Over the Land and Over the Sea (Paperback)

Edward Lear

ISBN 10: 1857547594 / ISBN 13: 9781857547597

Published by Carcanet Press Ltd, Manchester, 2005

About this Item

Paperback. Edward Lear (1812-1888) is one of the best-loved of English poets. His comic invention and unconstrained sense of the absurd have been enjoyed by generations of children, and treasured by adults conscious of the subtle melancholy that underlies the fun. This collection includes all the favourite nonsense poems. Peter Swaab sets them alongside a generous selection from Lear's six travel books (including his three Journals of a Landscape Painter), first published between 1841 and 1870, and long out of print. For the first time Lear is presented as an adventurer, not only in the fabled lands of the Jumblies and the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo, but also in nineteenth-century Albania, Greece, Calabria and Corsica, where his encounters with the people and customs of these sometimes equally strange and challenging cultures are recorded with the same acute and rueful comic imagination. All of Lear's finest nonsense rhymes are reproduced with the author's illustrations. The volume also contains, and makes available for the first time in decades, Lear's exuberant travel writing. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781857547597

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Over the Land and Over the Sea (Paperback)
• Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd, Manchester
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857547594
• ISBN 13: 9781857547597
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Comic invention and an unrestrained sense of the absurd are explored in this collection of one of England's best-loved poets. Adored by generations of nonsense-loving children and treasured by adults conscious of the subtle melancholy that underlies the fun, these writings whisk readers away not only to the fabled lands of the Jumblies and the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo but also to 19th-century Albania, Greece, Calabria, and Corsica, where the poet's encounters with the people and customs are recorded with an acute and ruefully comical imagination. Setting Lear's nonsense verse alongside his six travel books, Swaab paints a complete picture of Lear, capturing his ability to see the uncanny and surreal in all things.

About the Author

Edward Lear began to write nonsense verse to entertain the Earl’s children while working at Knowsley Hall in England. He became a successful artist, an associate of the pre-Raphaelite circle, and his work was accepted by the Royal Academy. Peter Swaab is a department tutor and senior lecturer of English at University College London, and the author of Lives of the Great Romantics: Wordsworth.