Wry and very clever.

On Gutenberg (with illustrations): http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/thurberj-furtherfablesforourtime/thurberj-further... ( )

Ah the joys of an estate sale when the departed was a discriminating reader! One of the gems I picked up at just such a sale was Thurber's second book of fables. James Thurber was one of the brightest spots in the literary milieu of the 1950s, when I became old enough to discover his witty, self-illustrated short pieces. He began writing in the 1920s and continued until his death in 1961. His fables, two to three pages in length, are all designed to entertain rather than illuminate, and they each succeed. I won't stop at recommending this slim volume; read anything Thurber you can find.

Thurber's second collections of short fables with animal protagonists, which he illustrated with cartoons and used to express his views on a broad range of topics, notably including marriage and McCarthyism. The dark undertone in Thurber's writing is easier to hear than in some of his earlier writings, but it is still very funny. ( )