Penrod: His Complete Story

Penrod #1

by Booth Tarkington

This compilation takes the contents of Penrod (1914), Penrod and Sam (1916), and Penrod Jashber (1929) and rearranges the stories to form a "biography" of its young hero.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Humor, Childrens, Historical Fiction, American, Literature

590 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Newton Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction/Novel more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike and Colson Whitehead. Although he is little read now, in the 1910s and 1920s he was considered America's greatest living author.

Reviews

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this one and I definitely wasn't disappointed! Such a funny and quite funny classic. Had this as my "before sleep" book and it was such a pleasant book to end the day with

[Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. The only way to do it justice is by quoting it:

After Penrod (the 11 year old hero of the story) blurts out something he might have kept to himself:

Nothing is more treacherous than the human mind; nothing else so loves to play the Iscariot. Even when patiently bullied into a semblance of order and training, it may prove but a base and shifty servant. And Penrod's mind was not his servant; it was a master, with the April wind's whims; and it had just played him a diabolical trick. The very jolt with which he came back to the schoolroom in the midst of his fancied flight jarred his day-dream utterly out of him; and he sat, open-mouthed in horror at what he had said.

More philosophizing about the mind of the 11 year old (after a tar fight):

Perhaps middle-aged people might discern Nature's real intentions in the matter of pain if they would examine a boy's punishments and sorrows, for he prolongs neither beyond their actual duration. With a boy, trouble must be of Homeric dimensions to last overnight. To him, every next day is really a new day. Thus, Penrod woke, next morning, with neither the unspared rod, nor Mr. Kinosling in his mind. Tar, itself, so far as his consideration of it went, might have been an undiscovered substance

On the hot days of summer:

Their elders should beware such days. Peril hovers near when the fierceness of weather forces inaction and boys in groups are quiet. The more closely volcanoes, Western rivers, nitroglycerin, and boys are pent, the deadlier is their action at the point of outbreak. Thus, parents and guardians should look for outrages of the most singular violence and of the most peculiar nature during the confining weather of February and August.

In addition to being hilarious, Penrod paints a great picture of small-town America at the turn of the 20th century. My opinion may be biased by the fact that I'm proprietor of a delightful 7 year old boy, but with that in mind, this book definitely made to to my all-time favorites list.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free for Audible-UK-Plus members. Grab it.

My friend Gilbert is so very right when he says, "This was such a fun book, it turned its own pages."

I totally agree. I smiled all the way through.

But, if you don't see its humor, the book's probably not for you. Humor is tricky; what is funny to one is not necessarily to another. One’s perception of humor is often tied to one’s experiences. I smiled remembering the escapades of my childhood and those of my kids. Have you or your kids sought to earn money by grabbing up pets, training them to do “tricks” and then putting on shows for the public, which is to say kind neighbors or innocents walking down the street. Homemade advertisements, costumes, tickets, refreshments and music are up to one’s imagination and ingenuity. Have you or your kids improvised stores selling brownies, cookies and lemonade? Have you been to dance school? Have you pulled silly pranks and naughty shenanigans?

We follow Penrod, a boy soon to turn twelve, his ever faithful mustached, grizzled small dog Duke, his friend Sam, enemies, rivals and a girl or two. Girls are still an unknown, but they are beginning to have an allure. Do you remember that first budding attraction to one of the opposite sex? I do, way back in the first grade.

As an example, I’m going to tell you about Great Aunt Sarah, Penrod’s eldest relative. She is a whopping ninety years. We meet her first out digging in her garden. She is no lazybones. She relates memories and freely voices her opinions. She is so alive! She and I hit it off right from the start. She gives Penrod an old slingshot which he is told to return to his father. She tells him, his Dad will remember it. With it he had killed her best hen, broken a glass pitcher and naturally this was all done by mistake! Father and son bear a resemblance in more ways than one.

For Penrod’s birthday, she gives him a pocketknife, saying, “You might as well do it with this and have more fun!” She is encouraging his inventiveness.

Speaking of young girls, she says, “They haven’t learned to cover themselves with pretenses.”

On the morning of his birthday, she loads him with good things to eat. “You might as well get a good start…..Take the last cookie!”

OK, this story is cute—if you relate to the pranks Penrod and his friends get up to.
I do!
I enjoyed this. It’s light and it’s fun.
I kept happily turning the pages.

At the start there is a story written by Penrod. It is full of expletives and exclamation points. The swear words are replaced by repetitive blanks. The whole thing is a bit excessive; it doesn’t read well. Do keep reading. I wasn’t turned on by this either. I started reading this book years and years ago, reached this part and stopped. I remember the passage distinctly. Don’t repeat my mistake.

This is a book about kids, but I would not necessarily say it is for kids. The language is too difficult, too old fashioned, too out of date. It’s better for parents of mischievous but imaginative kids.

Stefan Rudnicki narrates the audiobook very well, except when he mimics Penrod’s singing. The singing should be off key, and it is off key, but this Is unpleasant to listen to. Otherwise, I liked the narration a lot. Four stars for both the book and the audio narration. Don’t miss this freebie at Audible-UK.

*********************

*Penrod 4 stars
*The Magnificent Ambersons 3 stars
*Alice Adams TBR

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the last title in my Stags Of The Stag Cook Book Reading List. I've never read anything by Booth Tarkington, although I'm familiar with the name and his literary reputation. I thought this book would be an interesting introduction to Tarkington's work, but I think my timing was off. I am preparing for another trip north, and I could not get myself mentally involved in this story about young Penrod Schofield and his life in the Midwest of the early 1900's.

I tried. I staggered along through 15 of 31 chapters, but honestly, I didn't care much for the boy. Maybe at some point he redeems himself and show a heart of gold, but for as long as I read he was just a terror. I decided I simply did not care what other kinds of troubles....er, adventures Penrod got into.

Someday I might give it another go, when I don't have 42 gazillion other things floating around in my little pea brain. Might.

Oh, and meanwhile, I can share the final recipe of this personal challenge, but it was not really a recipe at all. Tarkington contributed the following to the Stag Cook Book:
"My favorite dish is corn flakes. They should be placed in a saucer or hollow dish, then lifted in both hands and rolled for a moment, then dropped back into the dish. After that an indefinite quantity of cream should be poured upon them. They should be eaten with a spoon. I don’t know how to prepare anything else for the table."

And so one more challenge is completed with a whimper instead of a bang. LOL

[Renee M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excruciatingly tedious adventures of an annoying brat.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun set of anecdotes about 11-year-old Penrod Schofield, growing up and getting into mischief in early 20th century Midwestern America. Reminded me a bit of Tom Sawyer but in a more suburban setting. I loved his birthday visit to Aunt Sarah:

"...Boys are just people, really. ... they haven't learned to cover themselves all over with little pretences. When Penrod grows up he'll be just the same as he is now, except that whenever he does what he wants to do he'll tell himself and other people a little story about it to make his reason for doing it seem nice and pretty and noble."

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

The credit for the “Our Gang” (a.k.a. “Little Rascals” isn’t given to Booth Tarkington’s “Penrod”, but one has to wonder if it should be. The movies started in 1922, while “Penrod” was published just 8 years earlier in 1914. There is a collection of characters in “Penrod” which is somewhat similar as well, and the comparison works much better for me than attempts to compare “Penrod” with “Huckleberry Finn”, Wodehouse’s school stories, or even “Tom Brown’s Education”. “Penrod” is categorized as a novel, but it really is a series of short sketches put together, with no plot carrying through the entire book. The sketches are very humorous, and this is definitely another case where Tarkington has grown as a writer to produce something unlike anything he wrote before.

Unfortunately, time has not been kind to this book. The stories are still funny, but the language will be an issue for many readers. It is important to read this book with an understanding of the time in which it was written, and sadly, the young readers who might enjoy this the most are also those who will have the greatest difficulty in understanding how the language was appropriate for its time, but is completely inappropriate now. Those who are mature enough to deal with this language issue will still enjoy reading these stories, but it is a shame that it can’t be appreciated as it was when it was written.

As I indicated before, this book should not be compared with Twain or Wodehouse. Tarkington was nowhere near the writer that Twain was, and these stories lack the substance that can be found in Twain’s work. Wodehouse’s school stories are not as comedic as his later work, and the students in them are older than the characters that Tarkington creates in “Penrod”, which makes those stories completely different than what Tarkington has created. These stories can still be appreciated for what they are, though, and even if one winces at the words now and then, they are very enjoyable.

[Rosemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book are very funny, others somewhat dated, but an enjoyable read overall.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

penrod is an amusing book. it's not laugh-out-loud funny but the misadventures of this inscrutable and bad boy are captivating, and knowing, and made me smile. tarkington lets us into the hallowed halls of an adolescent male mind which is itching for experiences, and wily in its meeting of any consequence that these experiences might bring. penrod schofield, as the epitome of boys, an untroubled huck, breathes life into the archetypal boyhood. he is good at getting into scrapes whether they are of his own devising or not (usually they are), and things often spiral wildly out of his control despite his efforts at containment. he is popularized as the "worst boy in town" by the girl he likes best, and he's hotly defensive of his honour. he is curious, vindictive, but also sometimes kind. if you have spent any time with an unruly young man, with some brains, and too much energy, you have met penrod. the other characters too, are well drawn and quite familiar: his family, frustrated, amused, and perplexed by him; the other kids who are his friends and enemies all-at-once live in awe or fear, or collude with him; the other townsfolk cluck, or cause calumnies for him. the characterizations in this book feel real even if they also sometimes smack of caricature, as real people sometimes do.

some of the caricature in this book i had trouble with: specifically the endemic racism. i realize that it is a by-product of the society in which tarkington was raised, and understood, but it's distracting and painful to read some of these sentences that are tossed off, and in some cases, weaken the narrative. here's an example, with square brackets mine:

He sat staring at the an open page of a textbook, but not studying; not even reading; not even thinking. Nor was he lost in a reverie: his mind's eye was shut, as his physical eye might well have been, for the optic nerve, flaccid with ennui, conveyed nothing whatever of the printed page upon which the orb of vision was partially focused. Penrod was doing something very unusual and rare, something almost never accomplished except by [coloured people or by:] a boy in school on a spring day: he was doing really nothing at all. He was merely a state of being.

cut those four words out, and it is marvellous writing, and cements the portrayal of a boy's mind which is the novel's central theme. and i can't even say that this is the worst of it. penrod has two black playmates named herman and verman, who have a raccoon they eventually name sherman after their dead brother, and they are wonderful characters, and is often the case, in some ways much more attractive than penrod himself, and yet, we are forced to endure casual remarks about them being in the "lower stages of evolution" and the like. at least these racial slurs are relative few in number, and the brothers are treated with respect by penrod and their other colleagues in the arts of chicanery.

i'm really glad i read this book despite the racism. each time i come across this issue, i face the quandary of to read or not to read. it is troubling, that a book that brings so much pleasure can also knock it out of you with a careless and often useless remark. but it is also a relic of the way the world was, and i can curse the editor of penrod for not seeing that the strength of the above paragraph was dimmed by the stupid addition of a folksy slur, and be glad that times have changed. boys and their spirits however, have not altered in essentials since the publication of penrod, and i cannot say that that is a blessing or a curse, so much as shake my head at the wry essence of boys so embodied in this book.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Penrod by Booth Tarkington
10 out of 10


Having read The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams, I was not surprised to find that Penrod is another splendid, extraordinary, wonderful novel by the same mesmerizing Booth Tarkington.

Penrod is the smart, creative, naughty, intrepid, determined, imaginative hero of the novel that bears his name, a boy of eleven, mischievous as most children of that age, especially the male ones, growing before World War I, in Midwestern America.
In the first chapters, he is made to participate in a school play, taking on the role of " The Child Sir Lancelot", which causes agitation and a commotion in the house, where his mother and sister work hard to create a medieval - well as close as they think they can get - for the reluctant actor.

Indeed, before going on stage, the protagonist retires for a while, aghast at the stockings taken from his sister to be added at the costume, but he is finally overwhelmed when he notices that for his outfit, mother and sister have taken his father's winter protection - I'm guessing this was some sort of underwear - an apparel that most of the small town must have been acquainted with.
The woman who washes the clothes has had a habit of placing these and other rather intimate habits on the line to dry, towards the main road, in full view of the passers by and this memory provoked Penrod into decisive action.

Unwilling to act in such a ridiculous attire that would surely make everyone laugh, Penrod has a brilliant idea and takes the overalls of the janitor and covers the shame with them, with the result that these much bigger clothes make walking next to impossible and finally, when the audience sees how ridiculous the hero is in them, they cannot stop laughing.
Embarrassed, those sitting near his mother and sister, stand up from their seats and take their jocularity outside.

After he sees a film at the cinema, the hero uses the plot to escape from a very difficult situation - during class, he was imagining how he would be able to lift himself in the air, the tricks he would do, when the teacher is asking him a question and the boy replies in a very rude manner, with something like - why don't you find a better thing to do.
Outraged, the teacher is considering drastic action and the report of the incident to the school master, with all the dramatic repercussions, asking the pupil one last time what drove him to be so foolish and repellent, hearing from the audacious boy that his aunt has just run away from her husband, who had taken to drink and had beaten both her and their baby girl, forcing them to find refuge with the Schofield family, where the hero has been so active in consoling and offering emotional support.

This is the plot of the film he had seen and using this ruse would provoke some amusing consequences, for when the aunt meets the professor on the street, the latter is very tender and compassionate, nearly crying when she talks with her former class mate, thinking of her - invented by Penrod - ordeal.
All this would be cleared, when mother, suspicious anyway of the outre story, would visit the teacher to see what she had acted so strangely, coming close to tears, and then she understands what the infernal child had been up to, inventing something like that about the brother in law and his bogus alcoholism.

The hero has a good friend, Sam, and a family of African Americans moves next door, and their two boys, Herman and his younger brother, Verman, become companions, after they are integrated in a venture, called a circus by the inventive Penrod, who ads to this collection of rarities his own dog, Duke, which he pretends is an Indian animal, the rats he had caught in a trap and which he pretends that they are trained.
Verman talks in a strange manner, being tongue tied as his brother explains, and he would be the main attraction of the show, for which the young Barnum charges one cent or a tax in pins, until the time when they make an addition to the collection of bizarre figures.

A boy from the family that is best situated in the town - rather arrogant and pretentious - claims that he is indeed related to an infamous killer - a woman that had killed eight people - and he is thus included in the representation and becomes the highlight of the show.
Up to the point where his mother comes to claim him, furious and enraged by this spectacle that would be related by the newspaper which prints the information that they might be connected to such a monstrous figure.

Later on, Penrod is fascinated by a scoundrel from the Third school, who is very violent, good at tricks and traps, asking for the finger to see a mole, only to twist it, then using other nefarious tactics to send the hero to the ground, to lick the dirt and impressing the gullible protagonist so much that this one starts to worship this God of the battle, a superhero with magical powers, that nobody can defeat.
Nobody before he meets Herman and Verman and with his challenging, abusive manner he antagonizes, insults and infuriates the brothers to the point where they defeat this vicious stranger thoroughly, making him run like the wind to escape death by decapitation or some other violent means.

Since we mention this battle, there is another one provoked by the rather innocent use of "little gentleman" which the hero takes as an unbearable insult and thus he gets into a fight with tar, involving Sam and other boys, including Marjorie and her little brother, although in the case of the girl that Penrod fancies, there was no violent opposition, he just threw a stone in the bucket with the malodorous, sticky substance.

Penrod is a wonderful, magnificent novel, included on The Guardian list of 1,000 Novels Every One Must Read, in the comedy section.

[Terris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this one so much! It is incredibly funny (Penrod is quite a character!) -- such a good children's book! And though I think children would think it is funny, I can't imagine that they could appreciate Booth Tarkington's amazing writing. He was a magician with words! I had to pay full attention to appreciate and, sometimes, to comprehend what he was saying and really "get" his jokes. His sense of humor is unmatched, and his writing style is beautiful, though you can tell he's playing with the reader with his words. He really kept me on my toes! And I loved it!

If you have a good sense of humor and you like words, and I mean really like words, you'll enjoy this one -- it doesn't matter that it's a children's book -- Tarkington will amaze you :)

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one back in my junior high days (the copy was originally an uncle's) and found it totally hilarious. Penrod is this eleven year old kid who is always getting himself into trouble without necessarily meaning to. Anyone reading it today should be aware that it reflects the racial attitudes and language of the early 20th century - among Penrod's friends there are some black kids. Nuff said. Overall one gets a view of upper middle class life as it was back then in the Middle West.

[Winter Sophia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fun, Imaginative & Laugh Out Loud Read! I Loved It!

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing stories of a mischievous 11-12 year old boy in the Midwest at the turn of the century, somewhere between Tom Sawyer and the Little Rascals. The vocabulary and complexity of sentence construction, as well as literary allusions are far beyond what today's children literature. I read this book many years ago, when I was 12. In this reading I noticed the racist descriptions of the black children. I can't but help wondering what this does to children reading the stories. I don't remember these racist elements from when I was reading the books around 1967, but I imagine they were in the story. To the characters credit, they played with the poor black children without discrimination; somehow, though, they don't get invited to the parties.

[Edwina Book Anaconda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply delightful book of misadventures undertaken by an eleven-year-old boy.
I chuckled my way through this one, all the while being very thankful that Penrod was not my son.
Oh, pity the poor parents of this rascally "little gentleman"!

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shenanigans of a mostly-good-hearted-but-mildly-naughty 11 year old boy. Written with adult-oriented style/vocabulary, so bit difficult to know who this is aimed at (i.e. style off-putting to children, subject matter bit insubstantial for adults). Some nicely charming episodes though and not too long so doesn't outstay its welcome. 3.5 stars rounding down.

[Nelleke Plouffe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think my expectations were too high for this book. (Someone I respect highly recommended it.) The closest thing I can compare it to is Tom Sawyer, but Penrod is not half as lovable as Tom. The author also seems ostentatious in his vocabulary (uses big words because he likes the sound of them, not necessarily because they’re the best for his purpose). And I can edit on the fly when I’m reading aloud with the best of them, but I have to say these were the worst things I’ve ever had to edit out...glad I don’t actually have this on the shelf.
The boys did enjoy it, though.
Let’s just say I won’t go out of my way to find more in the series.

[Larry Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another of those books my dad said he read as a kid. Penrod is an 11-year old boy, living in the midwest a hundred years ago. He has the kinds of adventures, one presumes, that boys had back then. I expect much of it will be foreign to today's video-game boys, but us geezers who remember Eisenhower, and whose fathers were more-or-less contemporaries of Penrod, can feel some vague sense of familiarity. Whatever, it was a fun read. I may well look into snagging the second Penrod book, Penrod and Sam.

Many years ago, also at my dad's urging, I read Tarkinton's Seventeen, and didn't particularly like it. I think I was too close to being ridiculous in my first loves myself and didn't much like reading about someone else's being similarly ridiculous. I think I might be far enough removed from being a silly 11-year old that the victories and vicissitudes Penrod experienced didn't affect me so much. As always, I'm a bit appalled as how racist we all were a century ago, but then again, looking at today's Tea Party Movement, I see that some of us haven't evolved much. Still, as I mentioned, it was a fun book.

Interesting that this book is basically a series of short stories, albeit tied together from one day to the next. My previous book, The Wisdom of Father Brown, was also short stories, and I didn't much care for that format. But I think, while they contained the same central character, they didn't flow smoothly from one to the next. I doubt anyone would say Tarkington is more of a literary giant than Chesterton, but between these two books, Tarkington wins hands down.

[Mary Gaudette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these Penrod stories. Hilarious renditions of good old fashioned BOY stuff. Little boys are tops. But the cheerful, in your face, offensive racism is a huge problem. One can (sort of) accept that Tarkington is a product of his times; I guess not worthwhile to lampoon him for his unconscious prejudices. But I bought these to build to the library of classic books for my boys to read, in due course. Can't see giving them this at the age for which it's intended. Maybe much later, when they are old enough to realize the offense given. It's sad. These are otherwise rip roaringly funny and sweet.

[Tirzah Eleora · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books seem to have been largely forgotten, but they really are gems. Hilarious and witty, Penrod is essential reading for children and adults alike!

[Akash Amat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had a second read recently and added another rating star - Hilarious misadventures of an American 11 year old crafted with mastery, and a real joy. I didn't realize a book could so consistently make me giggle and even laugh out loud. It may be noted that the author, Booth Tarkington, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice, for other (non-humorous) works.

This book delivers the humour brilliantly, elevating it by skillful use of language. Humour is indeed what the author intended here, and there aren't any inorganic social or philosophical observations adulterating it. Though, there are a few sweet organic moments, especially in the latter sections, related to parents and Penrod's infatuation with a girl of his age - 'Marjorie Jones of the amber curls'.

Penrod is the main character whose misadventures we follow here. While a naughty kid of the 1910s, he is still somewhat a sympathetic character - like most of us, a person with a degree of imperfection in an imperfect world going through childhood. And I think such setups are the best for creating pure humour. (Though his hero-worshipping of a bully is a section, while still quite funny, is where he temporarily loses the sympathies.)
What sort of humour would be crafted in a perfect world? Or would such a world be innately blissful to just not need it? I digress. :P

The episodes seem quite realistic and Tarkington's observational talent is employed to great effect. The only unrealistic thing might be that the amount of misadventures described here are usually spread across a group of friends, and not just one kid being in the middle of the episodes. :) Well yes, Penrod's group of friends and foes do appear in most of the stories. But this point still holds, though it is indeed a nitpick.

Also, I think a major difference one can perceive here, in the 11 year olds of that time to ours, seems to be a higher level of, um, naivete or something of similar sort... The writing of Penrod in 'Harold Ramorez' seemed too prone to spelling mistakes, for one, I think. :)

The book starts with Penrod in his 12th year and ends with his twelfth birthday. Structure wise, the sections are not completely independent, with references to events and characters from previous sections. But, I think they're self-contained enough so that one may enjoy individual sections too.

The book is from 1914, and it is a product of its time. A few passages would come off as racist; indeed they are racist to black people. Though, again, it's not a big feature of the book and is only there because of the time the book was written in. Also, the black characters here are actually Penrod's friends and are written as very likeable ones.
--- --- ---

Some random lines of hilarity, off the top of my head:

(Penrod hosting a self-produced show...)

... NEXT, the trained Michigan rats, captured way up there, and trained to jump and run all around the box at the—at the—at the slightest PRE-text!” He paused, partly to take breath and partly to enjoy his own surprised discovery that this phrase was in his vocabulary.

(Penrod meets his crush and her baby brother, and she asks the latter to wish Penrod...)

“Say 'howdy' to the gentymuns, Mitchy-Mitch,” she urged sweetly, turning him to face Penrod.
“WON'T!” said Mitchy-Mitch, and, to emphasize his refusal, kicked the gentymuns upon the shin.

(The whole sections of 'Harold Ramorez' - Penrod's action novel in progress, written in the silly style of a 11 year old of the 1910s)

(Penrod's mother and sister outfit him with a mismatched set of clothes to create a 'medieval costume')

Penrod looked like nothing ever remotely imagined by Sir Thomas Malory or Alfred Tennyson;—for that matter, he looked like nothing ever before seen on earth;

(Penrod is taunted by Maurice (playing Galahad in a play) for his costume, causing Marjorie to laugh too; then Penrod takes a break, away from others...)

Burning with outrage, heart-sick at the sweet, cold-blooded laughter of Marjorie Jones, Penrod rested his elbows upon a window-sill and speculated upon the effects of a leap from the second story. One of the reasons he gave it up was his desire to live on Maurice Levy's account: already he was forming educational plans for the Child Sir Galahad.

(This is one of the racist ones. But well, it's somewhat funny...
Rupe, the bully Penrod made an acquaintance with, attempts to torment the black brothers at close quarters, which later also leads to the bully getting a lesson...)

Herman's and Verman's Bangala great-grandfathers never considered people of their own jungle neighbourhood proper material for a meal, but they looked upon strangers especially truculent strangers—as distinctly edible.

--- --- ---

The language of the book is artful and uses a large vocabulary. Though, a few times it gets tedious. In any case, didn't feel the language particularly dated (linguistics wise; not considering the race-related parts). I'm pretty sure works in the broadly similar style of language get created today as well.

The wiki page has a decent summary of the chapters, et al.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrod.
I'm also intrigued by the list of movies and adaptations mentioned there. Though the prominent ones are for the sequel book - Penrod and Sam. I hope to give the book and the movie a look sometime.

Coming to humorous books and literature, I'm familiar with Ruskin Bond (Grandpa Fights an Ostrich is memorable), Jerome K Jerome (excerpt from Three Men in a Boat) and Saki (especially Mrs. Packletide's Tiger.) I recall enjoying PG Wodehouse's Psmith stories too. And I've seen Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and have heard of the books. In any case, I'd bet that Penrod has to be among the funniest pieces of literature around.

Also it seems there are some other similar ones I should try apart from the other two in the Penrod series... Cheaper by the Dozen, Mama's Bank Account, Seventeen by Tarkington himself.
More Wodehouse and Jerome? Huck Finn, maybe?

Related links:

Full book:
Wikisource (free, with illustrations): https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Penrod
Amazon, Kindle-compatible (paid, with illustrations): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
Gutenberg: Check there for the Kindle compatible free one without illustrations

An edition with an excellent foreword discussing Tarkington's life, other works and some background on writing of the book: https://books.google.co.in/books?id=v...

This may be more like 4.5 stars. But, I'll round up rather than down because of all the aforementioned thoughts.

[Krisette Spangler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penrod is an 11 year old boy, who just can't seem to keep himself out of trouble. His parents are completely exasperated by his antics, and the town thinks he's the worst boy around. As the mother of some mischievous children myself, I found some kinship with Penrod's mother. It was a delightful read and made me laugh out loud several times. The book is definitely a product of the era and contains some racist characterizations that were hard to swallow. It definitely wouldn't be published today.

[Joey Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quite hilarious story in the style of a younger Tom Sawyer or Just William. Given the era this was written in there's some pretty blatant racism, so be warned, but the humor is excellent

[Brian Fagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you enjoy Mark Twain, there's a good chance you'll like Booth Tarkington. They both enjoyed chronicling childhood, and share some characteristics style-wise. Neither had time for pretentious people, and enjoyed belittling representatives of them in their works. Here, Tarkington shares a laugh at the expense of Penrod's rich snooty neighbors, the Magsworth Bittses:

"Mrs. Roderick Magsworth Bitts was a Magsworth born, herself, and the Magsworth crest decorated not only Mrs. Magsworth Bitts' note-paper but was on the china, on the table linen, on the chimney pieces, on the opaque glass of the front door, on the victoria, and on the harness, though omitted from the garden-hose and the lawn-mower."

I've been a fan of Tarkington since about 1995. Later, after our daughter had moved to Indianapolis in 2012, she took me to see his former house there. I've just read my wife's childhood copy, given to her in the 60's, the Grosset & Dunlap Edition with great illustrations done by Gordon Grant.

Penrod was written in 1914. Penrod Schofield is 11 when the story opens. He has a scruffy mutt dog named Duke. His young imagination is boundless, and he writes Western stories of mayhem and gore and heroism and manliness. He daydreams all sorts of heroic adventures for himself (akin to James Thurber's Walter Mitty, who came into being about 25 years later). The book is literally laugh-out-loud funny.

OK, Penrod is a pretty naughty child. He bullies kids, but also gets bullied himself. Based on his escapades in the classroom, we have to infer that he's most likely a poor student. I can't say that he seems to learn lessons from the discipline he receives. Probably the only slight change in his outlook over the course of the story's timeline is a gradual, but still guarded and begrudging interest in girls.

Tarkington wrote Penrod less in the form of a story with a plot, and more in the form of a succession of vignettes; in this way there is a significant, and I would say mildly unfortunate difference between Penrod and Twain's 2 famous books of childhood. As I read the book, I was reminded of the amused and loving attitude that Norman Rockwell used to portray children in his Saturday Evening Post covers. While there was no similar incident in Penrod, the deeply sentimental feeling I'm referring to to can be summed up in Rockwell's The Runaway, 1958. A boy sits at a soda counter with his pack at his feet. The policeman sent out by the frantic parents has seen the boy through the shop window and with a sigh of relief gets off his aching feet and takes the stool next to the boy. The lad recounts the various injustices done to him, as the cop listens, and the middle-aged and careworn waiter looks into the boys eyes, forgets his cares for a minute, and remembers what it felt like to be a small boy in a very big world.

[Melissa King · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to several hours (14 chapters) of this book, pre-reading for the coming school year. I had already decided it was a definite ‘no’ for my family before I even started one of the most racist chapters I’ve ever read… (besides Arabian Nights, nothing will top that nightmare). I couldn’t stomach it anymore, I turned off the audiobook and immediately removed the book from my bookshelf when I arrived home. Bummed I spent too much for a pristine vintage copy 😩

Anyway, this book goes in the “antics of a pre-teen boy”/ “boys will be boys” genre, like Tom Sawyer or The Great Brain, but it’s just isolated antics, not a continuous story with any discernible character arc. It was not as enjoyable as the two books I compare it to. I appreciated the writing style and little asides, but overall I didn’t think it was witty, insightful, or masterful enough to be a classic.

The adults and authority figures are either buffoons or the enemies. Family relationships are terrible. There are no consequences for awful and sometimes cruel behavior, no lessons learned, no repentance, no growth. I don’t see any truth, goodness, or beauty here. I’m disgusted with mischievous, anti-hero characters and hate them more than actual villains, and this book is a prime example of that.

I’ll give this two stars instead of one because I imagine a different family may get something from it, and I don’t believe it’s universally evil…. but it’s definitely not good.

[Kmgreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was like a Ramona Quimby book but with a boy protagonist. Penrod is so naughty but likable at the same time. It's a great picture of what boys are like in the 8-12 range. Creative and always getting into trouble.

I think I'll put this on my list to read out loud to my kids. My only caveat would be that there's some subtle prejudice/racism in the book. It would be very easy to edit it out when reading it out loud though and the book would be totally acceptable for younger audiences.

The audiobook read by Stephen Rudnicki was really great though so if you don't need edited content, it's a great option.

[Hunter Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm surprised this book isn't read by more people. A close friend recommended Penrod to me, and it's one of the best recs I ever got. Penrod is a kid who has no shame. He's hilarious. He does as he pleases, no matter the consequences. I've spent hours of enjoyment in his and Tarkington's fictional company.

The one thing that is off-punting is Tarkington's attitudes toward race. The reader in 2014 has a difficult time with such backward views (this reader did anyway).

But I still read Twain and so I will still read Tarkington. Those guys are too funny not to read.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some books are timeless. Unfortunately, this one is not. Hoping to find an author from the past with Midwest ties, ala Jean Shepherd, I was looking forwrd to reading this book which was recommended by Roger Ebert. Instead I was offended and couldn't get beyond the harsh racial references. Definitely not recommended.

[ValeReads Kyriosity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Replace the grimace on your face with a traipse through the japes and scrapes of a jackanapes scapegrace. It's aces...except in the places it abases certain races.

The reader wasn't quite Mary Bennet quality, but definitely on her slope of the bell curve.

(Editing to try to replicate a technical issue.)

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Penrod was a very naughty little boy. :) I would rate this book along with Cheaper by the Dozen, Mama's Bank Account, and other good family life stories.