Ade's Fables - Softcover

Ade, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1444451553 ISBN 13: 9781444451559

Publisher: ValdeBooks, 2026

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Ade’s Fables brings together George Ade’s sharp, comic “new fables” of modern American life, where ambition, vanity, reforming zeal, social climbing, romance, family trouble, and everyday foolishness receive their proper punishment. Written in Ade’s unmistakable slangy style, these short pieces turn ordinary people into moral examples without ever becoming solemn. The private agitator, the speedy sprite, the intermittent fusser, the uplifter, the wandering boy, the wayward parent, the scoffer, the climber, and the dreamer all step forward to expose the absurdity of human behaviour. Ade’s genius lies in making satire feel light, fast, and conversational. His fables are not ancient tales of foxes and crows, but brisk comic sketches of recognisable modern types: self-important reformers, restless strivers, fashionable failures, domestic meddlers, and people who mistake noise for wisdom. Each story carries a sting, but the sting is delivered with laughter. For readers who enjoy American humour, literary satire, social comedy, and witty moral tales, Ade’s Fables offers a lively collection of comic observations. It is clever, pointed, and still surprisingly fresh in its view of human nature getting above itself.

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About the Author

George Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana, one of seven children raised by John and Adaline (Bush) Ade. While attending Purdue University, he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He also met and started a lifelong friendship with fellow cartoonist and Sigma Chi brother John T. McCutcheon and worked as a reporter for the Lafayette Call. He graduated in 1887. 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.

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