Books like 'Penrod'
Readers who enjoyed Penrod by Booth Tarkington also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsOstap Bender is an unemployed con artist living by his wits in postrevolutionary Soviet Russia. He joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to find a cache of missing jewels which were hidden in some chairs that have been appropriated by the Soviet authorities...Categorized as:
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The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA literary discovery: an uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation Perhaps the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century, being discovered around the world only now, more than fifty years after its first publication, The Time Regulation Institute is an antic, freewheeling send-up of the modern bureaucratic state...Categorized as:
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Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWhen We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six complete the four-volume set of deluxe editions of the Milne and Shepard classic works. Like their companions, the Winnie-the-Pooh 80th Anniversary Edition and The House At Pooh Corner, these beautiful books feature full-color artwork on cream-colored stock...Categorized as:
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Life With Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is old Bertie Wooster's habit to land in the soup from time to time. To get into a spot of bother. Circumstances, aided and abetted by Aunt Agatha, Aunt Dahlia, Bingo Little, Tuppy, Sippy and others, seem to conspire against him, and a frightful muddle ensues.Enter Jeeves, the source of all solace. Jeeves of the infinite sagacity...Categorized as:
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The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker, Marion Meade
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe second revision in sixty years, this sublime collection ranges over the verse, stories, essays, and journalism of one of the twentieth century's most quotable authors.For this new twenty-first-century edition, devoted admirers can be sure to find their favorite verse and stories. But a variety of fresh material has also been added to create a fuller, more authentic picture of her life's work...Categorized as:
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The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde, Richard Allen Cave
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsCombining epigrammatic brilliance and shrewd social observation, the works collected in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays are edited with an introduction, commentaries and notes by Richard Allen Cave in Penguin Classics...Categorized as:
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The Plays of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis work consists of the plays "Lady Windermere's Fan" and "A Woman of No Importance". Both the plays deal with the theme of a guilty secret. The wit of the dialogue softens the serious criticism of English manners and morals that lie behind the settings and frivolity of his plays... -
Pygmalion / My Fair Lady by George Bernard Shaw, Alan Jay Lerner
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe ancient Greeks tell the legend of the sculptor Pygmalion, who created a statue of a woman of such surpassing beauty that he fell in love with his own creation. Then, Aphrodite, taking pity on this man whose love could not reach beyond the barrier of stone, brought the statue to life and gave her to Pygmalion as his bride...Categorized as:
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Run with the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPorter Osborne Jr. is a precocious, sensitive, and rambunctious boy trying to make it through adolescence during the depression years. On a red-clay farm in Georgia he learns all there is to know about cotton chopping, hog killing, watermelon thumping, and mule handling. School provides a quick course in practical joking, schoolboy crushes, athletic glory, and clandestine sex...Categorized as:
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Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain by Marcel Proust
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIncluding THE GUERMANTES WAY and CITIES OF THE PLAIN... -
The Complete Saki by Saki
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHector Hugh Munro is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England's "golden afternoon''--those slow and peaceful years prior to the outbreak of World War I. The good wit of bad manners, elegantly spiced with irony and deftly controlled malice, has made Saki stories small, perfect gems of the English language...Categorized as:
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Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings by Daniil Kharms, Matvei Yankelevich
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDaniil Kharms has long been heralded as one of the most iconoclastic writers of the Soviet era, but the full breadth of his achievement is only in recent years, following the opening of Kharms' archives, being recognized internationally... -
Warlock by Oakley Hall
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOakley Hall’s legendary Warlock revisits and reworks the traditional conventions of the Western to present a raw, funny, hypnotic, ultimately devastating picture of American unreality. First published in the 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy era, Warlock is not only one of the most original and entertaining of modern American novels but a lasting contribution to American fiction...Categorized as:
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A Foreign Woman by Sergei Dovlatov, Antonina W. Bouis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAfter leaving the Soviet Union following a series of unsatisfying relationships, Marusya Tatarovich quickly becomes the center of the Russian community in Queens, New York, but finds that it mirrors in many ways the community she left...Categorized as:
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Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPongo Twistleton is in a state of financial embarrassment, again. Uncle Fred, meanwhile, has been asked by Lord Emsworth to foil a plot to steal the Empress, his prize pig. Along with Polly Pott (daughter of old Mustard), they form a deputation to Blandings Castle, bent on doing a "bit of good"...Categorized as:
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The Lion in Winter by James Goldman
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsInsecure siblings fighting for their parents’ attention; bickering spouses who can’t stand to be together or apart; adultery and sexual experimentation; even the struggle to balance work and family: These are themes as much at home in our time as they were in the twelfth century. In James Goldman’s classic play The Lion in Winter, domestic turmoil rises to an art form...Categorized as:
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Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBertie Wooster vows that nothing will induce him to return to Totleigh Towers, lair of former magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett. Apart from Sir Watkyn himself, the place is infested with his ghastly daughter Madeline and her admirer, would-be dictator Roderick Spode. But when his old friend 'Stinker' Pinker asks for Bertie's help, there is nothing for it but to buckle down and go there...Categorized as:
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Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"Selected Stories of O. Henry," by O. Henry, is part of the "Barnes & Noble Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
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Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe full text and complete lyrics, as well as photographs from the original production. "One of the great works of the American musical theatre. It is darling, touching, beautiful, warm, funny and inspiring. It is a work of art...Categorized as:
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The Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsToday, F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his novels, but in his lifetime, his fame stemmed from his prolific achievement as one of America's most gifted (and best-paid) writers of stories and novellas. In 'The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald', Matthew J...Categorized as:
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Wacky Wednesday by Theo LeSieg, Dr. Seuss
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIllus. in full color. A baffled youngster awakens one morning to findeverything's out of place, but no one seems to notice! Beginning readers willhave fun discovering all the wacky things wrong on each page while sharpeningtheir ability to observe, as well as to read... -
Paddington Helps Out by Michael Bond
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThat bear is back again, and in this new edition of Paddington Helps Out, his attraction for near disaster is as magnetic as ever. Who but Paddington would set out to cook dumplings only to find himself chased from the kitchen by something so nasty only his resourceful friend Mr... -
The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber, Michael J. Rosen
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"An authentic American genius. . . . Mr. Thurber belongs in the great lines of American humorists that includes Mark Twain and Ring Lardner." --Philadelphia InquirerJames Thurber’s unique ability to convey the vagaries of life in a funny, witty, and often satirical way earned him accolades as one of the finest humorists of the twentieth century... -
The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovannino Guareschi
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis tragicomical stories, often politically or socially charged, mostly situated in a fictional village on the Po called Boscaccio, in the period immediately after World War II, paint a clear picture of the post-war Italy. In this period the Italian Communist Party is very strong, but the Second World War and fascism are still vividly remembered. Boscaccio has a communist mayor named Peppone...Categorized as:
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Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe charming adventures of the Mama of an immigrant Norwegian family living in San Francisco. This bestselling book inspired the play, motion picture, and television series I Remember Mama...Categorized as:
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Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsMoo moo! Hoo hoo! Cock-a-doodle-doo! Oh, the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do. Now see if you can do them too! This fabulous book is ideal for teaching young children all about noises!This delightful book forms part of the second stage in HarperCollins’ major Dr. Seuss rebrand programme... -
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen Bertie Wooster goes to stay with his Aunt Dahlia at Brinkley Court and finds himself engaged to the imperious Lady Florence Craye, disaster threatens from all sides...Categorized as:
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Fish Preferred by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHugh Carmody loved Millicent, Lord Emsworth niece, but he was very good friends with Sue Brown - an attachment which Millicent, perhaps, could hardly be expected to enthuse over. Ronnie Fish loved Sue, and entertained feelings o unrestrained ferocity towards Pilbeam, a blister of the first water, who was pestering her with flowers...Categorized as:
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Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, author who wrights against marriage who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with a honeymoon with the woman he loves and has recently agreed to marry...Categorized as:
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Selected Stories by O. Henry
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsO. Henry originated the humorous, energetic tale that ends with an ironic, even shocking twist. In "After Twenty Years," for example, two boys agree to meet at a particular spot exactly twenty years later. Both are faithful, but in the intervening years one boy has turned into a criminal, the other into a policeman...Categorized as:
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Emil's Pranks by Astrid Lindgren
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMischievous Emil tests out a pair of stilts, rides a horse, and goes on a sleigh ride, all with predictably disastrous results...Categorized as:
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Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsIn this hilarious book, the irrepressible Fox in Socks teaches a baffled Mr. Knox some of the slickest, quickest tongue-twisters in town.With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years... -
Paddington at Large by Michael Bond
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThere’ll always be an England, but the old place has never been quite the same since the Brown children came across a small lost bear in London’s Paddington Station. Whether tinkering with the neighbor’s lawn mower or experimenting in the kitchen, Paddington has a knack for finding trouble... -
Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen the Browns go on holiday to France, Paddington is put in charge of the "eyetinnery." But even with the whole trip planned down to the last marmalade sandwich, somehow Paddington takes the family off the beaten path on a voyage no one could forget... -
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A Pelican at Blandings by P.G. Wodehouse, Nigel Lambert
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsClarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, sank back in his chair, looking like the good old man in a Victorian melodrama whose mortgage the villain had just foreclosed. He felt the absence of that gentle glow which customarily accompanied the departure of one of his sisters. Lord Emsworth needed Galahad... -
Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer...Categorized as:
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Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAs this complete collection of her short stories demonstrates, Dorothy Parker’s talents extended far beyond brash one-liners and clever rhymes. Her stories not only bring to life the urban milieu that was her bailiwick but lay bare the uncertainties and disappointments of ordinary people living ordinary lives...Categorized as:
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Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng, Peter Zinoman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBanned in Vietnam until 1986, Dumb Luck--by the controversial and influential Vietnamese writer Vu Trong Phung--is a bitter satire of the rage for modernization in Vietnam during the late colonial era. First published in Hanoi during 1936, it follows the absurd and unexpected rise within colonial society of a street-smart vagabond named Red-haired Xuan... -
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsConsidered by critics to be Barth's most distinguished masterpiece, The Sot-Weed Factor has acquired the status of a modern classic. Set in the late 1600s, it recounts the wildly chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father's tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem...Categorized as:
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Blandings Castle by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFans of P. G. Wodehouse's comic genius are legion, and their devotion to his masterful command of hilarity borders on obsession. Overlook happily feeds the obsession with four more antic selections from the master... -
Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad...Categorized as:
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Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAmbition and jealousyall set to music. Devout court composer Antonio Salieri plots against his rival, the dissolute but supremely talented Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. How far will Salieri go to achieve the fame that Mozart disregards? The 1981 Tony Award winner for Best Play. An L.A...Categorized as:
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Dr. Seuss's ABC by Dr. Seuss
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsArguably the most entertaining alphabet book ever written, this classic Beginner Book by Dr. Seuss is perfect for children learning their ABCs. Featuring a fantastic cast of zany characters—from Aunt Annie’s alligator to the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz, with a lazy lion licking a lollipop and an ostrich oiling an orange owl—Dr. Seuss’s ABC is a must-have for every young child’s library... -
The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith their lives drastically remodeled by World War II, the characters of The Dance to the Music of Time series continue their colorful exploits. Nicholas Jenkins, the narrarator, now in his thirties, is second-lieutenant in an infrantry regiment and life in the army is examined at startingly close range...Categorized as:
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Quick Service by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen imperious American widow Beatice Chavender eats a forkful of inferior ham at her sister's country home near London, it affects the lives of everyone around her--her sister, her brother-in-law, her sister's butler, her sister's poor relation Sally, Sally's fiance Lord Holbeton, and, most of all, Mrs. Chavender's own one-time fiance, "Ham King" J.B... -
The Luck of the Bodkins by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMonty Bodkin's wooing of Gertrude Butterwick on the R.M.S. Atlantic is not progressing as it should. And the cause of all the trouble is Miss Lotus Blossum, the brightest star in Hollywood's firmament. The easy camaraderie of Miss Blossom, coupled with the idea that Monty is the only person who can send the errant Ambrose back to her welcoming arms, is causing Mr Bodkin moments of acute distress...Categorized as:
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Young Men in Spats by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThese eleven stories describe the misadventures of the delightfully idle "Eggs," "Beans," and "Crumpets" that populate the Drones club: young men wearing spats, starting spats, and landing in sticky spots. For the first of his many appearances in the Wodehouse canon, Uncle Fred comes to what he believes to be the rescue... -
Piccadilly Jim by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe fall brings four more antic novels from comic genius, P. G. Wodehouse. In Picadilly Jim (soon to be a major motion picture), Jimmy Crocker has a scandalous reputation on both sides of the Atlantic and must do an about-face to win back the woman of his dreams...Categorized as:
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Just William by Richmal Crompton
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings[...]began as a wild young man in evening clothes drinking intoxicants and playing cards, he ended as a wild old man in rags still drinking intoxicants and playing cards. He had a small child with a pious and superior expression, who spent her time weeping over him and exhorting him to a better life, till, in a moment of justifiable exasperation, he threw a beer bottle at her head...Categorized as:
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Village School by Miss Read
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe first novel in the beloved Fairacre series, Village School introduces the remarkable schoolmistress Miss Read and her lovable group of children, who, with a mixture of skinned knees and smiles, are just as likely to lose themselves as their mittens...Categorized as:
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