13/07/2024
Winnowed Wisdom
This 1926 volume comprises thirty-five essays by the masterful Canadian humorist. – Summary by david wales [chương_files]
Essays & Short Works18 bài viết found
18 bài viết found
12/07/2024
Honour of the Gout
This droll and ‘enflammatory’ pamphelet doth be a grondebreaking worke of musing upon a great aflicktion of Man, upon the better nature of that aflicktion, and upon the vain and mischievous cheats who affeckt to cure it. The gauntlet here so-toss’d by Philander Misaurus was later pick’d up by surgeon John Marten in his rejoinder, titled by the name–”The Dishonour of the Gout”. Which seeketh to shew all minds swayed by Philander’s prettie words that—indubitably—Gout is misfortune. – Summary by Alasdair (Alister) [chương_files]
08/07/2024
If I May (Version 2)
A. A. Milne, best known as the creator of Winnie the Pooh, was a prolific author of books, plays, essays and articles. He also spent a number of years editing for Punch Magazine. He even wrote a good detective story — The Red House Mystery ! In this collection he addresses a vast range of issues, including: the essence of melodrama; the lingering effects of World War I; knowing geography versus owning an atlas; a new kind of haunted house; the inexplicable nature of high finance; the trouble with “experts;” how the life of bees suggests the social importance of artists; the bad influence of theatre critics on good theatre. All of these short pieces are humorous. Many are informative. Taken together, they will inspire many to navigate over to Milne’s five other book-length humorous collections: Happy Days, The Holiday Round, Not That It Matters, Once a Week, and The Sunny Side — or, perhaps, to The Red House Mystery. – Summary by Kirsten Wever [chương_files]
08/07/2024
Once A Week (Version 2)
Once A Week is a collection of short stories and slightly longer vignettes which were written for Milne’s solid British Audience, including regular readers of Punch — between1903, when he graduated from Cambridge and 1906, when he began also to edit Punch, on and through to 1909. They are humorous verses, essays and stories with what he deemed a peculiarly British flavor, focusing on the antics and adventures of a small recurring group of friends and acquaintances. The breadth of Milne’s oeuvre is illustrated by his publication, in the mean time, of 18 plays, 3 novels, collections of children’s poems, screen plays for popular British films, and a (pretty good) detective story. — among other things. (Summary by Kirsten Wever) [chương_files]
07/07/2024
Essays in Idleness
Agnes Repplier was a popular and highly regarded essayist of the late 19th and early 20th century, who was also well known on the lecture circuit. Her writings are witty, erudite, and engaging. The eight essays in this collection include an homage to her cat Aggripina and reflections on the beauty of words, as well as essays entitled “The Children’s Poets,” “The Praises of War,” “Leisure,” “Ennui,” “Wit and Humor,” and “Letters.” – Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi [chương_files]
07/07/2024
Holiday Round
Alan Alexander Milne, popularly known as A. A. Milne, is best known – perhaps to most people only known – for his children’s book, Winnie the Pooh. Yet he was an incredibly prolific author. He published dozens of successful plays, myriad humorous articles written for internationally prominent journals, a wide range of social, political, and other nonfiction works, and even a murder mystery. This collection is humorous throughout, but humorous in a particularly Milnesque way: he consciously and quite openly rejected the bitterness of satire in favor of a peculiarly gentle, often self-deprecating humor. Included here are dozens of short essays showing, among other things, Milne’s extraordinary capacity to understand – and be understood by – children, and his special affinity for women, as friends and as lovers. – Summary by Kirsten Wever [chương_files]
03/07/2024
Europe and Elsewhere
This collection of articles came from Mark Twain’s travels and experiences abroad. While many had been previously published, there also were many that had never before seen the light of day…which one reviewer said had never been Twain’s intent for them, having consigned them to obscurity. With introductory essays by Brander Matthews and Albert Bigelow Paine, the book paints a clear picture of the complexity and wide variety of Samuel L. Clemens’ thinking, where it originated and how it developed. [chương_files]
27/06/2024
Romance Of The Commonplace
Thirty four whimsical, tongue-in-cheek, and entertaining essays about not much in particular, published in 1902, by one of the most popular writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The American Gelett Burgess (1866-1951) was an artist, art critic, poet, author, and humorist. Nonsense verse (none in this collection) was a specialty. – Summary by David Wales [chương_files]
20/06/2024
And Even Now
This is a diverse collection of essays by English writer Max Beerbohm, whose circle included such notables as Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Ezra Pound, and Somerset Maugham. Much of Beerbohm’s work was humorous, including parodies of various aspects of the upper class life into which he was born. Some of these pieces are humorous, some philosophical, and some even sad. They include, for instance: a frankly self-critical piece on the pomposity and self-importance of his early literary ambitions; a half-eager, half-repining essay on a missing and uncompleted portrait of the great German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; and a funny, but politically critical essay on “the servant question.” (Summary by Kirsten Wever.) [chương_files]
18/06/2024
If I May
A. A. Milne (18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various poems. ‘If I May’ is a collection of short essays on desultory subjects that first appeared in The Sphere, The Outlook, The Daily News, The Sunday Express (London) and Vanity Fair (New York). These essays display Milne’s vivid imagination and literary ability to elaborate on almost any subject in an engaging manner. Milne’s literary style and humor – often self deprecatory – endear him to modern readers as well – Summary by Wikipedia, S K [chương_files]