John Kendrick Bangs 2 hr 2 min read

Jack of beanstalk fame, Aladdin, and Puss in Boots all return, this time armed with a checkbook, floating wish syndicates and golden-fleece promotions in a satire of modern finance.

John Kendrick Bangs's 1911 collection wittily updates the classic fairy tales into send-ups of business and speculation. Clever, funny, sharp period satire. Read it for a droll fantasy that turns storybook heroes into high-financiers, skewering the money-mad modern world.

In its time

Published in 1911, during the 1910s, lost worlds and interplanetary adventure.

Reading it

2 hr 2 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Albert Levering