Items related to The Book of Nonsense (Forgotten Books)
The Book of Nonsense refers to a genre of literature, whether poetry or prose, that plays with conventions of language and logic through a careful balance of sense and non-sense elements. Its strict adherence to structure is balanced by semantic chaos and play with logic. Usually formal diction and tone are balanced with an inherent topsy-turvyness and absurdity. The effect of nonsense is often caused by an excess of meaning, rather than a lack of it.
The genre is most easily recognizable by the various techniques it uses to create nonsensical effects, such as neologism and faulty cause and effect. The forms nonsense writing can vary widely; it usually lives like a parasite within the host of another genre or type of literature, and as such, can appear as romantic verse, travel writing, short story, lyric poetry, natural history, journalism, alphabet, and recipes, to name a few.
For a text to be considered within the literary nonsense genre, it must have an abundance of nonsense techniques that tend to overshadow the host genre. If the text employs only occasional nonsense techniques, then it may not classify as literary nonsense, though it may have a nonsensical effect. Often (though not necessarily) humorous, nonsense has a kind of humor derived from a different source than a joke: nonsense is funny because it does not make sense, as opposed to most humor which is funny because it does. Sometimes this kind of writing is inaccurately referred to as "nonsense verse", which is inaccurate not because nonsense verse does not exist, but because nonsense can appear in non-verse forms. (Quote from wikipedia.org)
About the Author
Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 - 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator and writer known for
The genre is most easily recognizable by the various techniques it uses to create nonsensical effects, such as neologism and faulty cause and effect. The forms nonsense writing can vary widely; it usually lives like a parasite within the host of another genre or type of literature, and as such, can appear as romantic verse, travel writing, short story, lyric poetry, natural history, journalism, alphabet, and recipes, to name a few.
For a text to be considered within the literary nonsense genre, it must have an abundance of nonsense techniques that tend to overshadow the host genre. If the text employs only occasional nonsense techniques, then it may not classify as literary nonsense, though it may have a nonsensical effect. Often (though not necessarily) humorous, nonsense has a kind of humor derived from a different source than a joke: nonsense is funny because it does not make sense, as opposed to most humor which is funny because it does. Sometimes this kind of writing is inaccurately referred to as "nonsense verse", which is inaccurate not because nonsense verse does not exist, but because nonsense can appear in non-verse forms. (Quote from wikipedia.org)
About the Author
Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 - 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator and writer known for
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
"He reads but he cannot speak Spanish, / He cannot abide ginger-beer; / Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish, / How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!" writes the 19th-century English poet Edward Lear in "Self Portrait of the Laureate of Nonsense." When The Book of Nonsense was first published in 1845, under Lear's pseudonym, Derry Down Derry, it was a success--some say it turned the once stodgy, didactic world of children's literature on its head.
From the Inside Flap:
This rollicking poetic romp begins with "A Book of Nonsense" (1846), a slew of more-odd-than-bawdy limericks about the Young Lady of Wales, the Old Man of Vienna, and many, many more, all accompanied by the spare, whimsical ink drawings done by Lear himself. Part two urges readers to leap into "Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets" (1871), including the classic "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" and "The Jumblies" (who "went to sea in a Sieve"), along with equally rib-tickling but lesser known selections such as "The Nutcrackers and the Sugar-Tongs." In this section, you'll also discover instructions for how to make Crumbobblious Cutlets, a "Nonsense Botany" guide featuring the Bottlephorkia spoonifolia and the Manypeeplia upsidownia, and "Nonsense Alphabets," strange little poems about quills, rattlesnakes, screws, and other words beginning with letters.
Part three merrily inflicts "More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, &c." (1877) on readers with the well-known plant Washtubbia circularis and more wacky limericks such as "There was an old person of Bar, / Who passed all her life in a jar, / Which she painted pea-green, to appear more serene, / That placid old person of Bar." As icing on a very strange cake, the last section offers "Laughable Lyrics, A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, &c." (1877), notably including "The Pobble Who Has No Toes." Lear's quirky sense of humor infuses every line of his ever skillful verse, which is often alliterative, and always very silly. Lear, the Laureate of Nonsense, frolics frivolously, and no one should ever go to sea in a Sieve without a copy of this book in tow. (All ages) --Karin Snelson
The owls, hen, larks, and their nests in his beard, are among the fey fauna and peculiar persons inhabiting the uniquely inspired nonsense rhymes and drawings of Lear (20th child of a London stockbroker), whose Book of Nonsense, first published in 1846, stands alone as the ultimate and most loved expression in English of freewheeling, benign, and unconstricted merriment.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherForgotten Books
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 160620887X
- ISBN 13 9781606208878
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages38
- Rating
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