Hyman Kaplan, the irrepressible student with ostentatious pride at the American Night Preparatory School for Adults, has captivated readers ever since he first appeared in the pages of the New Yorker. Few immigrants have prepared themselves for the responsibility of citizenship with such high spirits as Kaplan, unrestrained by the pedantic guidance of Mr. Parkhill, who suffers as his student skews the English language with a zany logic all his own. His original treatment of speech recitation and composition irritates his classmates and tempts his teacher to promote and be rid of him prematurely, but in this compassionate classroom of misadventures, Hyman Kaplan is unmistakably at its heart.
