's greatness as a person.
Addendum: I have never seen this before on a publication page: "First published October 1959 Second impression before publication" Can someone please tell me how one goes about having second impressions BEFORE publication? I feel as though I am in Mr. Parkhill's classroom tearing my hair out trying desperately to comprehend the incomprehensible! Let me add that the cover is correct but the book I have is hardback with no ISBN listed.
I first read this and the sequel as a kid and loved it. Having just finished them again, I still love the books. These would be excellent books to bring to a wider audience at this anti-immigrant moment. The setting is an adult education classroom of mostly immigrants who are trying desperately to learn English. Their teacher is Mr. Parkhill. Hyman Kaplan is a student in this classroom. But to say that Hyman Kaplan is a student is to miss the point. He is the creative center of the class. He can get out of almost any argument about English and win, no matter how wrong he might be. He is both a stereotype of the eager immigrant and a unique individual ferociously proud to be American. As a side note, you can learn a lot about language in this book. I think the first book is not quite as good as the second book, simply because I found myself laughing out loud more with the second book. Both the first and the second book were composed of individual stories in The New Yorker and Harper magazine. The second was also written 20 odd years later, when the author was considerably more experienced. I took a look at the final chapter, which apparently was first published separately and ran for dictionary assistance online. If you do the same, keep going to the second page of google because the first page of answers does not give an actual definition. After I finally found the definition, I returned to the story and discovered that the rarity of the word was the point of the story. I dare you to read the ending of the story, and book without one last laugh while also admiring Hyman Kaplan's greatness as a person.
Addendum: I have never seen this before on a publication page: "First published October 1959 Second impression before publication" Can someone please tell me how one goes about having second impressions BEFORE publication? I feel as though I am in Mr. Parkhill's classroom tearing my hair out trying desperately to comprehend the incomprehensible! Let me add that the cover is correct but the book I have is hardback with no ISBN listed.
December 8, 2017
As the case might be with many sequels, they appear from somewhat to considerably worse than the original book. "The Return of Hyman Kaplan" hangs closer to "somewhat" in my view, yet it's positively worse than the original "The Education of Hyman Kaplan". This book becomes a little boring, repetitive, and all too predictable. It's not nearly as funny and light-hearted as the original. At the beginning the writer puts in a confession, which, I am not sure is needed since it doesn't directly relate to the book itself. Moreover, in this confession, he mentions that he is of a bias that erudition is often a form of self-indulgence and serves to mask stupidity. It's probably a clever thought, yet the author seems to fall into this trap himself when he includes lots of Latin expressions, some with and others without a translation, which the average American reader today may not necessarily understand. The same happens with his quotes and names that come from Medieval and old classic literatures that again the average American reader may not know. The chapter that talks about the teacher's birthday seems to me a little extra. We find out that the teacher is probably single, without a family of his own and it appears that his class is now his family, a sad surrogate, to be sure, but is it needed? How does it help the book that is not really about the teacher but about the students? I would rather continue seeing the teacher as a professional in the classroom guiding his charges towards the mastery of the stubborn English language rather than an aging single man (I am assuming he's aging since nothing is said about his parents in the birthday chapter, so I am assuming that they have unfortunately passed). Back to the students, though. I am finding that Mr Kaplan's arguments and rejonders are weaker and far less witty than they were in the first book, and I am not sure why bright and capable students like Miss Mitnick are always defeated in their fights. There is really no justification for it except her shyness, but there is little logic, and I am not convinced. Overall, I'd say the book is fun to read but not as fun as the first one, and so I am giving it only three stars, which, to me, means kind of mediocre.
April 6, 2018
I do like this story. I read it many years ago while I was in Junior High School, if not earlier. It's about a group of immigrants to the US who take English as a new language at a night school. It highlights the efforts of My Hyman Kaplan, a dedicated, over-the-top somewhat, energetic student and his effect on the overworked English teacher, Mr Parkhill, or Mr Pockheel as he is called by Mr Kaplan. Each chapter is a small anecdote about one evening in the class, the humour is light, the characaters funny. Excellent story. Anyone would enjoy.
May 28, 2016
Hyman Kaplan is an intensely keen student of English in his American adult evening class but rarely makes progress. He is a very likeable character but also very stubborn. The first Hyman Kaplan book was written in the 1930s and was very funny. This follow up was written some 20 years later. The chapters are longer and laboured and the author's language somewhat pretentious. Still a book which I enjoyed reading but the first one is much better
May 10, 2020
The Return of Hyman Kaplan by Leo Rosten (writing as Leonard Q. Ross) (Prion Books 2000) (Fiction). The one and only Hyman Kaplan signs on for another term in the adult learner's night school English As A Second Language class in New York City with sidesplitting results. This is one hilarious book! My rating: 8/10, finished 1977.
October 14, 2022
This was a favorite when I was younger, but I haven’t reread it in probably over twenty years. It holds up more than I expected. A lot of the humor is based on immigrants’ accents so that part has not really held up at all, but the characterizations really are strong, and the characters are funny not because of their mispronunciations but because of their relationships within an ESL class. The lengthy sections about Mr. Parkhill that often bookend the classroom scenes are just as boring as ever and I cannot believe how many punchlines require an understanding of Latin? I did not get any of the Latin jokes at all.
July 18, 2022
The first book ( The Education of Hyman Kaplan) is a five star classic. This is good but not at the same level. I heard the original book serialised on Radio 4 about 30 years ago and that was my introduction to the world of Hyman Kaplan. ‘Give an eeennch, Kaplan’😂
March 29, 2024
Amusing sequel, Hyman Kaplan is back just when the king-suffering Mr Parkhill thought he was free.
“Mr Parkhill felt like he was in an elevator whose cable had just snapped”. Hilarious descriptions, lots of laughs.
“Mr Parkhill felt like he was in an elevator whose cable had just snapped”. Hilarious descriptions, lots of laughs.
February 26, 2020
Really entertaining kind and uplifting book.
Read in czech and english too.
Read in czech and english too.
March 27, 2022
I love both the H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N books and it was a joy to re-read them both after many years. I have, since reading the first book in the early 70's used one of his sayings, Hau Kay.
February 6, 2023
Clever, funny, well-executed but like many sequels without the sheer freshness of the original.
April 21, 2024
Was cute but not as funny as the first one.
March 12, 2025
3.5 stars
This book was enjoyable enough, but not as funny as the first.
This book was enjoyable enough, but not as funny as the first.
August 31, 2020
Amusing, but not as funny as the first book, The Education of Hyman Kaplan, which was a 5-star.
July 30, 2025
I’m a simple lady: I like my tea hot, my toast buttered, and Hyman Kaplan to always, unequivocally WIN in life. I find it inspirational that Mr. Kaplan, despite making errors on a near-constant basis, still maintains an interest and cultivates a passion in learning the English language. This is exactly why the first book in this two-book series (The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N) is wonderful and meaningful. But when reading the sequel (The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N), I just didn’t feel the same magic, probably because I was laughing MUCH less.
The jokes in this book, although sometimes just as funny as the first book, were fewer and farther between. Mr. Kaplan spends more time in this book getting chastised by his fellow classmates at the American Night Preparatory School for Adults. This results in this book feeling more mean-spirited (although still funny) in moments when Mr. Kaplan writes on the board and is watched by the rest of the class: “Several of the students, perusing Mr. Kaplan’s work with that special, hawklike zeal they reserved for the thorn in their side, were exchanging expectant chortles. A cocksure grin spread from Mr. Plonsky to Mr. Blattberg; a knowing gloat winged back from Mr. Blattberg to Mr. Plonsky. Miss Taranova moved an inscrutable smile along her inscrutable lips and honed her dagger for the carnage to come. Someone snickered.” This cynical business just isn’t what I had in mind when I chose to seek out this sequel!
I would not classify this as a bad book, but it is a noticeably weaker book than The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, particularly its conclusion. In the first book, after writing a very thoughtful essay littered with grammatical errors and misspellings, Mr. Kaplan closes his final exam out with a postscript affirming his excitement for the beginners class, regardless of anticipating his own inevitable failure. The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N tries to achieve the same triumphant conclusion between Mr. Parkhill and Mr. Kaplan, but I was left unsatisfied and somewhat disappointed instead. In the sequel’s ending, Mr. Parkhill asks students to bring words to school in order to trace their origins, but takes issue with Mr. Kaplan’s word (“eumoirous”), telling Mr. Kaplan that it is too obscure: “As Mr. Parkhill went on, Mr. Kaplan’s features began to sag, like wax under heat. He had expected Mr. Parkhill to praise him for discovering so rare a creature as ‘eumoirous,’ perhaps even cite him for audacity in bringing it to bay. […] For the rest of the evening, Mr. Kaplan sat silent, stunned, wrapped in desolation.”
This exposes Mr. Parkhill’s personal limitations as a teacher, and although the final note shared between Parkhill and Kaplan restores balance between the men, it fell flat in comparison to the better and stronger conclusion of the first book. I rate The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N as three-out-of-five-stars. The preface, written by the author of both books (who published the first book under the pseudonym Leonard Q. Ross) was especially enjoyable and provides excellent background into the making of the Kaplan stories. In the preface, Leo Rosten writes, “Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets, journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers.” To that thought I add: although it was a long, long time between the Hyman Kaplan books being published, only the first book holds special significance for me.
The jokes in this book, although sometimes just as funny as the first book, were fewer and farther between. Mr. Kaplan spends more time in this book getting chastised by his fellow classmates at the American Night Preparatory School for Adults. This results in this book feeling more mean-spirited (although still funny) in moments when Mr. Kaplan writes on the board and is watched by the rest of the class: “Several of the students, perusing Mr. Kaplan’s work with that special, hawklike zeal they reserved for the thorn in their side, were exchanging expectant chortles. A cocksure grin spread from Mr. Plonsky to Mr. Blattberg; a knowing gloat winged back from Mr. Blattberg to Mr. Plonsky. Miss Taranova moved an inscrutable smile along her inscrutable lips and honed her dagger for the carnage to come. Someone snickered.” This cynical business just isn’t what I had in mind when I chose to seek out this sequel!
I would not classify this as a bad book, but it is a noticeably weaker book than The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, particularly its conclusion. In the first book, after writing a very thoughtful essay littered with grammatical errors and misspellings, Mr. Kaplan closes his final exam out with a postscript affirming his excitement for the beginners class, regardless of anticipating his own inevitable failure. The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N tries to achieve the same triumphant conclusion between Mr. Parkhill and Mr. Kaplan, but I was left unsatisfied and somewhat disappointed instead. In the sequel’s ending, Mr. Parkhill asks students to bring words to school in order to trace their origins, but takes issue with Mr. Kaplan’s word (“eumoirous”), telling Mr. Kaplan that it is too obscure: “As Mr. Parkhill went on, Mr. Kaplan’s features began to sag, like wax under heat. He had expected Mr. Parkhill to praise him for discovering so rare a creature as ‘eumoirous,’ perhaps even cite him for audacity in bringing it to bay. […] For the rest of the evening, Mr. Kaplan sat silent, stunned, wrapped in desolation.”
This exposes Mr. Parkhill’s personal limitations as a teacher, and although the final note shared between Parkhill and Kaplan restores balance between the men, it fell flat in comparison to the better and stronger conclusion of the first book. I rate The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N as three-out-of-five-stars. The preface, written by the author of both books (who published the first book under the pseudonym Leonard Q. Ross) was especially enjoyable and provides excellent background into the making of the Kaplan stories. In the preface, Leo Rosten writes, “Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets, journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers.” To that thought I add: although it was a long, long time between the Hyman Kaplan books being published, only the first book holds special significance for me.
January 17, 2014
Sequel to 'The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, this charts another year in the beginners' class of the American Night School English class - what we would call TEFL today. The wonderful Mr Parkhill continues to plan interesting lessons for his multi-national group of students, regularly interrupted by the larger-than-life Mr Kaplan.
Stereotypes abound; the humour is at the expense of those for whom English is difficult, although sometimes it turns out that the joke is in fact on the absurdities of the language, while the students' logic is impeccable.
It's years since I read this, so I was delighted to find it again. Although I remembered a lot of it, it was still amusing and prompted a few chuckles. I wouldn't rate it as 'hilarious' as its contemporary reviewers did - this was published in 1960 - but I enjoyed reading this very much, along with the introduction of this 2000 re-print which places it in context for 21st century readers.
Recommended, if you don't mind this kind of stereotyped humour.
Stereotypes abound; the humour is at the expense of those for whom English is difficult, although sometimes it turns out that the joke is in fact on the absurdities of the language, while the students' logic is impeccable.
It's years since I read this, so I was delighted to find it again. Although I remembered a lot of it, it was still amusing and prompted a few chuckles. I wouldn't rate it as 'hilarious' as its contemporary reviewers did - this was published in 1960 - but I enjoyed reading this very much, along with the introduction of this 2000 re-print which places it in context for 21st century readers.
Recommended, if you don't mind this kind of stereotyped humour.
September 16, 2009
Another interesting book on tape while I scrapbooked. This
is a collection of humorous stories that were originally
published in 'Harper's Magazine' and 'The New Yorker.'
The book was published in 1959. Hyman and his fellow classmates, all immigrants, attend beginner's grade in a
New York night school for adults. Their teacher, Mr. Parkhill, patiently listens to them attempt to conquer the
English language. Hyman is every teacher's nightmare --
loves attention, has put-downs for other class members,
etc. There was one example after another of how confusing
Englist can be. Made me glad Englist was my FIRST language.
is a collection of humorous stories that were originally
published in 'Harper's Magazine' and 'The New Yorker.'
The book was published in 1959. Hyman and his fellow classmates, all immigrants, attend beginner's grade in a
New York night school for adults. Their teacher, Mr. Parkhill, patiently listens to them attempt to conquer the
English language. Hyman is every teacher's nightmare --
loves attention, has put-downs for other class members,
etc. There was one example after another of how confusing
Englist can be. Made me glad Englist was my FIRST language.
March 19, 2012
Leo Rosten's "The Return of Hyman Kaplan" treats the travails of an ESL teacher in a night school
class in N.Y.C. The class is a sort of "League of Nations", having students from Russia,Poland,
Yugoslavia,Greece and Italy. Mr. Rosten humorously,approximating the accents and sentence structure
of the people from those countries,especially the comments of Mr.Kaplan will have you laughing out
loud. Great book for light reading.
October 12, 2016
Awww. The final chapter, that shows the fight for power in Mr. Parkhill's English for Beginners's class in the Adult Preparatory Night School escalating, ends with such a sweet letter to his learned hero. Mr. H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, your character doesn't disappoint, ever.
May 23, 2007
And still more antics of Hyman Kaplan. Will the teacher, Mr. Parkhill, (which Kaplan pronounces 'Pockheel') survive another semester with him?
May 12, 2010
I love Hyman Kaplan and Mr. Pockheel!!!
June 24, 2012
Clever wordplay and a cute story but ultimately a single joke stretched too thin.
August 24, 2012
The magnificent sequel to a magnificent comedy. Start here.
July 27, 2015
Excellent!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews