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Cruelty and Laughter: Forgotten Comic Literature and the Unsentimental Eighteenth Century
Simon Dickie
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Description for Cruelty and Laughter: Forgotten Comic Literature and the Unsentimental Eighteenth Century
Paperback. Dealing with the forgotten comic literature of eighteenth-century Britain, this book uncovers a rich vein of cruel humor beneath the surface of Enlightenment civility that forces us to recognize just how slowly ordinary human sufferings became worthy of sympathy. Num Pages: 382 pages, 15 halftones. BIC Classification: 2AB; 3JF; DSBD. Category: (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 230 x 156 x 23. Weight in Grams: 592.
A wildly enjoyable but shocking plunge into the forgotten comic literature of eighteenth-century Britain, Cruelty and Laughter uncovers a rich vein of cruel humor beneath the surface of Enlightenment civility that forces us to recognize just how slowly ordinary human sufferings became worthy of sympathy. Delving into an enormous archive of comic novels, jestbooks, farces, variety shows, and cartoons, Simon Dickie finds a vast repository of jokes about cripples, rape, and wife-beating alongside epigrams about syphilis and one-act comedies about hunchbacks in love. In the process, he expands our understanding of many of the century's major authors, including Samuel Richardson, ... Read more
A wildly enjoyable but shocking plunge into the forgotten comic literature of eighteenth-century Britain, Cruelty and Laughter uncovers a rich vein of cruel humor beneath the surface of Enlightenment civility that forces us to recognize just how slowly ordinary human sufferings became worthy of sympathy. Delving into an enormous archive of comic novels, jestbooks, farces, variety shows, and cartoons, Simon Dickie finds a vast repository of jokes about cripples, rape, and wife-beating alongside epigrams about syphilis and one-act comedies about hunchbacks in love. In the process, he expands our understanding of many of the century's major authors, including Samuel Richardson, ... Read more
Product Details
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2014
Publisher
University Of Chicago Press
Condition
New
Number of Pages
382
Place of Publication
, United States
ISBN
9780226142548
SKU
V9780226142548
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About Simon Dickie
Simon Dickie is associate professor of English at the University of Toronto.
Reviews for Cruelty and Laughter: Forgotten Comic Literature and the Unsentimental Eighteenth Century
"Placing Fielding, the greatest humourist of his time, back amongst his contemporaries and responding to the comedy of his writing as his first readers would have done is a masterly stroke in this scholarly, original and highly readable book." (Literary Review) "A brilliant and beautifully written book, Cruelty and Laughter introduces its readers to a world of violent mayhem, both ... Read more