Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Philo Gubb, Detektiv der Fernschule
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love gentle American humor, parodies of detective stories, and short tales that can be enjoyed one at a time. Philo Gubb’s disguises, earnest blunders and small-town cases offer a kindly comic view of detective work.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Philo Gubb, Correspondence-School Detective is a book of humorous stories by the American writer Ellis Parker Butler, published in 1918. Its hero is a small-town man who earns his living hanging wallpaper. He has read, in a mail-order course, that detectives are the finest people on earth, and he decides to become one.
What follows is a string of comic cases in which book learning meets real life. You get a gentle spoof of detective fiction, a affectionate portrait of small-town America, and a hero whose confidence is far greater than his skill. Let us begin with the man himself, and the odd habit that makes him stand out from every other sleuth.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A paperhanger decides to become a detectiveFree
- 2Disguises are the heart of the method
- 3Cases that go wrong in useful ways
- 4What the humor says about books and bluff
Punkt 1 von 4
A paperhanger decides to become a detective
The first thing to know is that Philo Gubb is an ordinary tradesman. He lives in a small Midwestern town, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and crime is rare. His real work is putting up wallpaper, and he is not ashamed of it.
But Gubb has caught a different ambition. He has studied a detective course by post, and he takes its lessons with perfect seriousness. To him the manual is not a pamphlet but a calling. He believes that a person who follows the lessons can solve any case.
This gives the book its central joke, and its warmth. Gubb is never a fool out of malice. He is sincere, careful and proud of his training, and the reader soon wants him to succeed even as the town smiles at him. His two trades sit side by side, and the stories enjoy the gap between the dull job he has and the thrilling life he imagines.
That’s 1 of 4 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Philo Gubb, Detektiv der Fernschule
What is Philo Gubb about?
It is a collection of comic stories about a small-town paperhanger who studies detective work by mail. He takes up cases in his town, using disguises and lessons from his course, with funny and mixed results.
Who wrote Philo Gubb, Correspondence-School Detective?
The American humorist Ellis Parker Butler wrote it. It appeared in book form in 1918. He is also known for the short story Pigs Is Pigs and for many other comic tales of small-town life.
Is Philo Gubb a parody of detective stories?
Yes, in a gentle way. The book plays with ideas from detective fiction, such as disguises and clever methods, and shows how they fare in a quiet town when a very ordinary man tries them.
Is Philo Gubb hard to read?
No. The stories are short, light and written in plain language. Some of the humor and the ideas about mail-order courses belong to the early twentieth century, but they are easy to follow.
Is Philo Gubb worth reading today?
It is worth reading if you like gentle humor and detective spoofs. The stories are brief, kindly and funny, and they give a picture of small-town American life in the early 1900s.