I like Moliere's Misanthrope and Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. They were both hilariously entertaining. I have before me, right now, Evelyn Waugh's Scoop which many people declare to be a satrical and comical masterpiece. What do you guys say your favorites are?
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I found The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner to be surprisingly funny (in places ).
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"Scoop" was a classic.
One of my favourites.
I found Scoop very funny indeed, at least the scenes set in England. I recently saw on another message board the comment that the African scenes are racist. Waugh's personal attitude was very reactionary but he is rarely direct in expressing it.
I think Red Terror would enjoy Waugh's earlier Vile Bodies, a considerably darker book than Scoop.
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
Dickens's The Pickwick Papers and the Alice books by Lewis Carroll.
One person's sense of humour will often differ from another but, for my part, as somone who has read and laughed heartily at humourous writers such as P G Wodehouse, Scoop literally left my sides aching.
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I never read any of Wodehouse's books but have heard his name bandied about a lot from Isaac Asimov, Gore Vidal, Alexander Cockburn, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, among others. Pardon my ignorance, but which is his best novel? Is it The Code of the Woosters? As someone new to Wodehouse, can I begin to read any of his novel in any order?Originally Posted by Emil Miller
By the way, I was reading a book of interviews of Gore Vidal and he said Scoop was the funniest book he has ever read and he used to re-read it once a year.
Thanks, pal. How are you doing these days? I hope you are well.
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
Laurence Sterne- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
William Faulkner- As I Lay Dying
Gore Vidal- Myra Breckinridge
John Kennedy Toole- A Confederacy of Dunces
Flannery O'Connor- Short Story Collection: A Good Man is Hard to Find (especially Good Country People)
Donald Barthleme- Miss Mandible
Philip Roth- Portnoy's Complaint
Nathanael West- Miss Lonelyhearts
Joseph Heller- Catch 22
Jonathan Swift- A Modest Proposal
Oscar Wilde- Importance of Being Earnest
Ambrose Bierce- Devil's Dictionary
Franz Kafka- Metamorphosis (obviously, I have a dark sense of humor)
Mark Twain, Don Quixote, Chaucer, Rabelais, Moliere, etc...
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Voltaire, not only his short stories, but more serious stuff. There are momments in the Dictionary that are like Monty Phyton sketches.
Lord Byron Don Juan is very funny.
Machado de Assis short stories and The Alienist are quite funny. Monteiro Lobato children stories have several momments of irony. Master and Marguerita is quite funny. Machiavelli Belphegor is funny as hell.
Ok, Che ... Assuming you know Shakespeare...I'll point you toward a more obscure Restoration piece LONDON CUCKOLDS by Edward Ravenscroft. The Restoration is filled with froth...Sheridan, Wycherly (Wycherley? sic) THE COUNTRY WIFE, which is based on Moliere's School for wives. Moliere, you can't go wrong. SCAPIN is one of the standard Moliere's that gets down regularly. Probably one in performance somewhere in the world while you are reading this. Just pick any play of his and read., Etherege's THE MAN OF MODE, Congreve's WAY OF THE WORLD is good. THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS by Carlo Goldoni is a riot. That should get your belly rolling with laughter.
Anybody on here of a mind to discuss, opine or share experiences directing, performing, designing, viewing Shakespeare. I'm retired, bored and looking for intelligent discourse to keep my brain combed.
Guess I go with the flow. All funny Dicken´s characters, Mark Twain, Moliere are the ones I can remember at first thought.
As for ironic Classic fiction the realistic novels and short stories of Machado de Assis come first, The Patriot (Lima Barreto), Gullivers Travels, everything I know by Kafka,Lord of the Flies (William Goldin).
"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
Hello.
Start a new thread somewhere and I'm sure you'll get lots of responses. But here you will only get people interested in the this thread.
Good luck
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 think Jane Austen is funny in a subtle, snarky way. I loved D.E. Stevenson's Miss Buncle's Book. Subtle, British humor. I really want to read Doctor Thorne by Trollope, I've heard good things about that. I don't read a lot of classics that are humorous to ME, at least.
That’s kind of you, Red. Coping, coping.
From what I know of you, you might well find P G Wodehouse too gentle. But for what it’s worth, The Code of the Woosters is good, but it is a sequel to Right Ho. Jeeves! which has one particularly funny chapter describing the prize giving at Market Snodsbury grammar school, when the teetotaler prize giver has overdone the Dutch courage beforehand.
I think Red would like Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest. I no longer laugh as I just quote lots of it from memory. It has a definitely dark side. Eg:
Jack: I have lost both my parents, Lady Bracknell.
Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune, Mr Worthing. To lose two looks like carelessness.
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
423BC Aristophanes writes Clouds
422BC Aristophanes writes Wasps
421BC Aristophanes writes Peace
414BC Aristophanes writes Birds
411BC Aristophanes writes Lysistrata
411BC Aristophanes writes Thesmophoriazusae
317BC Menander writes The Grouch
234–184 BC Plautus writes The Pot of Gold, Amphytrion, The Haunted House, Miles Gloriosus, The Menaechmus Twins, and Pseudolus
166BC Terence writes the Girl from Andros
165BC Terence writes The Mother in Law
163BC Terence writes The Self-Tormenter
161BC Terence writes Phormio and Eunuchus
160BCTerence writes The Brothers
60 Petronius writes Satyricon
160 Lucian writes True History
1400 Geoffrey Chaucer writes Canterbury Tales
1470 Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini publishes his Facetiae the greatest Renaissance joke book
1498 Triboulet becomes court jester of France
1501 Stańczyk becomes court jester of Poland
1510 Hermann Bote writes Eulenspiegel
1532 Rabelais writes Gargantua and Pantagruel
1554 Lazarillo de Tormes written by Anonymous
1565 Andrew Boorde compiles the Jests of Scoggan
1566 The Merie Tales of Skelton published
1583-1585 Richard Tarlton is comic for the Queen's Men
1589 Christopher Marlowe writes The Jew of Malta
1592 Shakespeare writes The Comedy of Errors based on a work by Plautus
1593 Shakespeare writes The Taming of the Shrew
1594 William Kempe joins The Lord Chamberlain's Men
1597 Shakespeare writes Henry IV part I
1598 Shakespeare writes Henry IV part II
1599 Shakespeare writes Much Ado About Nothing
1600 Shakespeare writes The Merry Wives of Windsor, Robert Armin joins Lord Chamberlain's Men
1602 Shakespeare writes Twelfth Night
1603 Shakespeare writes Measure for Measure
1605 Cervantes writes Don Quixote
1606 Ben Jonson writes Volpone
1626 Francisco de Quevedo writes The Swindler
1664 Moliere writes Tartuffe
1675 William Wycherley writes The Country Wife
1676 George Etherege writes The Man of Mode based on his friend John Wilmot
1677 Aphra Behn writes The Rover
1684 John Wilmot writes Sodom, or the Quinetessence of Debauchery
1697 John Vanbrugh writes The Provoked Wife
1700 William Congreve writes The Way of the World
1707 George Farquhar writes the Beaux Stratagem
1722 Ludvig Holberg writes Jeppe of the Hill
1728 John Gay writes The Beggar's Opera
1729 John Swift writes A Modest Proposal
1730 Marivaux writes The Game of Love and Chance
1738 Harry Woodward joins David Garrick's acting company at Drury Lane
1743 Carlo Goldoni writes The Servant of Two Masters
1759 Voltaire writes Candide
1761 Carlo Gozzi writes Love For Three Oranges
1764 Thomas Weston acts at Drury Lane
1773 Oliver Goldsmith writes She Stoops to Conquer starring Ned Shuter
1777 Richard Sheridan writes The School for Scandal and Thomas King stars in it
1780 Denis Diderot writes Jacques the Fatalist
1818 Thomas Love Peacock writes Nightmare Abbey parodying his friends Shelley and Byron
1836 George Buchner writes Leonce and Lena
1842 Nicolai Gogol writes The Inspector General
1876 Mark Twain writes Tom Sawyer
1878 Gilbert and Sullivan premiere H.M.S. Pinafore
1879 Gilbert and Sullivan premiere The Pirates of Penzance
1884 Mark Twain writes Huckleberry Finn
1885 Gilbert and Sullivan premiere The Mikado
1889 Jerome K. Jerome writes Three Men in a Boat
1892 Oscar Wilde writes Lady Windermere's Fan
1894 George Bernard Shaw writes Candida and Arms and the Man
1895 Oscar Wilde writes The Importance of Being Earnest
1911 Ambrose Bierce writes The Devil's Dictionary
1912 George Bernard Shaw writes Pygmalion
1961 Joseph Heller writes Catch-22
1972 Hunter S. Thompson writes Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
1973 William Goldman writes The Princess Bride
1979 Douglas Adams publishes the novelization of his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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