Archy and Mehitabel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The circumstances of Archy's first appearance are narrated in the following extract from the Sun Dial column of the New York Sun..." (more)
Key Phrases: warty bliggens, wotthehell wotthehell, mehitabel the cat (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Of all the literary genres, humor has the shortest shelf life--except for Archy and Mehitabel, that is. First published in 1916, it is a classic of American literature. Archy is a cockroach, inside whom resides the soul of a free-verse poet; he communicates with Don Marquis by leaping upon the keys of the columnist's typewriter. In poems of varying length, Archy pithily describes his wee world, the main fixture of which is Mehitabel, a devil-may-care alley cat.

Archy music will linger in your head long after you finish the book. Here's a tiny taste from his interview with a mummy:

"what ho
my regal leatherface says i

greetings
little scatter footed
scarab
says he"

Writers (particularly journalists) can go lifetimes without attaining such loose-limbed grace. And the illustrations by George Herriman ("Krazy Kat") provide the perfect counterpoint. On top of all that, Marquis did the impossible: he made a cockroach loveable.

Review

Collection of humorous stories by Don Marquis, originally published from 1916 in Marquis's newspaper columns "The Sun Dial" in the New York Evening Sun and "The Lantern" in the New York Herald Tribune and published in book form in 1927. The stories center on Archy, a philosophical cockroach who types messages to the author in lowercase letters (being unable to activate the shift mechanism), and Mehitabel, a free-spirited alley cat whose motto is "toujours gai." After initial publication, the work and its sequels were usually published without capital letters. Archy and Mehitabel consists mostly of free-verse poems on such concerns of Archy's as transmigration of souls, social injustice, life in New York City, and death. Sequels included Archys Life of Mehitabel (1933) and Archy Does His Part (1935), both of which were included in the lives and times of archy and mehitabel (1940; illustrated by George Herriman), a posthumously published compendium of the previous books. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (September 29, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385094787
• ISBN-13: 978-0385094788
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #163,773 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Funny Little Book, July 15, 2000

By	A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com "What should ... (Glen Ellyn, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"Archy and Mehitabel" is a strange, funny little book. Drawing from the conversational poetry found in books like Edgar Lee Masters "Spoon River Anthology," Marquis uses a colloquial style which not only suits his characters, but works in a poem. Lots of laughs, some decent writing, and a tasty way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Talking animals are easy to find in literature. Good ones, like a cat and a cockroach of this caliber, are not. Marquis brings humanity by allowing his animals to stay animals. Spiders still are poisonous, rats are still threatening, and cockroaches have never been able to type the capital letters on a typewriter. Marquis pushes reality, keeping his characters grounded in truth (OK, he fudges with truth a lot, but don't let that stop you).

While filled with humorous tales, moments are sad, like in the ninth poem, "freddy the rat perishes." Dear Freddy has a run in with a spider who is up to no good. In a valiant struggle, a tough South American spider ("raised on red pepper and blood" and "nursed on tabasco sauce") Freddy is killed while saving his friends. Freddy ate some poisoned cheese the night before and let the spider bite him, knowing he had nothing to lose. After it was over, Archy and Mehitabel dropped Freddy "off the fire escape into the alley with/military honors". Despite the whole premise being ridiculous, a tear might well up.

Children will love being read the stories, and younger teens may find poetry readable (before you send them on to Keats and Byron!). Great, funny pictures, completely in the context of each poem-tale.

I fully recommend this book.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ".....transmigration is the game...", January 8, 2003

By	yygsgsdrassil "yygsgsdrassil" (Crossroads America) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

metthinks
the vers libre of
archy literate cockroach
and mehitabel krazy kat s kouzin
are amazing and amuzing
good thing amazon.com has most
of the cocroaches volume via marquis

herriman s drawings captures
marquises tone and surrreality
and hyperreality perfectly
like a cross between a glorious
post apocalypse a goofy sat
morning cartoon and an unkept roadside
chuck wagon i believe we
all should keep
cockroach farms

just in
case just in
case

ygsgs

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars when newspaper columns were poetry, August 19, 1999

By	DJ Rix (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

archy (or is it don marquis)
is a greater poet
than the critics admit
think of e.e. cummings
did he suffer so by diving
headfirst on to the typewriter keys
but he probably knew archy
from some greenwich village
coffeehouse

amazing to think these poems
were newspaper columns
when a column meant a column
straight down the inky newsprint
archy's words staining fingers
the newspaper column had a golden age
alas it is gone poor archy
and now i too have a headache