The Mouse That Roared

The Mouse That Roared
First edition cover
AuthorLeonard Wibberley
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction, Satire
PublisherLittle, Brown & Co.
Publication date
9 February 1955[1]
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardback)
ISBN978-0-316-93872-3
OCLC1016437
Followed byBeware of the Mouse 

The Mouse That Roared is a 1955 satirical novel by Irish writer Leonard Wibberley, which launched a series of satirical books about an imaginary country in Europe called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Wibberley used the premise to make commentaries about modern politics and world situations, including the nuclear arms race, nuclear weapons in general, and the politics of the United States.

The novel originally appeared as a six-part serial in The Saturday Evening Post from 25 December 1954 through 29 January 1955, under the title The Day New York Was Invaded. It was published as a book in February 1955 by Little, Brown.[2] The British edition[3] used the author's original intended title, The Wrath of Grapes, a play on John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Wibberley wrote one prequel (1958's Beware of the Mouse) and three sequels: The Mouse on the Moon (1962), The Mouse on Wall Street (1969), and The Mouse That Saved the West (1981). Each placed the tiny Duchy of Grand Fenwick in a series of absurd situations in which it faced superpowers and won.

  1. ^ "Today's Books". The New York Times. 9 February 1955. p. 25.
  2. ^ Wibberley, Leonard Patrick O'Connor (1955). The Mouse That Roared. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. ISBN 978-0-316-93872-3. OCLC 1016437.
  3. ^ London: Robert Hale, 1955