Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy

by Stephen Leacock

Contents: Spoof: a thousand-guinea novel.--The reading public.--Afternoon adventures at my club.--Ram Spudd.--Aristocratic anecdotes.--Education made agreeable.--An every-day experience.--Truthful oratory.--Our literary bureau.--Speeding up business.--Who is also who.--Passionate paragraphs.--Weejee the pet dog.--Sidelights on the supermen.--The survival of the fittest.--The first newspaper.--In the good time after the war.

Genres: Humor

282 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1915

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

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

“‘Take your soup over to the window,’ she said, ‘and eat it there.’”

[Timothy Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen Leacock was arguably, for a decade or so after the First World War, the most popular humorous writer in English. He is little known today, but his work is surprisingly relevant to modern readers. Some parts have aged beyond relevance, but then there are little spurts of brilliance which he would have dreaded to know are still cacklingly funny now. For example Moonbeams, which is 99 years old, contains a satirical skewering of gamification as a motivation technique for managers. It’s the earliest one I’ve read, and it perfectly encapsulates the flaws in “badges and levels” motivational design. I realise that’s a bit obscure, but I presume other people will find other little side references as hilarious as I did, from their own areas of interest.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leacock, one of the top humorists of the early 20th Century yet virtually unknown today, is without question the inspiration behind, or at least the main contributor to, the humor of Monty Python, Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie etc, etc. It was written that Mr. Leacock was the favorite of the likes of Groucho Marx and Jack Benny. This work, first published in 1915, is a collection of short pieces, some screamingly funny, others not so much. His style and voice, however, is unmistakable and worth the search to uncover.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four and a half. Another hilarious collection of stories from
Mr. Leacock. Highlights for me included Afternoon Adventures at My Club (particularly The Ground Floor and especially The Hallucination of Mr Butt) and the broad, McSweeney’s style comedy of Truthful Oratory.

[Viktor · Rating 2 out of 5]

An uneven collection of short pieces. Some hits; some misses.

[Liam Prost · Rating 3 out of 5]

a clever piece of turn-of-the-century CanLit featuring some incisive observations about Canada's place in WWI and pretty ruthless take down of the performativity of wealthy elderly people.

[Bruce Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a title like this one would expect something out-of-this world. Liftoff was not achieved. The humor seemed forced. Attempted humor about humor books in a book of forced humor, for example, was not funny. Then the trope was repeated.
Not recommended as a first exposure to Leacock.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This particular collection hasn't worn as well as some of his other writing.