Favorite Satires

[djy78usa]

Howdy everyone! I just stumbled upon this site while looking for some information on George Orwell. After browsing through a few threads, I decided I had to join. So, seeing as one of the great satirists brought me here:

What is you favorite work of satire?

I'm gonna have to go with "Catch-22" as my all-time favorite, but Christopher Buckley's "No Way to Treat a First Lady" is one of the best from the past few years.

[Lady Raven]

I love the hilarious Jeeves and Wooster stories by P.G. Wodehouse. Quite brilliant.

[Morten]

Evelyn Waugh is the master. Read The Loved One.

[islandclimber]

The Master and Margarita--- Mikhail Bulgakov

his Heart of a Dog is amazing as well...

[johann cruyff]

Candide,hands down.

[bazarov]

Gogol's Dead Souls and already metioned Master and Margarita.

Candide is something special, everyone can not understand it.

[Niamh]

Tom Jones a Foundling by Henry Fielding
Candide by Voltaire
The Playboy of the Western World By J.M.Synge

[kelby_lake]

Evelyn Waugh is the master. Read The Loved One.

loved that too:D
the devil's dictionary. classic!
vanity fair

[amalia1985]

Thackeray's "Vanity Fair", and many of Oscar Wilde's plays. Also Shaw's "Major Barbara".

[APEist]

Jonathan Swift
Voltaire (Candide)
Vonnegut
Mark Twain
Flannery O'Connor (if you've ever experienced the Southern portion of the United States)
Joseph Heller(Catch 22)

All great satirists, and I enjoyed everything I've read from them.

PS. I have Vanity Fair in my 'waiting to be read' pile.

[ben.!]

One of my favourites as a period satire is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. It's so damn funny! I cackle with almost every line of that play, we had to study it for English last year, and man, did we have fun!

Catch-22 so far for me has giggle moments. :p

[kandaurov]

It's not that I've read many actual satires, but I'll cast my votes for the already mentioned Candide and The Devil's Dictionary, they're hillarious and at times very sharp. Perhaps it isn't pertinent in this thread, but Gogol's Diary of a Madman has to be the funniest thing I've ever read, anyone with me on this? And it criticizes bureaucracy and middle class mores, so I guess its mention isn't too misplaced :)

[kelby_lake]

no one has mentioned the famous political satire!

[Inderjit Sanghe]

Gogol's short stories are masterful satires, though they are often more than that.

Catch-22 was pretty funny first time round, though the latter part is somewhat darker and Dostoevskiian (intentionally)-though there are several moments of sheer comic genius. The Good Soldier Svejk is another great war satire, as is Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.

Evelyn Waugh and Burgess are two other great satirical writers, though most of their satires were reserved for their early careers.

The Master and Margarita is another great 'satirical' book, though his other nove, A Dog's Heart was not so great.

Candide, though in many ways the original satirical novel, is somewhat limited and specious.

Most satirical novels, or the better satirical novels, should not be pigeonholed just as satires-they are often far more than that.

[Kafka's Crow]

Jonathan Swift, oh the lash of his satirical wit, the greatest, the most savage and the immortal one! A Modest Proposal must be the most terrible thing written in this genre. I like Henry Fielding as well, very forgiving but witty. Alexander Pope and Lord Byron for satirical verse.

[johann cruyff]

Oh, I forgot about Animal Farm. A great book.

[Charles Darnay]

Petronius' Satiricon!

[kelby_lake]

Oh, I forgot about Animal Farm. A great book.

indeed!

[ajsa]

hi everyone,
can anyone help me about juvenal' satires? which one is the most important or easier than others, to study on it???

thanks..

[Erichtho]

Petronius' Satiricon!

Seconded. And I'm also a big fan of Master and Margarita.