Comic novel
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Rabelais, or Scarron, or Don Quixote, they are all books which excite laughter."--The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-1767) by Laurence Sterne "As the comic literature of the middle ages to a very great extent, and comic art in a considerable degree also, were founded upon, or rather arose out of, those of the Romans which had preceded them, it seemed desirable to give a comprehensive history of this branch of literature and art as it was cultivated among the peoples of antiquity."--History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art (1865) by Thomas Wright |
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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.
Prototypes in ancient literature include A True Story by Lucian and The Golden Ass by Apuleius.
Later, there is Rabelais.
Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling and Tristram Shandy were notable mid-18th century works in the genre.
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 The 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. G. K. 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.
See also
- Augustan prose
- Jest book
- Menippean satire
- Baroque comic fiction
- Cult fiction
- Comedy
- Satire
- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-1767) by Laurence Sterne
- The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749) by Henry Fielding