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Thread: Funniest Book Ever Read

  1. #316
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    Quote Originally Posted by Madame X View Post
    An essay, rather, not a novel; George Eliot’s Silly Novels by Lady Novelists cracks me up every time.

    Extrait du texte:

    “The most pitiable of all silly novels by lady novelists are what we may call the oracular species–novels intended to expound the writer's religious, philosophical, or moral theories. There seems to be a notion abroad among women, rather akin to the superstition that the speech and actions of idiots are inspired, and that the human being most entirely exhausted of common sense is the fittest vehicle of revelation. To judge from their writings, there are certain ladies who think that an amazing ignorance, both of science and of life, is the best possible qualification for forming an opinion on the knottiest moral and speculative questions. Apparently, their recipe for solving all such difficulties is something like this:–Take a woman's head, stuff it with a smattering of philosophy and literature chopped small, and with false notions of society baked hard, let it hang over a desk a few hours every day, and serve up hot in feeble English, when not required. You will rarely meet with a lady novelist of the oracular class who is diffident of her ability to decide on theological questions,–who has any suspicion that she is not capable of discriminating with the nicest accuracy between the good and evil in all church parties,–who does not see precisely how it is that men have gone wrong hitherto,–and pity philosophers in general that they have not had the opportunity of consulting her.”

    Ahhh, sweet pedantry…
    OMG that really is funny, isn't it?

  2. #317
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    Sometimes the saddest books can be the most funny. The first third of Brideshead Revisited (Waugh) is probably the most hilarious thing I've ever read. And Lost In The Cosmos by Percy is a ridiculously funny (but despite, or maybe because it is very serious at the same time).

  3. #318
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    The Discworld books by Terry Pratchett.
    very dry English humour.

  4. #319
    Tralfamadorian Big Dante's Avatar
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    Funniest Novels

    Looking at my bookshelf this morning I realised how I am lacking in the comedy department.
    So lets hear what novels made you laugh the hardest and why.

  5. #320
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    Funny?

    The funniest novel that I have read is The Aluminum Man by G. C. Edmondson. Some of the Flashman series are very funny.

    When it comes to funniness in writing there is a lot of room for disagreement.

  6. #321
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    Thomas McGuane's The Bushwhacked Piano

  7. #322
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    A Confederacy of Dunces and Catch-22 both made me laugh quite a bit. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I find to be a love it or hate it type book.

  8. #323
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    A few that are purely or primarily comic:
    Gary Shteyngart, The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan
    Jincy Willett, Winner of the National Book Award
    William Gaddis, JR and A Frolic of His Own
    Thomas Pynchon, Vineland

    Many of the funniest things I've read have been in novels with a serious element:
    David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
    Gaddis, The Recognitions

  9. #324
    Registered User Calidore's Avatar
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    To counterbalance NiMROD, I love Hitchhiker's Guide and its first sequel (the rest can be safely skipped), but thought Confederacy of Dunces was godawful--the title better describes the Pulitzer committee that voted for it.
    You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

  10. #325
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    "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh

  11. #326
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seasider View Post
    "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh
    Yes it literally had me helpless with laughter time and again. I like humorous writing and have read the usual comic authors such as Thurber, Buchwald, Leacock, Wodehouse etc. but, to my mind, Scoop is the funniest book in all English literature. If there were anything funnier, I would probably have hysterics. I should add though that its humour is very, very English and might not appeal to everybody. Definitely not to be read sitting among others on a train.
    "L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.

    "Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.

  12. #327
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    "The Good Soldier Shvejk" by Jaroslav Hashek

  13. #328
    Internal nebulae TheFifthElement's Avatar
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    I found Catch 22 pretty funny. And what I've read of Don Quixote was pretty funny too. Comedy is so personal though.
    Want to know what I think about books? Check out https://biisbooks.wordpress.com/

  14. #329
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    Cool You wanted a book funnier than Scoop?

    Try Waugh's other African novel, Black Mischief. To equal or top both of Waugh's novels, try The Horse's Mouth by Joyce Cary. all of these were published by the Folio Society, and I have them for sale. Send me a personal message.

  15. #330
    Registered User Calidore's Avatar
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    I haven't read a lot of Tom Sharpe, but his first two Wilt novels were pretty funny. Tom Holt's Norse mythology spoof Expecting Someone Taller is also good.
    You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

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