Global InformationArcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich information
Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich is a collection of humorous interwoven vignettes by Stephen Leacock, published in 1914. It exists as a companion work to his Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), due to the similarity of composition, and their subject matter. Arcadian Adventures follows the members of the 'Mausoleum Club' on Plutoria Avenue, in an unnamed American city (usually referred to as Plutoria, after its main street), and pokes fun at their obsessive individualism and materialism.[1] As Leacock thought humour to be 'the kindly contemplation of the incongruities of life and the artistic expression thereof',[1] Acardian Adventures tends to steer slightly away from this form of 'kindliness', and, thus, ranks as one of his most scathing works, as well as arguably one of his funniest.[1]
At the time of publication, Arcadian Adventures became extremely popular in North America, and, for a while, was considered a greater success than Sunshine Sketches.[2]
It is believed that the book was translated and published by the Bolshevik government soon after the 1917 revolution, and it became a bestseller in the Soviet Union.[3][4] While Leacock biographer Carl Spadoni has yet to find definitive evidence that a Russian edition exists, a communist-approved translation was printed in the German Democratic Republic in 1955.[5]
- ^ a b c Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich Leacock, Stephen. 'Afterword, by Gerald Lynch'. New Canadian Library, 2010. Print.
- ^ McMillan, Eric. The rich are not as funny as you and I. Accessed on: 19-05-2008 Archived January 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Stephen Leacock And The Left. Accessed on: 19-05-2008
- ^ Glavin, Terry. Stephen Harper is no Tory. February 2, 2006. Accessed on: 19-05-2008
- ^ Kiedrowski, Jonas. Revolution or Resignation: The Satirical Purpose of Stephen Leacock's Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich [1] Retrieved 25-02-2021