Red Cloth, Gilt. First Edition Thus, First Printing 1980, Reprinting The 1870'S Original With A New Introduction. Unpaginated, Interior Bright And Immaculate. "One Hundred And Twelve Illustrations And Limericks In Facsimile Color." Dj In A Protective Plastic Cover. Fine In Fine Dust Jacket. A Very Attractive Copy.

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Bibliographic Details

Title

A Book of Nonsense

Publisher

The Viking Press ( The Metropolitan Museum of Art), New York

Publication Date

1980

Language

English

ISBN 10

0670180114

ISBN 13

9780670180110

Binding

Red Cloth

Illustrator

Color Illustrations Throughout

Edition

First Edition Thus

Condition

Fine

Dust Jacket Condition

Fine

Seller catalogs

Childrens Books 1951 to Present

About this title

Synopsis

Edward Lear’s much celebrated book of nonsense is here reproduced with all the original pictures and verse and two autobiographical letters by the author. Children and adults alike will delight in the Limerick’s that here abound. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Review

"He reads but he cannot speak Spanish, / He cannot abide ginger-beer; / Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish, / How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!" writes the 19th-century English poet Edward Lear in "Self Portrait of the Laureate of Nonsense." When The Book of Nonsense was first published in 1845, under Lear's pseudonym, Derry Down Derry, it was a success--some say it turned the once stodgy, didactic world of children's literature on its head.

This rollicking poetic romp begins with "A Book of Nonsense" (1846), a slew of more-odd-than-bawdy limericks about the Young Lady of Wales, the Old Man of Vienna, and many, many more, all accompanied by the spare, whimsical ink drawings done by Lear himself. Part two urges readers to leap into "Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets" (1871), including the classic "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" and "The Jumblies" (who "went to sea in a Sieve"), along with equally rib-tickling but lesser known selections such as "The Nutcrackers and the Sugar-Tongs." In this section, you'll also discover instructions for how to make Crumbobblious Cutlets, a "Nonsense Botany" guide featuring the Bottlephorkia spoonifolia and the Manypeeplia upsidownia, and "Nonsense Alphabets," strange little poems about quills, rattlesnakes, screws, and other words beginning with letters.

Part three merrily inflicts "More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, &c." (1877) on readers with the well-known plant Washtubbia circularis and more wacky limericks such as "There was an old person of Bar, / Who passed all her life in a jar, / Which she painted pea-green, to appear more serene, / That placid old person of Bar." As icing on a very strange cake, the last section offers "Laughable Lyrics, A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, &c." (1877), notably including "The Pobble Who Has No Toes." Lear's quirky sense of humor infuses every line of his ever skillful verse, which is often alliterative, and always very silly. Lear, the Laureate of Nonsense, frolics frivolously, and no one should ever go to sea in a Sieve without a copy of this book in tow. (All ages) --Karin Snelson

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Store Description

Fine and unusual first editions and out of print books in all categories. Original photographs, Fine antiquarian and other original prints, paintings, drawings and watercolors. Motion picture and television scripts. Ephemera, Manuscripts and autographs. In business on the internet since 1999.

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Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA
CA, U.S.A.

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