Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich

Description

First published in 1914, Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich is a collection of eight humorous stories from the pen of one of the most popular writers of sketches at the beginning of the 20th century in the US and Canada, Stephen Leacock. The book is a sequel to Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town published in 1912.

Just like the stories in the prequel, the narratives in Arcadian Adventures also takes place against the same setting, but unlike in the first book, the setting this time is not a small town in the Canadian countryside and the characters are not the man and women from a rural environment, but members of the higher circles of a busy North American metropolis.

These two volumes of sketches and caricatures made Leacock one of the most popular humor writers of his times. According to many, his writings combine Wodehousian humor with a funny, but satirical, often sharply critical attitude towards the shallow life of the rich as well as towards the business life and the investment practices of the privileged classes. Leacock’s stories feature and satirize not only business life, but parties, marriages, morals and education as well. He uses not only characters that belong to the local upper classes – to create contrast, Leacock also includes impoverished British aristocrats, farmers, ex-prisoners and many other colorful characters from the outside. The stories are short and quick-paced, providing excellent entertainment for a anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Leacock was one of the most popular humor writers of his times, but he did not write for a living. Being a professor of economics who wrote literature only in his free time, he knew the financial and business environment he made so much fun of and his main occupation allowed him to create stories that are not only funny, but also credible and just as pertinent today as they were over a hundred years ago.
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