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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a well-meaning clergyman’s dignity meets a world that refuses to behave?
Fibble holds a Doctor of Divinity degree, with the learning and church standing that title suggests. But good intentions offer little protection from embarrassment. In Fibble, D.D., Irvin S. Cobb puts a respectable man’s sense of dignity under pressure, finding comedy in the gap between how he wishes to appear and how events make him look.
Cobb brings a storyteller’s ear to this comedy of manners and mishaps. Southern speech, exaggeration and dry asides give the humor its flavor. The pleasure lies in small embarrassments and gentle mockery: a solemn manner meets the untidiness of daily life, and respectability proves less secure than its owner might hope.
What you’ll discover
- A well-meaning curate Meet Fibble, whose good intentions sit uneasily beside his concern for dignity.
- Respectability under pressure Enjoy the comic distance between a man’s solemn bearing and his embarrassing circumstances.
- The trouble with kindness Explore how good intentions can bring confusion rather than the results a person hopes for.
- A storyteller’s comic touch Savor Southern speech, exaggeration and the dry aside in Cobb’s gently mocking humor.
- Small mishaps, gentle laughter Find light company in comic sketches where misplaced dignity supplies the fun.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like gentle satire, comic narrators who miss the joke on themselves, and warm farce about fussy people thrown into the open air and into a war.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Fibble cannot see his own comedy
- The boys understand the joke first
- A camping manual cannot replace practice
- His explanations make everything look stranger
- His young travelers stay ahead
- Agreement sounds like a confession
- The diary reveals feelings he denies
- Dignity survives what knowledge cannot manage
- Watch what his defenses leave out
Who’s who
- Roscoe Titmarsh FibbleA proud, fussy and kind clergyman and teacher who tells every tale himself and wants nothing more than to keep his dignity.
- Doctor TubleyThe seventy-three-year-old rector of St. Barnabas' who hands the parish boys to his young assistant and gives mild, unheeded advice.
- Master Percival PopeA soft-voiced, blue-eyed boy of the Young Nuts whom Fibble praises as angelic and who stays close to him.
- Zeno the GreatA giant circus strongman, really named Finnigan, who carries a locked black box and shares Fibble's strange fate in France.
- Miss Charlotte PrimleighThe angular and sharp mathematics teacher at Fernbridge who shares Fibble's walks and opinions and wants his company.
- Miss Hildegarde HammThe lively young athletic instructor at Fernbridge who loves jokes, riding and mimicry and wins Fibble's attention.
- Miss WaddletonThe direct principal of Fernbridge Seminary who sends Fibble to Europe and keeps his schemes in check.
- Mr. Hector HammMiss Hamm's uncle, a retired businessman who hunts, keeps growling dogs and cannot resist buying a new shotgun.
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25 languages, side by side
Fibble, D.D. in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Fibble, D.D.
by Irvin S. Cobb · 1916
A fussy curate in robin's-egg-blue knickerbockers leads the Young Nuts of America into the woods.
Challenging2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“We are safe in hailing Cobb as already a classic.”
In short
What would you do if you stepped into the woods in robin's-egg-blue knickerbockers with a pink sofa pillow under your arm? The Reverend Roscoe Titmarsh Fibble does exactly that in Fibble, D.D., and by the next morning farmers have bound him, sure he is a lunatic.
Fibble, D.D. at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 50 min2 h 15 min fast, 3 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 40,900 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1916by Irvin S. Cobb
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A curate is handed the parish boys
Fibble is an assistant to the elderly Reverend Doctor Tubley at St. Barnabas', and he would much prefer to work among the ladies of the congregation. His superior has other plans. Doctor Tubley admits his conscience troubles him about the boys of the parish, and he hands them over to Fibble.
Fibble goes to work at once, and every idea shows how little he knows about boys. He proposes indoor nature study by lamplight, with readings from Wordsworth and Longfellow.
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Which edition is right for me
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1916
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 20 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Cobb, Irvin S. Fibble, D.D.. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/fibble-d-d.
Cobb, I. S. (2026). Fibble, D.D.. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/fibble-d-d (Original work published 1916)
Cobb, Irvin S. Fibble, D.D.. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/fibble-d-d.
@book{cobb2026fibble,
author = {Cobb, Irvin S.},
title = {Fibble, D.D.},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/fibble-d-d},
note = {First published 1916}
}
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What is Fibble, D.D. about?
It follows the Reverend Roscoe Fibble through three comic mishaps. He leads a boys' camping club into the woods, escorts eight girls through France as war begins, and keeps a diary at a girls' school where he finds love.
Who are the Young Nuts of America?
They are the boys' outing club Fibble forms in part one. The name comes from a slip of paper written by the father of one of the boys, and Fibble is the Chief Nut.
Who is Zeno the Great in the book?
He is an enormous circus strongman, really named Finnigan, whom Fibble meets on a French billiard table. His locked black box, full of his stage props, soon gets both men into trouble.
The author
Irvin S. Cobb
1876–1944 · American humorist and story writer
American writer.
“Accidents will happen in the best-regulated families, won’t they?”
More by Irvin S. Cobb
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