Description
Book SynopsisStephen Leacock is an unjustly neglected master of the short-story genre, once considered the best-known humorist in the world. Although he was a prolific writer, producing about fifty novels, biographies and histories, he was best known for his humorous articles and short stories in magazines. One of his later collections, Frenzied Fiction shows a master of a genre at the height of his game, and contains all the hallmarks of his earlier work and the trademark wit which he had refined over the previous decades. By turns laugh-aloud hilarious and poignant, and containing such gems as ‘My Recollections as a Spy’ and ‘Simple Stories of Success, or How to Succeed in Life’, this collection builds a strong case against prohibition, paints a moving picture of a war-torn world, caricatures and lampoons novelists, actors and princes, and demonstrates why he met with such success and stacked a fan base with figures as varied John Lane, A.P. Herbert and Groucho Marx.
Trade Review'No one, anywhere in the world, can reduce a thing to ridicule with such few short strokes.' (Evening Standard) 'His wisdom is always humorous, and his humour is always wise.' (Sunday Times) 'Professor Leacock has made more people laugh with the written word than any other living author. One may say he is one of the greatest jesters, the greatest humorist of the age.' (A.P. Herbert)
Table of Contents'My Revelations as a Spy', 'Father Knickerbocker A Fantasy', 'The Prophet in Our Midst', 'Personal Adventures in the Spirit World', 'The Sorrows of a Summer Guest', 'To Nature and Back Again', 'The Caveman as He Is', 'Ideal Interviews (with a European prince, with our greatest actor, with our greatest scientist, with our typical novelists)', 'The New Education', 'The Errors of Santa Claus', 'Lost in New York: A Visitor’s Soliloquy', 'This Strenuous Age', 'The Old, Old Story of How Five Men Went Fishing', 'Back from the Land', 'The Perplexity Column as Done by the Jaded Journalist', 'Simple Stories of Success Or How to Succeed in Life', 'In Dry Toronto: A Local Study of a Universal Topic', 'Merry Christmas, Note on the Text, Notes
