Customer Reviews

Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Other Pieces (Penguin Modern Classics)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anyone you buy it for will absolutly love it. Children, teenagers, and even adults should read this book. It makes you want to jump in to one of Walter's day dreams the moment you read it. Thurber really out did him self. I have to say it is one of the funniest books i have ever read.

In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, James Thurber gives us something much more important than laughs: he gives us a brief but penetrating glance at human nature. The story focuses on Walter Mitty, an ordinary man, with the habit of daydreaming. Walter will simply forget anyone around him and become someone else; a navy pilot, a surgeon, a suspect for murder, a World War II pilot. In these dreams, he is always the hero, a character of bravery and valiance. In real life his wife often interrupts these fantasies, and he resents her for this. His wife, on the other hand, thinks that he may be ill, as he tends to drift off. She sees his fantasies as a failing on his part, while he uses them to escape reality.
Perhaps the most important theme of the story is that these fanatics may not be bad, quite to the contrary, they may be very good. James Thurber thinks that daydreams provide an escape from reality, and a valuable way to make an otherwise boring day livable. The ending to Walter Mitty reflects this opinion. Mitty ends the story returning to the real world, though much better for the break. Consider this quote:
"He took one last drag on his cigarette and snapped it away. Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing on about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last."

Thank you the book was in great shape, the book was for my son, it was required reading for his english class. He liked the book. He even told me he thinks I would enjoy reading it.

It was an excellent book for someone who enjoys day dreaming. Good for both kids and teens. Adults might even possibly enjoy it.

I was highly disappointed with this book; it was a gift for my husband (who reminds me of Walter Mitty) and when it came I realized that it was geared for children and not appropriate to give my very grown up husband. Aside from this, I felt that the cost of $27 was too high for this particular edition. I promptly returned it to Amazon.