1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910824365403321

Autore

Lynch Gerald <1953->

Titolo

Stephen Leacock : humour and humanity / / Gerald Lynch

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Kingston, Ont., : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1988

ISBN

1-282-85111-X

9786612851117

0-7735-6167-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

197 p. ; ; 24 cm

Disciplina

818/.5209

Soggetti

English literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and an index.

Nota di contenuto

Front Matter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- The Middle Way: An Introduction to Leacock's Tory-Humanist Norm -- Between Satire and Sentimentality: Leacock's Theory of Humour -- Sunshine Sketches: Mariposa Versus Mr Smith -- Religion and Romance in Mariposa - En Voiture! -- Arcadian Adventures: The City of the End of Things -- Between a Vault and a Dark Place: Religi on and Politics in Plutoria -- Humour and Humanity -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

From the preface: "Stephen Leacock is still often regarded as a writer of lightweight amusements and unchallenging satire, as an author without an imaginative centre who lacked a vision of sufficient power and clarity to sustain a lifetime of serious writing. According to this view, which has been too easily received, Leacock squandered an early, promising talent (though he was in fact, middle-aged when he published Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town in 1912), and consequently his writings, like his legendary Lord Ronald, "rode madly off in all directions." After years of chasing down Leacock's numerous literary mounts, I can assert that none of this is true. Leacock's writing emerges from a centre that is the confluence of the two traditions of humanism and toryism, traditions that found in Leacock fertile ground for the propagation of such qualities as tolerance of human fallibility and acceptance of social responsibility. What is remarkable with respect to Leacock's literary output is that even his furthest-flung, seemingly



inconsequential humourous pieces move in relation to this tory-humanist centre." Lynch invites us to accompany him on an odyssey through Leacock's two main works, Sunshine Sketches and Arcadian Adventures of the Idle Rich . He aspires to enlighten the open-minded reader, and is highly successful in doing so." Elspeth Cameron, Coordinator of Canadian Literature and Language Program, New College, University of Toronto