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Five Best - Read 'Em and Laugh - My favorite comic novels.
Opinion Journal ^ | March 11, 2006 | ROGER KIMBALL

Posted on 03/11/2006 4:59:36 AM PST by Caipirabob

1. "Leave It to Psmith" by P.G. Wodehouse (Doran, 1924).

May I begin a survey of superb comic novels by offering the collected works of P.G. Wodehouse--100 volumes, give or take? No? Well, how about "Leave It to Psmith"? Everyone knows about Bertie and Jeeves. Allow me to introduce Rupert Psmith. The "P" is silent, he explains, "as in phthisis, psychic, and ptarmigan." But the comedy is uproarious in this tale of an impecunious though impeccably turned out dandy who impersonates the modern poet Ralston McTodd--a scaly specimen--in order to cadge an invitation to Blandings Castle so that he can pursue the beautiful Eve Halliday. The plot is stuffed with improbable twists, farcical turns, breath-stopping complications and one of the greatest predawn flowerpot-throwing scenes in literature.

2. "Scoop" by Evelyn Waugh (Little, Brown, 1938).

"Scoop" is Waugh's funniest book and the best (and most savage) satire of newspaper journalism in English. William Boot is the retiring author of "Lush Places," a nature column in the Daily Beast, the brash flagship of Lord Copper's gargantuan publishing empire. He is not to be confused with John Courtney Boot, the ambitious novelist eager to get away from London and his girlfriend. A helpful friend, the mesmerizing Mrs. Stitch, invites Lord Copper to a lunch party, wraps him around her little finger and has everyone at the table regale him with the exploits of young Boot, "the Prime Minister's favorite writer." "Get Boot," Lord Copper commands, and his underlings buzz into action, producing the wrong Boot, of course, who is promptly outfitted and sent to the godforsaken African hot spot of Ishmaelia to cover the impending revolution. The rest is farce--or just journalism.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: comicnovels; culture; literature; reading
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To: Caipirabob

Thanks, wonderful post. I've got to read it again, later.


21 posted on 03/11/2006 6:27:08 AM PST by solzhenitsyn ("Live Not By Lies")
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To: Caipirabob

bookmark for later printing. Thanks for the pointer for good reading.


22 posted on 03/11/2006 6:38:28 AM PST by IrishCatholic (No local communist or socialist party chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing.)
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To: Malesherbes
Sadly, the world of Wodehouse has been replaced by sitcoms.

"Not that there's anything wrong with that!"

23 posted on 03/11/2006 7:02:45 AM PST by snarks_when_bored
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To: IrishCatholic

"Slouching Towards Kalamazoo," by Peter DeVries.


24 posted on 03/11/2006 7:04:04 AM PST by MoralSense
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To: Caipirabob

"They Shoot Canoes" .....Patrick McManus


25 posted on 03/11/2006 7:06:21 AM PST by showme_the_Glory (No more rhyming, and I mean it! ..Anybody got a peanut.....)
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To: Caipirabob

BTTT..


26 posted on 03/11/2006 7:15:27 AM PST by Right_in_Virginia
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To: Caipirabob

Three men and a Boat


27 posted on 03/11/2006 7:33:11 AM PST by squarebarb
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To: Caipirabob

Thanks for posting this article.
I look for reading material like this.
Rare is the fiction book published today that I can stomach.


28 posted on 03/11/2006 7:50:15 AM PST by krunkygirl
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To: Caipirabob

ANY Book by Patrick McManus.


29 posted on 03/11/2006 7:59:08 AM PST by FreedomFarmer (Push Me, Shove You - Oh, Yeah? Says Who? Push Me, Shove You -Oh, Yeah? Says Who?)
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To: FreedomFarmer

I have to go with Hunter S. Thompson's
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Cracked me up.Of course you needed to be there to really
understand.

"I didn't tell him about the MaNTA bats, I figured
he'd see them soon enough.
Don't worry kid, we're not like the ......others."


30 posted on 03/11/2006 11:03:03 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Caipirabob

Stop on by the FReeper Canteen tonight.
I will be posting many of these audio stories for your enjo0yment


31 posted on 03/27/2009 6:22:12 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Caipirabob

Stop on by the FReeper Canteen tonight.
I will be posting many of these audio stories By Patrick F MacManus for your enjoyment


32 posted on 03/27/2009 6:23:22 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: FreedomFarmer

See post #32


33 posted on 03/27/2009 6:24:41 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Caipirabob
A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
34 posted on 03/27/2009 6:26:05 AM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: Caipirabob
A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Whoops: Walk in the Woods is non-fiction.

35 posted on 03/27/2009 6:26:36 AM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: Petronski
Tom Sharp - "Riotous Assembly" and "Indecent Exposure"

He skewers the South Africans who aspire to be Englishmen.

36 posted on 03/27/2009 6:31:32 AM PDT by Lizavetta (Politicians: When they're not lying, they're stealing.)
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To: Caipirabob
To Say Nothing Of The Dog, Connie Willis. Science fiction, time travel, romantic comedy of manners/errors, and very much an homage to "Three Men in a Boat". Also, Connie Willis is the best science fiction author alive today.
37 posted on 03/27/2009 6:31:45 AM PDT by JenB
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To: Caipirabob

bfl


38 posted on 03/27/2009 6:37:17 AM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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To: mylife
Awesome! Thanks!
39 posted on 03/27/2009 7:20:50 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Caipirabob

Enjoy.
MacManus cracks me up.


40 posted on 03/27/2009 7:27:58 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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