Product Description
This collection contains nearly all the nonsense verse of Edward Lear, including the longer poems such as "The Owl and the Pussycat, "The Dong with the Luminous Nose" and "The Jumblies", and 236 limericks. John Vernon Lord spent three years illustrating every page of the book and has also written an introduction which provides a biography and critical background to Lear's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Hilarious!
I really enjoyed reading these poems. Lear is the master of his domain and his silly poems are always funny.
This is an anthology of poems, of different lengths. Lear's style can make even the most serious adult burst with laughter. I was stifling my laughs in the library. I think you're never too old for funny poems such as these, and reading books like this can be cathartic during stressful times.
Read these poems to everyone you know. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An unusual combination--to say the least!!
Edward Lear was born in 1812 and died in 1888.
He was a man of immense talents.He wrote poems and was a master of writing Nonsense Verse amd Limericks. He also excelled at at, and painted magnificent birds. He was an art instructor to Queen Victoria.He illustrated books for others and made simple line illustrations for his poems.I have other books of his poems that have illustrations done by others . One ,for instance, is "The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear" illustrated by John Vernon Lord. His intrepretation of Lear's poems are line drawings,but far more complicated and detailed.
In this book of Mazes, Giles Brandreth and David Farris take 30 of Lear's Nonsense Rhymes and Limericks; and with David Farris doing the line drawing intrepretation,I presume, and Gyles Branderth constructing mazes within them; they have produced a whole different approach to Lear's verses ;while at the same time combining themwith excellent mazes for puzzle enthusiasts,In case you would like to compare these drawings with Lear's,a simple search of the Net under Edward Lear will give you his original illustrations.
When you see the differences,you won't be able to but wonder what the "Great Master" would have to say. I bet it would make for a good Limerick!
Anyway,this little gem is a whole lot of fun;and wasn't that just what Lear was all about?

"There was an old man in a barge,
Whose nose was exceedingly large;
But in fishing by night,
It supported a light,
Which helped that old man in a barge.

Although this book is out of print,it is readily available as a used book. ... Read more

Product Description
Although his status as a household name was established through his nonsense poems and limericks, Edward Lear's talents as a painter have recently been increasingly widely recognized. The major exhibition of his work at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1985 in particular did much to enhance his reputation. Lear was a superb ornithological draughtsman - Sir David Attenborough regards him as the finest ever - and indeed early in his career earned his living from his skills in this field. The other area in which his genius shone through was that of his delicate watercolours, made on his worldwide travels and used as the basis for more "finished" watercolours and oils. In this book Vivien Noakes, an authority on Lear, has placed his painting in the context of his unconventional life. She also examines each colour plate and evaluates what Lear was trying to do in the painting and how well he succeeded. ... Read more

Product Description
Here is a chance to go to sea with "The Jumblies", swim with "The Pobble Who Has No Toes" and join the crowd on "The Quangle Wangle's Hat". This collection of nonsensical rhymes and limericks includes "The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo", "There was an Old Man Who Made Bold" and "The Owl and the Pussycat". ... Read more

Product Description
Este libro reune y trata de ordenar mis ideas sobre Edward Lear, anotadas a lo largo de anos de regresos a su obra enganosamente inteligible y a los misterios y secretos de su vida. Menos que un ensayo, mucho menos que una monografia, es una descripcion, un ayudamemoria; un intento de entender; tambien una ensonacion de escritor, y una fantasia identificatoria. Todo autor leido y releido con simpatia engendra uno de estos libros personales, que casi nunca se escriben. Al hacerlo en realidad de lo que se trata es de organizar la dispersion de pensamientos que suscita la lectura; pero hacerlo vuelve a ser escribir, y entonces la dispersion original, la que va de un libro a sus lectores, se reproduce en nuevas constelaciones. ... Read more

Product Description
Alone among the giants of the French cultural left of the seventies, Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Francois Lyotard tried to work out a new non-Marxist direction, one that was marked by comic thought, a delight in incongruity, and humor.Formerly minor writers such as Edward Lear, P.G. Wodehouse, Philippe Soupault, Stewart Home, Gregory Corso, and Charles Willeford can now be read not as unworthy of serious attention, but as philosophical writers whose wit equals and in some ways extends the riotous thinking of Deleuze and Lyotard.It is the intent of this book to trace the ways in which these underappreciated comic writers extend postmodernism, in order to reevaluate them and spark an inspiration to reevaluate similar writers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Interesting even for professional comedians
I got this book out of my library to see if I could get some ideas about what postmodernism might mean to a professional stnad-up comic.The book is itself very funny in places.He accuses the professional philosophers Jacques Derrida and Jaques Lacan of having been Maoist, and claims that Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Francois Lyotard were not.I remember those people from a critical theory class I took from this professor ten years ago when he was saying the same thing.

Olson is always sort of idiosyncratic.He wore a cowboy hat and a paisley shirt to classes.

His boots were pink.

The book he has written here is also idiosyncratic.He mixes weird stuff: like Hegel and Wodehouse in one chapter, and ancient Greek philosophy and modern mystery stories in another chapter.It was fun to see him go in depth.

The basis for humor, as he once pointed out in a class, was that you take two conflicting schemas, two completely opposite ideas, and have them make love.Their boundaries tickle.It's like omparing motorcycles and oranges.There is always a way to do it.Goosebumps, they both roll, they both smell good, and so on, until you get a productive comparison that makes you laugh.Olson keeps working until he gets it.

Olson is doing that through this whole book.It's a hard thing to sustain because it can get so complex that it falls into apostasy.But that's where comedians should be headed.This is sit-down comedy, though.Sit down, and think about it.

I should maybe try to ompare apples and speedboats. ... Read more

Product Description
Lear's nonsense classic about the unlikely romance between a pussycat and an owl. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

the preview does not match the book
The "Look Inside" preview shows an edition with illustrations by Paul Galdone. However, the edition of this particular book has illustrations by Ian Beck. This is not obvious if you are not paying close attention.

Amazon engineers, you need to change this preview!! Your customers can google to get the poem if they are not familiar with it. Showing a children's book that is illustrated by a different illustrator is misleading!

NOTE: my rating is for the misleading preview, not for the book itself!!

Vintage style artwork
A lovely illustrated edition with a unique vintage style artwork throughout, a favourite in my household. ... Read more

Product Description
The Quangle Wangle thought he was isolated at the top of a tree but his hat attracted a wide range of visitors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

DELIGHTFUL RETAKE ON AN OLD FAVORITE.
This is a remake of the story which was first illustrated by Helen Oxenburg.While different, it has lost none of it's charm.The Quangle Wangle is a strange critter who lives in a tree and is lonely.But the hat is the key to the end of his loneliness.Strange critters, some real, some not so real feel the hat is the ideal location to nest in, live in, and reside.The strange procession of these wonderful animal, mixed with delightful verse make this a children's favorite.I do bet to differ with the professional library review here.I feel the verse the author uses is ideal for reading alound and have had no problem what-so-ever reading it to various classes.The illustrations in this book are great, the story is cute and this is one that will go down, eventually, as a children's classic.Highly recommend this one.

favorite story since 1
This is a wonderful story, which flows and rhymes, amusing to read.It also reminds me of my own childhood stories. It was the first story my daughter understood, and has been her one of her favorites since she was one.Now, she tells me the story, and still loves it.I would recommend it parents who wants to read nice stories to their children.Coincidently, "The Pobble Who Has No Toes" was also another favorite, and I just recently noticed they were written by the same author.Now, I am going to get more books by Edward Lear.

poem review
This is a darling poem that my mother learned when she was a girl.For any child who loves animals, this is a must-read!

Not the same but still enchanting
Every child has a story that they demand to be read night after night, for about 2 years, until the parents become so bored with it that they dread beadtime.This story was mine.Or, I should ammend, the story I loved isstill mostly here, but the pictures are far different and lacking in a lotof ways.Some of the most endearing characters seem to have vanished aswell.Still the story is charming and silly enough for any child.TheQuangle Wangle is a lonely soul in the top of a crumpet-bearing tree.Oneby one such animals as the "Blue Baboon that plays the flute"come and bring the Quangle and his hat new life.The author's combinationof nonsense with a sense of innocent wonder are touching, and project theperfect warmth to send a kid off into dreamland. It's still a tale to love,but I'd give anything for an original copy. ... Read more

Product Description
An illustrated collection of nonsense poems by the two famous writers of "nonsense". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Lush illustrations and fun poems your children will adore
This is a collection of great nonsense verse from Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, most of which stands the test of time - beautifully illustrated by Nick Palin. My children (2 and 4) have adored this book for over a year now. They read it themselves - or at least look long and hard at the illustrations, and bring it to me to read to them over and over.

Most of these poems can easily be found in other books or collections. The advantage of this collection is that it is a small number of very good poems and (as I said before) they are really well illustrated. My children have rapidly learned quite a bit of each of the poems just from frequent re-reading.

Poems include The Crocodile, the Owl and the Pussycat, the Dong with the luminous nose, the Walrus and the carpenter - and my children's favourite - the Jumblies. I really enjoy The New Vestments which is one I had not seen before

In the rear of the book is the Index of titles and first lines which makes it simple to track down anything you particularly want to read.

I would definitely recommend this as a must have for a children's library. It is one of those lovely books which has opened my children's eyes to poetry and reading. ... Read more

Product Description
An illustrated collection of limericks by the well-known nineteenth-century English writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

My daughter is totally hooked on this book
My almost 5 year old daughter is autistic, and finding books she really likes is a challenge.You never know what will be a hit and what will be a flop with her.Well, this is the biggest hit yet.I really thought it would not interest her, although I loved it from first look---I love Lear, and the illustrations were so wry and interesting---very Victorian looking and with little definitions of tough words from the limericks mixed in.However, from the first read, she was hooked.She wants to hear it read about 50 times a day.Today, although she is a fairly reluctant talker, she started trying to talk in limericks, with the classic beginnings "There was an old man of..." and the intonation.It was a breakthrough for her---I've never heard her imitate rather than just repeat from a book.If this can hold her interest, I think it would REALLY be a hit with kids that would probably get the humor even more.Edward Lear is a classic poet for kids, and this is a great way to get your kids into his work.

not my cup of tea
I find this book dreadfully boring and outdated.My kids didn't like it either.The rhymes are almost unintelligible and unimaginative.Sounds like I'm in the minority opinion though.

There Was An Old Man From Nantucket
Valerie Fisher's unique illustrations highlight this brief collection of limericks by Edward Lear. Her style recalls late Victorian-era theatrical productions (think of the "Peter Pan" staging in the recent Depp/Winslett movie, "Neverland") fused with derivatives found in Monty Python and "Yellow Submarine." As in these settings, Fisher juxtaposes the human and the mannequin, the ordinary and the surrealistic, the natural and the mechanical.All of this plays wonderfully against Lear's tightly structured 4-line poems in which the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme with each other (the last line usually through a repetition of the word in the first line), and the third line rhymes with itself:

There was an old man of Dunluce,
Who went out to sea on a goose:
When he'd gone out a mile, he observ'd with a smile,
`It is time to return to Dunluce.'

While the poem doesn't dazzle, Fisher's accompanying picture does. She sets rows of blue-striped waves against each other, each topped with crashing wave spirals. The plainly drawn "old man" sports a modest two-piece striped bathing suit and a curling moustache that echoes the waves. She captures the era masterfully with these two elements, then adds details.A wooden sign reading "N. Ireland" places the action, and she includes textbooky line drawings of assorted fish and turtles.For fun, she plops in a bright plastic crab, and its kitschy modernism sets off the overall Victorian aesthetic. The waves and sea creatures look rigged with wire and ready to move, waiting only for the pull of a stagehand.

Fisher's work is consistently imaginative, although she slips at times.A picture of owls taught to sip tea instead of eating mice might have shown a happy mouse scampering away.An "uncommonly thin" man who is accidentally baked seems an oddly violent choice, perhaps more so because he is from Berlin (pre-WWII, I know, but still...).In any event, the illustrations are very kid friendly; she defines unfamiliar words (as in the following limerick) within the picture opposite the poem.

There was an old man on the Border,
Who lived in the utmost disorder;
He danced with the cat, and made tea in his hat,
Which vexed all the folks on the Border.

The picture shows a red and purple dressed man with a cat on his arm, two plastic lizards, two "vexed" neighbors (drawn in an unfocused fun-house manner), and an unscrolled fortune-cookie paper that reads: "*vexed* annoyed and irritated."The book contains 15 of these mini-dramas, and Fisher's fancy is equal to Lear's. There's a brief biography of Lear, and a map of Europe showing where the limericks take place.This playful, cleverly illustrated celebration of Lear's "nonsense poetry" is appropriate for all ages, perhaps especially for kids in elementary school.

timeless treat for ALL ages
can be appreciated on so many levels . Fisher's wit is a wonderful cheekyfoil to Edward Lear's.Get it when you care as much about the reader as the readee. It's going to stay on the shelf long after the children aren't children any more. A real gem

SO funny
I love reading this to my nieces and nephews it is really good. Every time you read it you see new things in the illustrations. I think we are beginning to know some of them by heart. ... Read more

Product Description

Edward Lear's nonsense stories and verses, with their rich vocabulary, ringing sounds, and rolling rhythms, are exuberant escapes.

Product Description
A new collection of nonsense verses, many beginning "There was an old man . . " or "There was a young lady . . ." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Don't be scared off by word "children's"
Even though this is part of the Dover Children's Thrift Classics series, this volume of poetry can be equally enjoyable for older folks.Hey, even a college student like me can enjoy verses like, "There was an Old Manof Three Bridges,/Whose mind was distracted by midges;/He sate on a wheel,eating underdone veal,/Which relieved that Old Man of Three Bridges." The illustrations accompanying each poem add to the bright, innocent humorthat Lear excelled at writing. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents the following nonsense verses: "How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear," "The Jumblies," "The Dong with a Luminous Nose," and "The Scroobious Pip." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Bravo for Butenko!
The above "editorial review" couldn't be more off the mark. Butenko's illustrations are brilliant, a classic of East European modernist design. I love the original Lear illustrations (there would be no Gorey without Lear!) but that doesn't cloud my appreciation of Butenko. In fact, this might be the best "contemporay" Lear available. And I include both Edward Gorey and James Marshall in this category. Do yourself a favor and buy this book before it slips out of print and used copies slowly dry up.

Excellent and challenging examples of nonsense verse
Nonsense verse done well has a charm unlike anything else. It is generally funny and the best contains subtle meanings that must be plucked from the froth like the best berries from a tangled briar patch. This book can be described using those terms. The illustrations are childlike, yet the verse is very adult. There is talk of going to sea in a sieve.
The names of the three poems are:

*) How pleasant to know Mr. Lear
*) The jumblies
*) The dong with a luminous nose
*) The scroobius pip

If you want to snicker and be forced to think a bit before you get it, this book is for you.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

For the child at heart!
As a very young child my mother read to me from her book "One Hundred and One Famous Poems".One of my favorites was "The Owl and The Pussy Cat" by Edward Lear.It is such a delightful, whimsical, enduring poem which can be enjoyed by anyone of any age.Mr. Lear had a sense of the rediculous, comical and what warms ones heart.A thoroughly enjoyable book for anyone of any age who is a "child at heart". ... Read more