Laugh With Leacock

by Stephen Leacock

1930. An anthology of the best works of Leacock, a Canadian humorist and economist, who published a number of serious works in his field as well as in history and biography, but is best known for his collections of satirical essays and short stories. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Genres: Humor

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock, FRSC, was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people's follies. The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour was named in his honour.

Wikipedia article.

Reviews

[Czarny Pies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stephen Leacock's "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town" is a masterpiece of Canadian literature. The various pieces combine to present a marvelous portrait of Canada's small WASP communities on the eve of World War I with descriptions of their mores, their values, religious practices, vie and finally how they chose men to represent them in the Federal. There is in this collection, however, no redeeming analysis of social issues, historical trends or political issues. The pieces were written purely to entertain and in most cases aim rather low.

Few of the items are true stories. They are rather something like the monologues of stand-up comedians which contain jokes on a central issue. Some of the jokes are however quite good even if in questionable taste. For example:

A man is constantly quarreling with his sister-in-law which makes his wife very sad. She grows old and on her death bed she summons her husband to request that he drive to the city where the sister lives and bring her to to the funeral. The man agrees but tells the wife that it will spoil his day.

[Somdutta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pieces of satire , on the occurences of our daily lives. My Financial Career and "We have with Us To-night" are my favourites.

[Lana. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quaint collection.

[Lynn Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1930, the book contains a collection of short stories written from 1913 - 1930. Leacock's writing style is similar to O. Henry and Mark Twain, and it is a mixture of wry humour, insights into human nature, and social commentary.

It is best to keep in mind that the stories were written a century ago, otherwise, some of his comments would be considered offensive, particularly those regarding women and post secondary education.

[Christine Goodnough · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book doesn't contain stories in their own right, but the author has done some very clever satire, spoofs of the melodrama such as one would have seen on the stage in his day. Some stories brought a smile, some a chuckle, and some did make me laugh out loud.