Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised. Lear's nonsense works are distinguished by a facility of verbal invention and a poet's delight in the sounds of words, both real and imaginary. A stuffed rhinoceros becomes a "diaphanous doorscraper". A "blue Boss-Woss" plunges into "a perpendicular, spicular, orbicular, quadrangular, circular depth of soft mud". His heroes are Quangle-Wangles, Pobbles, and Jumblies. His most famous piece of verbal invention, a "runcible spoon" occurs in the closing lines of The Owl and the Pussycat, and is now found in many English dictionaries. Edward Lear's 'The Book of Nonsense' serves as a pioneering anthology of limericks, each artfully crafted to blend humour, absurdity, and playful verse. Written in the mid-19th century, this collection exemplifies the literary nonsense genre, where form meets whimsy and meaning dances on the edge of absurdity. Lear's innovative use of rhythm and meter introduces us to a world where logic is subverted and he challenges traditional storytelling conventions. A Victorian poet, painter, and illustrator, his background in both art and literature led him to explore the liminal spaces between reality and imagination. Lear's own struggles with loneliness often manifested in his work, pushing him to create a universe where nonsensical whimsies could thrive and where laughter could soften the edges of melancholy. Includes autobiographical letters by the author, which have never until now been published. The first, written just before one of his journeys in search of the picturesque, is a strict recital of date and fact; the second, composed some years later, and after he had set up his residence at San Remo, was written for a young lady of his acquaintance, who had quoted to him the words of a young lady not of his acquaintance, which form the refrain of the verses - "How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!'' 118 page tiny paperback with all original illus.
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