David James Duncan's The River Why made me laugh and laugh and laugh.
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David James Duncan's The River Why made me laugh and laugh and laugh.
I know literature is sometimes assumed to be dead serious, but there are a few works and authors that prove the opposite by writing a higly literary book with a very funny side. I'm reading the drama-works of Harold Pinter and it's really humoristicly written
Do you guys know any good books that also made you laugh?
Mark Twain
Moliere
Aristophnaes
Shakespeare
Max Beerbohm
Evelyn Waugh
P. G. Wodehouse and one could go on ad infinitum.
defintely go with Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, the funniest books I have ever read!
Molloy - Samuel Beckett
The late, great Douglas Adams.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by JhKreisler
Holy crap that is the first Pinter comment I've seen on these forums, The Dumb Waiter and The Caretaker are amazing and quite funny.
Also I thought Candide by Voltaire, The Doctor is Sick by Burgess, The Fur Hat by Voinovich and Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut were all pretty funny.
L Frank Baum
The Oz Series
Agree on Breakfast of Champions, Douglas Adams and Molloy.
It's quite rare that I find a book really funny. But actually, War and Peace has been making me laugh quite a bit at times. American Psycho did too.
Practical Jokes With Artemus Ward by Mark Twain. Funninest book I ever read in my life!
I'd forgotten about Douglas Adams, and Lewis Carroll also had some humorous/silly works...Quote:
Originally Posted by blp
Anything by (guess who!) Oscar Wilde is hilarious, but I recommend "The Importance of Being Earnest."
Also, I quite enjoyed "The Rape of the Lock" by Pope and Catch-22 by Heller.
For some old-school (as in Classical and medieval) humor, I really like Catullus and Chaucer. Oh, and The Golden *** by Apuelius.
there are many authors who are funny in there seriousness like Wilde, and others that are funny in a more absurd sense like Douglas Adams... but the last book I read and laughed out loud every 3 minuets or so was Marley and me by the columnist John Grogan, as a dog owner who knows how 'difficult' dogs can be, it was a very amusing book!
Mark Twain definitely comes to mind. The Innocents Abroad, his autobiography, or Roughing It in particular are very funny. Whether he's describing hiding on a rooftop and dropping a watermelon on his younger brother's head, or describing a sea captain who can drink "astonishing amounts of whiskey while never showing any signs of feeling the effects", or describing an Indian mining friend who decided a good place to store dynamite was in the stove.
I also heard that George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman is very funny. I just bought it but have not gotten to read it yet
Dickens, Southern, Amis, Vonnegut. And above all, Wodehouse.