Henry Farrell 1 hr 50 min read

On the first foolish morning of spring, staid businessman Marc Pillsworth sets out for another orderly day, never dreaming he's stepping into a shrieking sleigh ride of madness and crime.

Henry Farrell's 1954 story is a zany fantasy and social-SF comedy. Fun, madcap golden-age SF. Read it for a screwball romp where an ordinary man's life is turned upside down by the mischievous, invisible sprite Toffee, in a fast, funny golden-age farce of daydreams run wild and respectability gleefully demolished.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 50 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).