Humor, General & Miscellaneous Literary Criticism, English Literature

The Alchemy of Laughter

Name: The Alchemy of Laughter
Author: Glen Cavaliero
ISBN: 9780312225513

by Glen Cavaliero

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Overview

This is the only contemporary critical study to discuss the nature of comedy with exclusive reference to novels. It examines the comic styles of novelists from Fielding and Jane Austen to Waugh and Angus Wilson, as well as less familiar writers such as Ronald Firbank and Sylvia Townsend Warner. Distinguishing between different kinds of humor, it shows how comedy works in practice under changing literary, social, and environmental conditions, and is designed to interest academic and general readers equally.

About the Author, Glen Cavaliero

Glen Cavaliero is Fellow Commoner of St. Catherine's College and a member of the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge.

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Editorials

Booknews

Diverging from the more common practice of discussing comedy in relation to drama, Cavaliero (English, Cambridge U.) analyzes it with exclusive reference to English prose fiction. He draws on a wide variety of texts to demonstrate the comedic process in action, examining how irony, satire, celebration, parody, farce, and other categories of comedy function within the confines of a novel. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)