Idiot

The title is the joke. In John Kendrick Bangs' razor-sharp 1895 comedy, the Idiot is the only person in Mrs. Smithers-Pedagog's boarding house with an ounce of sense. While the other gentlemen prattle on about respectability and proper thinking, this supposed fool speaks the uncomfortable truths everyone else is too polished to utter. Because when society has already dismissed you as worthless, you gain a peculiar freedom: the freedom to say what you mean. Bangs, the American humorist who pals around with Twain and Bierce in literary history, constructed a comedy of manners that feels startlingly modern. The Idiot's "foolishness" is simply honesty unmasked from Victorian nicety, and it drives his respectable neighbors to distraction. Each exchange is a quiet duel between genuine stupidity and performed intelligence. What makes this book endure is its sting. Bangs understood that the people most full of themselves are often the most absurd, and that genuine wisdom frequently wears a fool's mask. It's a quick, wicked read that leaves you wondering who the real idiots are.