Funniest of those: Catch-22, Huckleberry Finn, plays of Aristophanes, The Farce of Sodom.
Funniest of those: Catch-22, Huckleberry Finn, plays of Aristophanes, The Farce of Sodom.
"So-Crates: The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing." "That's us, dude!"- Bill and Ted
"This ain't over."- Charles Bronson
Feed the Hungry!
I think maybe Catch 22 or Angela's Ashes for me.
Thanks. Good.Originally Posted by Jackson Richardson
I read that Wilde play in college. I remember it had a great deal of wit and I also remember liking it a lot and had a good time reading it.
By the way, I just finished reading the first chapter of Scoop. I expect to continue. Ciao.
There has never been a single, great revolution in history without civil war. --- Vladimir Lenin
There are decades when nothing happens and then there are weeks when decades happen. --- Vladimir Lenin
More from Ernest:
The good ended happily and the bad ended unhappily. That is the meaning of fiction.
Brilliant.
I can't imagine you'd care for a novel about English eccentric aristocrats (although with scenes on the Communist side of the Spanish Civil War) so you might not like Nancy Mitfords's The Pursuit of Love.
However Nancy's sister, Jessica, thought it was very funny as an account of their childhood and Jessica was a member of the American Communist Party during the McMarthy era, so you might be interested.
(Two of their other sisters were both Fascists. The Mitfords were an extraordinary family.)
I don't think mortalterror and I have the same sense of humour (no Jane Austen) but I'm glad to see a mention of Thomas Love Peacock who I read when a teen (I was an atypical teenager) and I really like. Nightmare Abbey is the one I'd recommend. He probably appeals to me because of his combination of conservative social tastes with radical political sympathies. They are far from realistic novels, but with a definite ironic take on life.
And Gilbert has a far darker and cynical side than his cosy fuddy duddy reputation:
"I always voted at my party's call:
I never thought of thinking for myself at all." (Pinafore)
"I often wonder in my artless Japanese way why it is I am so much more attractive than other women. Can this be vanity? No! Nature glories in her beauties. I am a child of Nature and I take after my mother." (Mikado)
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
I found Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey online and have been reading it. I don't know why it seemed to say "Read Me!" in mortalterror's list, but I do enjoy the "melancholy".
I also thought Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was rather funny, but I never finished it. Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is pretty good. Another piece of humor written by a female. I don't know if it is a "classic" work.
I enjoyed "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratched
A funny and serious reflection about the forces of good x the forces of evil.x
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Something I read awhile back is a short story by Ohenry, I thought it hilarious because of the situation these two kidnappers put them selves,,,, Ransom for Red Chief,,, short story,,,,,,
Pratched must be blamed for all comedy in Good Omens, his Discworld series is basically what would happen if Monty Python wrote a typical fantasy series. While Gaiman has a touch for irony (a Chesterton fan after all), he does not have that rythim for comedy.I enjoyed "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratched
A funny and serious reflection about the forces of good x the forces of evil.
Don Quixote probably -- the humor is consistent anyway, except for the godawful poetry.
I didn´t know that, not having read anything else by them. I usually read older authors. But I liked the typical English humour of the story. It reminds me a bit of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Camillo
which you certainly know, though the context is very different.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Pickwick Papers for me too... As well as Catch-22 and Three Men in a Boat
Oh, and Steinbeck's Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday
I read the former while I was new to the American Literature and English language and for a long while I thought it was "canary" and could not make any sense of the title!
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
I found Scoop very funny. I found Evelyn Waugh's Black Mischief not so funny and a bit racist. A Handful of Dust was very black comedy. Officers and Gentlemen was dry comedy. My dad liked it but I did not find it very funny.
I don't know if Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim is considered a classic internationally, but I found that funny.
Jane Austen can be quite funny. The scene where Mr Elliot is in the carriage with Emma Woodhouse in Emma is very funny. Lizzie Bennet's father in Pride and Prejudice is funny.
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
I'm 100 pages into Scoop and I don't find it funny at all. I find it rather dull --- and I have been reading it slowly and carefully. I'm now finished with the first part called "The Stitch Service" and am proceeding with "20 Pound Sterling" (the 2nd part). Will it get better? I may not read another Waugh book.
Last edited by Red Terror; 06-05-2017 at 05:58 PM.
There has never been a single, great revolution in history without civil war. --- Vladimir Lenin
There are decades when nothing happens and then there are weeks when decades happen. --- Vladimir Lenin
In my opinion the first part is the best. O well senses of humour differ.
Previously JonathanB
The more I read, the more I shall covet to read. Robert Burton The Anatomy of Melancholy Partion3, Section 1, Member 1, Subsection 1
Thanks for the info. I might put it aside. I guess the sense of humor of Edwardian England was Pollyanish. I am depressed.
There has never been a single, great revolution in history without civil war. --- Vladimir Lenin
There are decades when nothing happens and then there are weeks when decades happen. --- Vladimir Lenin
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
