Comic novel
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A comic novel is a work of fiction in which the writer seeks to amuse the reader: sometimes with subtlety and as part of a carefully woven narrative, sometimes above all other considerations.
One of the most notable British comic novelists is P.G. Wodehouse, whose work follows on from that of Jerome Klapka Jerome and Weedon and Grossmith's Diary of A Nobody. Nor can Saki's work be ignored, although his career was cut short by the tragic waste of the Great War. AG MacDonnell and GK Chesterton also produced flights of whimsy that delighted their reading audiences in their day. Other, more contemporary UK authors of this ilk include Tom Sharpe, Martin Amis, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Evelyn Waugh and Ben Elton.
Notable American comic novelists include Hunter S. Thompson, John Kennedy Toole, Robert Clark Young, Carl Hiaasen, Joseph Heller and Terry Southern.
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