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Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated
"These tiny stories, in which a wide variety of animals show us humans how we really are, are completely uproarious." --The Saturday Review of Literature James Thurber has been called "one of our great American institutions' (Stanley Walker) and "a magnificent satirist" ( Boston Transcript ). The New York Herald Tribune submits that he is "as blithe as Benchley...as savage as Swift...surprisingly wise and witty," while the Times of London, out of enthusiasm and a profound regard for truth, proclaims that "Thurber is Thurber." In Fables for Our Time , Thurber the Moralist is in the ascendancy. Here are a score or more lessons-in-prose dedicated to conventional sinners and proving--what you will. The fables are imperishably illustrated, and are supplemented by Mr. Thurber's own pictorial interpretations of famous poems in a wonderful and joyous assemblage.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
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About the author
James Thurber
350 books601 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
December 26, 2007
Somewhere along the line -- largely because of The 13 Clocks, I'm guessing -- Thurber has suffered the same fate as Mark Twain in that he's become known as an avuncular old man who told some funny stories and was generally amusing. You'll be disabused of that notion pretty quickly after you finish this book. Go read "The Fairly Intelligent Fly" or "The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing" if you don't believe me. Thurber happens to be hilarious, but he bites.
November 9, 2018
Τρίτο βιβλιαράκι του Τζέιμς Θέρμπερ που διαβάζω, μετά το πολύ ωραίο παραμύθι φαντασίας "Το άσπρο ελάφι" που διάβασα τον Μάρτιο του 2016 και το ιδιαίτερα ευχάριστο αυτοβιογραφικό έργο με τον τίτλο "Αναμνήσεις" που διάβασα τον Δεκέμβριο του 2017, και δηλώνω για άλλη μια φορά ευχαριστημένος. Πρόκειται για μια μικρή συλλογή κάμποσων μύθων με τα απαραίτητα ηθικά διδάγματα/επιμύθια, που ίσως φέρουν χαμόγελο στα χείλη των αναγνωστών, αλλά ίσως τους βάλει να σκεφτούν και κάποια πράγματα για την ανθρώπινη φύση. Όπως και να'χει, πέρασα εξαιρετικά όμορφα, αν και δυστυχώς δεν κράτησε και πολλή ώρα.
March 18, 2018
An amusing collection of short stories that stand the test of time surprisingly well. Perfect to read before bedtime or when you have a little bit of free time. Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
- "'Man is flying too fast for a world that is round,' he said. 'Soon he will catch up with himself, in a great rear-end collision, and Man will never know that what hit Man from behind was Man.'"
- "'...he remarked that, to him, you looked like a limousine come to grief at an intersection.'"
- "He who lives another's life another's death must die."
- "'Man is flying too fast for a world that is round,' he said. 'Soon he will catch up with himself, in a great rear-end collision, and Man will never know that what hit Man from behind was Man.'"
- "'...he remarked that, to him, you looked like a limousine come to grief at an intersection.'"
- "He who lives another's life another's death must die."
January 13, 2019
Thurber’s quality of wit and absurdity is scarcely prevalent in today’s humor writing. He’s a legend and will continue to be a beloved writer of mine for the entirety of my sojourn on Earth!!
January 12, 2015
I know Thurber more for Walter Mitty and The Catbird Seat, but someone from my book club selected his fables, so I dove in. Thurber invokes a voice very specific to the early 20th Century. He is dry, aloof, disenchanted and slowing burning with frustration. He's from the first generation of office workers, men a bit castrated by desk jobs, by micromanaging bosses, and by women whose ambitions are frustrated by strict gender roles.
So Thurber lashes out not with grand, physical prowess wielded by the male archetypes of farming or labor societies. He uses his wit.
His fables often start with the zinger and then he builds a narrative backwards to describe a ridiculous situation. He has various animals trying to make their way in the world and being thwarted by others, by fate, or by their own ineptitude.
I took the opportunity to read some biographies of Thurber that detailed his childhood, his strong-willed wives, his health problems, his friendship with E.B. White and his rocky ride during the change of leadership at The New Yorker. He was a funny little man who immortalized the milquetoast anti-hero
So Thurber lashes out not with grand, physical prowess wielded by the male archetypes of farming or labor societies. He uses his wit.
His fables often start with the zinger and then he builds a narrative backwards to describe a ridiculous situation. He has various animals trying to make their way in the world and being thwarted by others, by fate, or by their own ineptitude.
I took the opportunity to read some biographies of Thurber that detailed his childhood, his strong-willed wives, his health problems, his friendship with E.B. White and his rocky ride during the change of leadership at The New Yorker. He was a funny little man who immortalized the milquetoast anti-hero
December 26, 2018
My sister—my whole family, really—is a huge fan of James Thurber; I was mostly familiar with this collection through a high-school anthology of short fiction, which reprinted Thurber's story "The Unicorn in the Garden". As such, I'm glad that I finally picked up Fables for Our Time from the library—and I'm glad that I actually read the whole thing when I was of an age, presumably sufficiently sophisticated, that I could actually get Thurber's gags in the book.
Because as it is, Thurber's gags resonate both on a human/humorous level and on a historical level. After all, on one level, stories such as "The Little Girl and the Wolf" (with Thurber taking the Little Red Riding Hood fable and insisting both that wolves resemble Grandma about as much as Calvin Coolidge resembles the MGM lion and that little girls aren't as easily fooled nowadays after Red shoots the wolf with her "automatic") are genuinely funny, particularly in the vein of Thurber's dry New Yorker wit—and stories such as "The Very Proper Gander" and "The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble" were clearly written with the very real, very distressing global politics of 1939 very much in Thurber's mind. Along these lines, Fables for Our Time resonates both as "mere" humor and as genuine satire—with all the effect actual satire actually had on actual people's behavior, as Jeremy Dauber and Rabbi Moshe Waldoks make clear in their respective books on Jewish humor, which touches particularly on Thurber's "Rabbits" story.
Thurber's illustrations as well, especially of the various poems in the second part of Fables for Our Time, are Thurber's typically charming efforts; they act as the perfect accompaniments for the stories and poems, particularly for John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "Barbara Frietchie", for which Thurber undoubtedly was aware that there were indeed veterans of the U.S. Civil War, from both sides, still alive. In general, Fables for Our Time is an utterly charming work, simultaneously substantive and easy enough to read in one or two sittings—and highly recommended.
Because as it is, Thurber's gags resonate both on a human/humorous level and on a historical level. After all, on one level, stories such as "The Little Girl and the Wolf" (with Thurber taking the Little Red Riding Hood fable and insisting both that wolves resemble Grandma about as much as Calvin Coolidge resembles the MGM lion and that little girls aren't as easily fooled nowadays after Red shoots the wolf with her "automatic") are genuinely funny, particularly in the vein of Thurber's dry New Yorker wit—and stories such as "The Very Proper Gander" and "The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble" were clearly written with the very real, very distressing global politics of 1939 very much in Thurber's mind. Along these lines, Fables for Our Time resonates both as "mere" humor and as genuine satire—with all the effect actual satire actually had on actual people's behavior, as Jeremy Dauber and Rabbi Moshe Waldoks make clear in their respective books on Jewish humor, which touches particularly on Thurber's "Rabbits" story.
Thurber's illustrations as well, especially of the various poems in the second part of Fables for Our Time, are Thurber's typically charming efforts; they act as the perfect accompaniments for the stories and poems, particularly for John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "Barbara Frietchie", for which Thurber undoubtedly was aware that there were indeed veterans of the U.S. Civil War, from both sides, still alive. In general, Fables for Our Time is an utterly charming work, simultaneously substantive and easy enough to read in one or two sittings—and highly recommended.
August 16, 2019
A collection of fables updated for the modern age.
Book Review: Fables for Our Time is Aesop brought into the 20th Century and made humorously dark or darkly humorous. A satirical menagerie poking fun in an acidic (but funny) commentary on society. James Thurber presents a form of humor rarely seen today, but sadly still relevant. As with our friend Aesop, the morals tell the story: "It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be"; "If you live as humans do, it will be the end of you"; "It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers"; "You can fool too many of the people too much of the time"; "Run, don't walk, to the nearest desert island." All quite obviously true, but the fun is in seeing how Thurber gets there. While some of the fables provide a sharp insight into every day life, others address more serious issues such as the paranoia of communities, which may be focused on refugees, Jews, Reds, or Muslims. In "The Very Proper Gander" a rumor sparked the crowd to gather sticks and stones till they "set upon him and drove him out of the country." The people are oh-so-afraid of those oh-so-dangerous ganders! Even darker are the lessons of "The Birds and the Foxes" and "The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble." Fables for Our Time also includes a section, as noted above, of "Famous Poems Illustrated." These are story-poems by writers such as Longfellow, Scott, Tennyson, Housman, and Whittier, all of whose work I assume was safely in the public domain. This section is interesting as an introduction to popular verses of yesteryear, but may be of more interest to fans of Thurber's drawings, as he provides an illustration for most every stanza of the poems. Otherwise, I think the poems were included as a way to fill up a too-slender book. Fables for Our Time isn't indispensable and may be difficult to find, but it's a pleasant enough book representing a lost art form and a sharp eye into human nature. Some fables are dated in a Steve Harvey/battling Bickersons kind of way, but spot on in their evaluation of people. [3½★]
Book Review: Fables for Our Time is Aesop brought into the 20th Century and made humorously dark or darkly humorous. A satirical menagerie poking fun in an acidic (but funny) commentary on society. James Thurber presents a form of humor rarely seen today, but sadly still relevant. As with our friend Aesop, the morals tell the story: "It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be"; "If you live as humans do, it will be the end of you"; "It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers"; "You can fool too many of the people too much of the time"; "Run, don't walk, to the nearest desert island." All quite obviously true, but the fun is in seeing how Thurber gets there. While some of the fables provide a sharp insight into every day life, others address more serious issues such as the paranoia of communities, which may be focused on refugees, Jews, Reds, or Muslims. In "The Very Proper Gander" a rumor sparked the crowd to gather sticks and stones till they "set upon him and drove him out of the country." The people are oh-so-afraid of those oh-so-dangerous ganders! Even darker are the lessons of "The Birds and the Foxes" and "The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble." Fables for Our Time also includes a section, as noted above, of "Famous Poems Illustrated." These are story-poems by writers such as Longfellow, Scott, Tennyson, Housman, and Whittier, all of whose work I assume was safely in the public domain. This section is interesting as an introduction to popular verses of yesteryear, but may be of more interest to fans of Thurber's drawings, as he provides an illustration for most every stanza of the poems. Otherwise, I think the poems were included as a way to fill up a too-slender book. Fables for Our Time isn't indispensable and may be difficult to find, but it's a pleasant enough book representing a lost art form and a sharp eye into human nature. Some fables are dated in a Steve Harvey/battling Bickersons kind of way, but spot on in their evaluation of people. [3½★]
September 17, 2019
An American icon
Once upon a time, there was a clever writer who also had a marvelous way with a dip pen.
James Thurber’s works are a pleasant diversion from the rest of the modern world.
My two favorite pieces from this book are “The little girl and the wolf” and “The unicorn in the garden.”
The poems I could have lived without, but the accompanying illustrations are a joy to behold.
James Thurber (1894- 1991). No humor collection can be complete without a few Thurber volumes.
This title was first published in 1939.
Once upon a time, there was a clever writer who also had a marvelous way with a dip pen.
James Thurber’s works are a pleasant diversion from the rest of the modern world.
My two favorite pieces from this book are “The little girl and the wolf” and “The unicorn in the garden.”
The poems I could have lived without, but the accompanying illustrations are a joy to behold.
James Thurber (1894- 1991). No humor collection can be complete without a few Thurber volumes.
This title was first published in 1939.
December 30, 2019
A collection of short stories (some of which are based on Aesop's Fables, but describe alternative outcomes). They were originally published in the New Yorker, 1938-39. The context is significant as the final story "The Rabbits who Caused All the Trouble" refers to the problems the Jews faced when they were trying to flee Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rab...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rab...
January 19, 2021
70 years later Thurber's humor has aged somewhat and has trickled down as well. The fables were very decent and some really clever and funny. The illustrated poems were a bad finish, especially since Thurber's drawings are as bad as can be.
I'm not going to get dis-encouraged by this, though. There are more Thurber books waiting on my shelf.
I'm not going to get dis-encouraged by this, though. There are more Thurber books waiting on my shelf.
April 22, 2025
Thurber at his peak; so much melancholy and wit here. The guts to be like "I could be Aesop, again" and do it, and arguably be better. These take on an almost religious register and seemed like they were personally sitting me down and slapping the clay jar of me into a new person.
June 21, 2017
Read one fable a night. Funny and spot on.
November 3, 2017
Es un libro de fábulas, pero de Thurber y de los años 40. Es decir, absurdo y políticamente incorrecto. Lo busqué por la fábula de la polilla y la estrella y no me decepcionó.
March 10, 2019
Wonderful - typically Thurber
February 23, 2021
I thought Thurber was quite entertaining when I was young, even did a Thurber story for a UIL competition. Sadly the stories seem to have lost some of their charm in today's world.
July 23, 2021
A satirical take on classic fables.
January 29, 2022
Very ....silly fables
April 12, 2023
Delightful and wickedly funny. Fables still relevant today.
October 1, 2023
Tante storie di animali per scrivere dei problemi degli uomini. Nulla di che.
November 10, 2023
I am clearly not the intended audience of this book.
August 1, 2021
I don't know how I went through life without reading Thurber but this is the best piece of classic literature I have read in a while. If you live satire, start here and somehow his stories are more relevant now than they probably ever were.
March 28, 2015
I was originally introduced to the writing of James Thurber when I found The Thurber Carnival collection in our library at home. This was when I was old enough to read but long enough ago that I do not remember the exact date. At a later point in my education I read some of the more famous fables in High School English class.
This collection brings together the fables and some of the poems for which Thurber provided illustrations. The fables include both the better-known ones like "The Unicorn in the Garden" and "The Little Girl and the Wolf", and some less well known tales that include "The Mouse Who Went to the Country", "The Lion Who Wanted to Zoom", and "The Moth and the Star". Each fable has a moral that is often some practical bit of wisdom.
The poems are such that you might want to memorize like Longfellow's "Excelsior" and "Oh When I was . . ." by A. E. Housman from his collection "A Shropshire Lad". This small gem of a book is a delight to read and reread from time to time to lighten your day.
This collection brings together the fables and some of the poems for which Thurber provided illustrations. The fables include both the better-known ones like "The Unicorn in the Garden" and "The Little Girl and the Wolf", and some less well known tales that include "The Mouse Who Went to the Country", "The Lion Who Wanted to Zoom", and "The Moth and the Star". Each fable has a moral that is often some practical bit of wisdom.
The poems are such that you might want to memorize like Longfellow's "Excelsior" and "Oh When I was . . ." by A. E. Housman from his collection "A Shropshire Lad". This small gem of a book is a delight to read and reread from time to time to lighten your day.
March 27, 2014
I bought this book in Baltimore and how appropriate that the Baltimore Oriole makes an appearance in two of the fables? Thurber's tongue-in-cheek renditions are adorable and dark. Like what every fable should do, the absurdities and unfairnesses of life are presented. Despite obvious efforts, the protagonists often have the same fate as the antagonists. That's just how life goes, my friends. Towards the end of the book are some similarly ill-fated 17th century poems that Thurber chose to illustrate. My favorite poem was "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight" in which a valiant woman saves her husband from impending death. Just when I was used to the ill-fated endings in this book, I was shocked that she did, miraculously, save her husband. Hurrah!
December 22, 2013
Okay, I guess I don't get it. I know that Thurber is a name to be reckoned with and so there must be some great quality to his work, but I don't see it at al...l. I suffered through his one-page parables without seeing what makes him such a great satirist, and the end of this book featured other people's poems with what I understand to be Thurber's cartoony line drawings – I just don't get it. I know somebody out there loves this guy – can you explain to me?
This is one of those books I would have put down and stopped reading except that it was fairly brief and I figured that if I read I would just suddenly kind of get it. I didn't.See More
This is one of those books I would have put down and stopped reading except that it was fairly brief and I figured that if I read I would just suddenly kind of get it. I didn't.See More
September 1, 2016
It was nice to pick up this book on a day when I got some really saddening news for while it is occasionally dark, it's mostly a light-hearted, whimsical take on the concept of fables. There will be an amusing story, followed by a moral which is sometimes just a funny variation of a well known aphorism, sometimes quite on point, sometimes quite contrary to the point you might expect to take, sometimes surprisingly profound and sometimes completely out of left field.
I like the simplistic art style. It's fun.
The fables themselves are only 100 pages. The last 50 pages are poems that Thurber has illustrated, pretty straight up.
I like the simplistic art style. It's fun.
The fables themselves are only 100 pages. The last 50 pages are poems that Thurber has illustrated, pretty straight up.
July 18, 2013
James Thurber retells some fables, with FABulous results! He provides some revised morals: A new broom may sweep clean, but never trust an old saw. You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward. It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers. Whom God has equipped with flippers should not monkey around with zippers. Youth will be served, frequently with chestnuts.
Now don't you want to read the fables to go with such wise morals?
Thurber also provides some witty illustrations for Famous Poems.
Now don't you want to read the fables to go with such wise morals?
Thurber also provides some witty illustrations for Famous Poems.
April 18, 2016
I must admit that I only read a few of the poems. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the fables. They're quick, and I loved that so many of them were still quite timely considering this has a 1940 copyright ("The Very Proper Gander" and " The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble"), funny (anything that makes me laugh--more guffaw, really--out loud in a crowded place gets my vote) and/or just plain quirky.
May 25, 2021
Fables For Our Time: and Famous Poems Illustrated by James Thurber (Harper Collins 1974)(818). First published in 1943, this is an uproarious collection of well-known fables retold in the twisted manner of Thurber. My rating: 7/10, finished 1973.
June 6, 2011
This was my first introduction to Thurber, and I thought it was hilarious. I did think he should have ended it after his last fable. I didn't really need to read other poet's poems that he did illustrations too ... if they were original, that'd be another story.
May 23, 2013
Thurber is classic. Very twentieth century and utterly lost on my English book club mates. I have loved his fractured fairy tales since the eighth grade. Some pretty pertinent satire from the author of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews