Fables in Slang

Description

Few people still read the old humorists like George Ade, because there is a lot of competition today, with so many other stories around. But readers should give it a try. “Fables in Slang” is a light, fast and compressed lecture like all the other stories written by Ade, but the book has a great power to show how little has actually changed in the century since its publication. These little stories are still fresh despite their age. The hit-and-run storyteller expresses ideas, makes his points and moves on to the next tale; there is no time to be bored, especially that many of the stories are written with a gentle humor and splashed with mild acid, when it comes to elitist pretenses and class conflict.

The fables are written in Aesop style, with a moral at the end, but they are not actually fables. They are realistic stories that underline the narrow vision and the hypocrisy of people living in small American towns, in the beginning of the 20th century. Ade has a sort of ambivalence towards the traditional virtues related to rural life and the greed and dishonesty brought by industrialization. The stories are told in American argot common to 1899, but take note that, in the meantime, some of it already became a part of the language or passed from common usage.

“Fables in Slang” is characterized by variety and anti-sentimentalism; the readers will be surprised how well the fables resonate with them. Most of them are amusing, some are also a bit sad, but they are about people learning life lessons through the experiences they have and the mistakes they make: expecting too much, trusting people who should not be trusted etc.

Human nature did not really change in 100 years, so… can we finally learn something from it?
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