Nonsense Novels

By Stephen Leacock

Book Overview

"Nonsense Novels" is a brilliant collection of literary parodies by the celebrated humorist Stephen Leacock. In this witty and enduring work, Leacock masterfully skewers the popular fictional tropes and genres of his era, offering a series of stories that distill the absurdities of romantic melodrama, detective fiction, seafaring adventures, and supernatural mysteries. Each chapter serves as a standalone satire, mimicking the distinctive styles and clich d plots of various literary movements with sharp insight and infectious humor.

Leacock's satirical lens is turned upon a wide array of subjects, from the stoic heroisms of the Victorian era to the overly dramatic narratives of rags-to-riches success. Through exaggerated characters and impossible situations, he highlights the conventions that often went unquestioned in contemporary literature. His prose is marked by its brevity, clever wordplay, and a playful disregard for logic, making "Nonsense Novels" a landmark in the genre of satire.

Readers will find themselves entertained by the ridiculous logic of stories such as "Guido the Gimlet of Ghent" and the farcical intensity of "Gertrude the Governess." As a foundational text in the tradition of literary burlesque, this work remains a delightful exploration of how fiction can be both a reflection of and a departure from reality. It is an essential read for those who appreciate sharp-witted classic comedy.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you may see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1025380479
• ISBN13: 9781025380476
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Tradd Street Press
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.6" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

great insight,clever wit and great use of vocabulary

A style all his own, with linguistic skills targeting your funny bone. He finds humor everywhere and shares it with you masterfully. Build your vocabulary and increase your insight into others while laughing so hard you make people wonder what you are reading.

Some sense in Nonsense

Wit is often not associated with the academe. Therefore it is a suprise to see such wit in Stephen Leacock. As a professor of Economics at McGill University in the mid 20th century, Leacock was counted among Canada's greatest humorists. In the Nonsense Novels, Leacocks unleashes parodies of most literary genres: The Great Detective, the first tale, satirizes Arthur Conan Doyle's Scandal in Bohemia. There are tales of capers involving gullible women, a desert island landing with an alternate ending, analysis of societal conditions, and some stories that are plain nonsense. A Hero in Homespun and the Man in Asbetoes are two worth reading; the latter being a farcical exposition on the future of capitalism and scientific advancement - very scary, if it were not so funny. I was introduced to Leacock while browsing gutenberg.org, and have not been disappointed. If you feel overwhelmed by the importance attached to triviality today, then you might do well to pick up and read the Nonsense Novels.

Brilliant Humor from 90 Years Ago-- Still Funny & Relevant

Leacock is one of a handful of literary parodists and humorists (Perelman, Benchley, Twain) whose parodies, though more or less a century old, are still laugh-out-loud funny. If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, Leacock's "Maddened by Mystery: or, The Defective Detective" will make you chortle. If you appreciate romance novels, "Gertrude The Governess" will still tickle. Canadian Leacock was a master humorist with a light touch, and an unerring deflator of cliche and presumption. This collection of short pieces will still entertain the sophisticated fan of written humor, and should be in every collection. *Note: The full text of this book is available online.

Best buy in comic reading ever!

Where do I begin to describe the absolutely astonishing quality of Leacock's work? I first heard of Stephen Leacock when reading a book about the Marx brothers. It seems Groucho was on a train, and happened to pass the room of Jack Benny (who was traveling with them, working on the same vaudeville circuit. Groucho heard Benny screaming with laughter, and popped his head into Benny's room to see what the commotion was. Benny told Groucho that it was a book by Leacock, whom Groucho admitted to not knowing. Benny told Groucho, "It's the funniest stuff I've ever read!" Groucho later bought a copy of the book, loved it as much as Benny, and said that he always looked for anything written by Stephen Leacock.Okay, but what about his stories? Leacock's stock in trade was the parody of classic literature - stories about humble girls of (unknowingly) noble ancestry, who are engaged to work as servants for title lords, only to fall in love with the son of the mansion are turned into hysterically funny romps, where the lies not in the intentionally funny line, but in carefully crafted twists of standard sentence construction. A sample, from the above-described story, called "Gertrude the Governess; or Simply Seventeen":"Young Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the house, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions."Leacock treats the classic tale of knighthood (handsome, strong knight declares his love for the gentle maiden of the castle, and she loves him too, though they've never met) to similarly wicked entanglement of story and prose."Sorrows of a Super Soul" tells the classic Russian tale of an unrequited love, while "Carolyn's Christmas" the story of the old farmer, his family away (one son in the city, another in prison), his farm mortgaged, and a strange girl happening upon the family on Christmas Eve, with a baby, but no wedding ring. Both of these, and all other stories in this slim book, will have you laughing until you cry. Buy a copy, get hooked. If Groucho and Jack Benny thought this was the best humor ever, how can it not satisfy you too?