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The Wonderful O

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The Wonderful O
First edition
AuthorJames Thurber
IllustratorMarc Simont
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Publication date
1957
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages72

The Wonderful O is the last of James Thurber’s five short-book fairy tales for children. Published in 1957 by Hamish Hamilton/Simon Schuster, it followed Many Moons (1943), The Great Quillow (1944), The White Deer (1945) and The 13 Clocks (1950).

As well as constant, complex wordplay, Thurber uses other literary devices such as frequent internal meter or rhythmic prose, near-poetry, puns, literary allusions (e.g. to wandering minstrels) and thus creates a humorous satire involving loss, love and freedom. The Wonderful O uses a form of constrained writing or lipogram where the letter O is omitted at the demands of the villains.

"I'll build you a better man of firmer flesh and all complete, from hairy head to metatarsal feet, using As and Is and Us and Es with muscular arms and flexible knees; eyes and ears and lids and lips, neck and chest and breast and hips;..."

It was one of several of Thurber's works illustrated by his friend and frequent illustrator Marc Simont after Thurber went blind during the 1950s.

The original brief back-cover blurb was by E B White ““Thurber inhabits a world of his own… and the world of the Wonderful O is an O-less one, where confusin and chas reign. The island of R, previously Ooroo, terrorized by pirates who come to plunder and remain to rule, is inhabited by gentle people who don’t resist when all words with O are banished. The islanders decide that there are four words which must not be lost: hope, valor, love and the fourth and most important."

The 2009 reprint by The New York Review Children's Collection, has the original illustrations by Marc Simont.

For the Puffin Books edition (1962), The Wonderful O was joined with The 13 Clocks, and both stories were illustrated by Ronald Searle.

Reviews

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The Wonderful O (James Thurber) (Album)

Sources

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  • Penguin (Puffin Books) edition (1962) ISBN 0140301801
  • New York Review Children's Collection (2009) ISBN 1-59017-309-0
  • Attebery, Brian (1980). The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature. ISBN 0-253-35665-2