How Doth the Simple Spelling Bee by Owen Wister
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"How Doth the Simple Spelling Bee" by Owen Wister is a satirical novella written in the early 20th century. This humorous work explores the absurdity of English spelling and the proposed reforms surrounding it, highlighting the chaotic nature of language change. Wister's story takes place during a time when there were widespread discussions about simplifying and modernizing English spelling. The narrative follows Thomas Greenberry, an aloof, scholarly character who becomes unwittingly embroiled
in a campaign led by the eccentric Masticator B. Fellows, the president of Chickle University. Greenberry finds himself attending a convention that aims to reform English spelling and encounters a cast of quirky characters, including other scholars like Professor Willows and Miss Appleby. As Greenberry navigates the chaos of the meetings—marked by ludicrous suggestions, conflicts of opinion, and humorous misunderstandings—he realizes that the serious issue of spelling reform is overshadowed by personal flirtations and the bizarre antics of his fellow scholars. Ultimately, the novella serves as a comic critique of both language and its reformers, revealing the complexities and follies inherent in the quest for simplification. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Wister, Owen, 1860-1938 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Gruger, Frederic Rodrigo, 1871-1953 |
| Title | How Doth the Simple Spelling Bee |
| Credits |
Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 73.9 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Satire |
| Subject | Spelling reform -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 23923 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-23923-1 |
| Release Date | Dec 19, 2007 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 224 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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