Timeless laugh-out-loud silliness. This was a childhood favourite and it's great to have found it again.

Well, it is a collection of "complete Nonsense" in true sense, starts with 4 lines verse poems, thoroughly witty and enjoyable. So are the playful writings with alphabets and short stories. You have to savor it slowly with little dose of gibberish thinking, now and then. It is amusing that, there seems to be an impression of Lear's doodles on the works of legendary nonsense poetry writer in Bengali literature, Sukumar Ray.

The limericks are the soul of his work. The other nonsense poems—The Pelican Chorus, The Owl and the Pussycat, etc—are good, as are the Alphabet poems, but the brevity and almost sensible absurdity of the limericks reign supreme.

Why?

Beautiful, thrilling, exquisite. Absolutely recommend. This is the best of the best.

It's fun to see the range of forms that Lear's wonderful nonsense could take! There are even a couple of silly recipes here. The only part I disliked was the story of the seven families. Everything else was fun and nicely written.

I remember the book being funnier when I was a child. It is still full of limericks, a very silly alphabet, and a few classic pieces of poetry.

I thought I remembered Edward Lear's limericks as being funnier than I found in this book. The only poem that I really liked was The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. Very disappointing.

What a strange read. I will admit I skimmed most of it because the content is some of the oddest ramblings I have come across. Kind of like being inside the head of a writer/poet who is mentally unstable or having a nervous breakdown. Some of the hand drawings were creative though.

This was another ‘lots of fun’ collection, to be read again and again, in part or in total.

Edward Lear's nonsense was a favourite read for John Lennon. He kept a copy in his bedroom at Menlove Avenue, and perhaps explains John's drawing style as well as the lyric writing of tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
The laureate of nonsense is collected together with five publications; 'A Book of Nonsense' (1846), 'Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets' (1871), 'More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany,Etc.'(1872), 'Laughable Lyrics, A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, Etc.(1877) and 'Nonsense Songs and Stories' (1895).
'A Book of Nonsense' is a collection of limericks accompanied by Lear drawings. Perhaps these were a great source of hilarity and merriment in the parlours of Victorian Britain around the mid nineteenth century.
'Nonsense Songs', brings me as close as I'm going to get to appreciate Edward Lear. 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat', 'The Jumblies' , 'The Dong with a Luminous Nose' and 'The Pobble Who Has No Toes' are old friends.

Love the Nonsense Songs, some of which have a strange, melancholic charm, and are far superior to the limericks, most of which leave me cold.