---
product_id: 66526799
title: "The Wonderful O: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)"
brand: "james thurbermarc simontransom riggs"
price: "Bs.372"
currency: BOB
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.bo/products/66526799-the-wonderful-o-penguin-classics-deluxe-edition
store_origin: BO
region: Bolivia
---

# The Wonderful O: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

**Brand:** james thurbermarc simontransom riggs
**Price:** Bs.372
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Wonderful O: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by james thurbermarc simontransom riggs
- **How much does it cost?** Bs.372 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.bo](https://www.desertcart.bo/products/66526799-the-wonderful-o-penguin-classics-deluxe-edition)

## Best For

- james thurbermarc simontransom riggs enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted james thurbermarc simontransom riggs brand quality
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## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![The Wonderful O: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61uyZ+QbYsL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Quick prompt delivery. Good service. Good quality item. Good condition. Good price. Good people!
  

*by M***. on Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2023*

Bought it for the contents (to read.)Excellent for the purpose and price.Thanks! 5-Stars! (I'd give you 10 if I could!)

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    The story of O
  

*by R***N on Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2023*

A good read

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Captain Black and the Death of "O"
  

*by S***K on Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2010*

The Wonderful O, by long time New Yorker magazine writer James Thurber (1894-1961), was published over 50 years ago (1957), and the fingers of history leave smudges on the pages of this fanciful tale of a violent and dictatorial Captain Black and his partner Littlejack wreaking havoc when they outlaw all things "O".The story line is relatively straightforward:  In search of jewels, Black and Littlejack, backed by a pirate ship crewed by violence-prone henchmen, take over the government of an island.  Black, whose mother was once stuck in a porthole, has what would almost certainly be dubbed PTAD (Post-traumatic Alphabetical Disorder) today, and hates all things with the letter "O".  He bans the letter, and even bans objects that contain the letter O.  By teaming up with a lawyer (Hyde), legal decisions blunt some of the more disastrous potential effects of the new edicts. Cows, for example, do not need to be eliminated if they are referred to as cattle; geese are okay as long as an individual doesn't leave the flock (becoming a goose).The Wonderful O is an adult parable rather than a children's book, though it is included in the New York Review Children's Collection.  The complexity of the language and themes would challenge the great majority of children who read The Wonderful O, and the targets of Thurber's writing would likely remain opaque to them.  What are those targets?  First, a brief refresher of the mid-fifties.When the Wonderful O was written, the national consciousness was still tuned acutely to war, specifically the memory of WW II and the Korean conflict.  Joe McCarthy had finally been reined in only two or three years earlier, and though his rabid anti-Communism rants had lost credibility, the Cold War was in full ascendancy.  The evils of totalitarianism, and the past brutalities of Stalin and Hitler were fresh in people's minds; Mao Zedong was well on his way to the excesses of power that would eventually kill over 70 million Chinese.  Memories of collaborators that aided the Nazi occupation of France were still fresh.  The excesses of dictatorial power that the free world witnessed were no less capricious, but considerably more tragic, than eliminating all things "O" from the world.  Consciousness of what had already occurred, and fear of what might still happen, provided Thurber with virtually all of the warp, and a good part of the weave, in his literary tapestry about the letter O.The resistance to evil, a prophetess-like figure named Andrea tells those with the courage to resist Black and Littlejack, revolves around four "O" words: Love, Hope, Valor, and.....you'll have to read the book to find out!  Citizens on the island occupied by Black and LIttlejack respond the way the citizens of France did when Hitler invaded, ranging from full cooperation with the tyrants to heroic resistance. Thurber's portrayal of the family and social choices that people must make in the face of tyranny is uncomfortably accurate.Retrospectively, it's interesting that the word valor is specifically chosen over wisdom; one of Thurber's characters refers to the word wisdom as "too weak".  It is also interesting to note that when the fourth "O" word is finally revealed, it turns out to be one that has been bandied about like a rugby ball for the last eight to nine years, often by those most abusive of it.For those previously unfamiliar with Thurber's work (that would include me), his writing style is amazingly witty, and (appropriate for a friend of E.B. White) grammatically perfect, a combination of qualities that is a joy to experience.One wonders, were Thurber alive today, if after the Vietnam War, the first and second Gulf Wars, and the current struggle in Afghanistan, he would still be willing to choose valor over wisdom as one of the four antidotal words to oppression.  One wonders also if the fourth antidotal word, unnamed until late in the book, has been bludgeoned into triteness by overuse.  One will never wonder, though, how Thurber would feel about impositions on one of our most important American rights:  that of free speech.  Captain Black and Littlejack run seriously aground when they mess with natural law in the Universe of Thurber, specifically the law that allows free, unrestricted, and creative use of language.

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*Product available on Desertcart Bolivia*
*Store origin: BO*
*Last updated: 2026-02-26*