Fables in Slang

Ade, George, 1866-1944Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 93K words
Chapters: 10

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Fables in Slang by George AdeAuthor: Ade, George, 1866-1944,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 4, 2008

Editor's review

Fables in Slang is a collection of slang fables by George Ade, written in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century and reissued by Project Gutenberg as an English electronic edition. Ade is a representative figure of American Midwestern humor writing; his method fits the moralizing shell of the traditional fable onto concrete scenes of street slang and urban life, creating a short, clever, ironic style. Each fable is brief, often closing with a witty twist or a cold aphorism; it reads lightly but contains observations on social climbing, commercial speculation, and human weakness. For Chinese readers, the barrier is not depth of thought but language: abundant slang, abbreviated spellings, and period colloquialism can obstruct understanding, and notes or background knowledge are needed to catch the jokes. That is precisely where its value lies—as a linguistic document, it presents the vivid colloquial face of early twentieth-century American English. It suits fragmented reading; three to five fables at a time allow you to appreciate the structure and accumulate slang expressions. The Gutenberg edition has no modern notes; use it with a dictionary or background material on American humor writing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Language learners interested in early twentieth-century American slang and colloquial expression
Literature lovers who enjoy short satirical fables and prefer fragmented reading
Students or researchers studying American humor writing and newspaper column style
English writing or translation practitioners needing short text examples

Not a good fit for

Beginner to intermediate readers with weak English who depend on sentence-by-sentence translation
Novel readers expecting full plots and character development
Parents seeking systematic moral education or children's fable books

Reading tips

Read only three to five fables at a time; after reading, retell the joke or moral to check whether you truly understand the slang context.
Keep a notebook for recurring slang and abbreviated spellings, organizing them into a small glossary.
After reading, try rewriting one fable in modern English and compare the tonal differences brought by language change.
Read with brief background material on late nineteenth-century American urbanization to help understand the targets of satire.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can the slang in this book still be used now?

Most of the slang belongs to early twentieth-century American colloquial speech; some expressions are outdated or have changed meaning and should not be copied directly into contemporary communication. It is better as material for understanding language change than as a spoken-language model.

How long is each fable?

According to the book's format, each fable is short, usually within one or two pages: it first narrates a small story, then closes with an aphorism or twist. It suits reading in spare moments.

Can I understand it without notes?

Readers with good English reading ability can grasp the general meaning, but jokes rooted in slang and period background are easily missed. Use an English-English dictionary; when you encounter abbreviated spellings, first restore them to standard spelling before interpreting.

Is it suitable as fables for children?

Not very suitable. The satire mostly targets adult social climbing, speculation, and worldly manners; the language is mainly slang, the barrier for children is high, and some content is not moral instruction in the traditional sense.

Comments

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About the author

Ade, George, 1866-1944 Author

George Ade (1866–1944) was an American writer known for humorous and satirical short pieces. His works include People You Know, Ade's Fables, More Fables, Fables in Slang, The Slim Princess, Knocking the Neighbors, and In Pastures New. He excelled at slang fables and urban sketches that portray the vanity and calculation of ordinary people, with playful language and brisk pacing, often using small characters' stories to reflect social manners. Fables in Slang, with its colloquial fables satirizing social life, is representative of his light but pointed style. Public information on his nationality, biographical details, and education is limited, so this note avoids speculation. The library holds eight of his works, indicating some presence of his humorous short fiction in Chinese-language book materials.