In Babel: Stories of Chicago

by George Ade

A collection of humorous and sad stories rewritten by Ade from pieces he wrote for the Chicago Record. This compilation is not to be confused with another Ade compendium titled Stories of Chicago, which includes entirely different stories.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

George Ade (February 9, 1866 – May 16, 1944) was an American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright.

Ade's literary reputation rests upon his achievements as a great humorist of American character during an important era in American history: the first large wave of migration from the countryside to burgeoning cities like Chicago, where, in fact, Ade produced his best fiction. He was a practicing realist during the Age of (William Dean) Howells and a local colorist of Chicago and the Midwest. His work constitutes a vast comedy of Midwestern manners and, indeed, a comedy of late 19th-century American manners. In 1915, Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford professor and man of letters, while on a lecture tour in America, called George Ade "the greatest living American writer."

(wikipedia)

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection of Ade's early columns, but I prefer the collection "Stories of Chicago," which includes a few of the same pieces. (Yes, the titles are confusing.) "Babel" consists of clearly fictional or semi-fictional stories, some of which would improve if they were rewritten as Fables in Slang, while "Stories" has a mix of fiction and straight reportage, not to mention several of the incomparable Horatio Alger parodies, like "Clarence Allen, the Hypnotic Boy Journalist." "Babel" is for the more devout, less discriminating Ade fan.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific collection. Though I realize Ade was working within the limited confines of a newspaper column, I really wish many of these stories had been longer and better developed. Many of them come across as just intriguing sketches of what could have been much deeper and richer stories.