I was surprised how much I enjoyed this little book. The pace and timing are classical, and I can definitely hear the influence in many nursery rhymes. Excellent illustrations in this version as well. A silly bit of 'nonsense' worth the time.

So this book was what it promised. Little random poems and sketches, i didnt really find them funny but whatever.

"How pleasant to know Mr.Lear,
Who was written such volumes of stuff,
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few find him pleasant enough"

Count me in the grouping that finds him extremely pleasant!!!!

I'm OBSESSED. No genre of writing has won me over so quickly and completely as nonsense verse and overall nonsense lit. Edward Lear awakens childish joy in you, his works are so full of whimsy and play, while also including themes of loneliness and societal alienation.

One of my favourite poems for the longest time was "The Owl and the Pussycat", but I never took the time to research the author or read his other poems until a few months ago. Now the "Jumblies", and "The Dong with the Luminous Nose" are new favourites of mine too.
Nonsense is just so wonderful and beautiful.

I'm currently writing my final year college dissertation on it because I love it so much.

As Alice says in her Adventures in Wonderland; "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense"

I’m looking for absurd, pointless and meaningless, and thought I’d go back to the source. Edward Lear literally wrote the book on nonsense and this collection of the four volumes of Nonsense Books he authored were for a long time a sign of hope on my shelf. They’re children’s books, which is no slight, though that softens the edges that I’ve come to associate with the surreal. These are good wholesome songs, poems, lists and stories that make enough sense to follow, even if you’re tracking a familiar beast with a silly name. By all accounts, Lear, a landscape artist, was a good fellow, not sarcastic or cynical. I liked the books, I just couldn’t relate.

100 years before Edward Gorey's "Gashlycrumb Tinies" and 125 years before Tim Burton's "Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy," there was Edward Lear's books of complete nonsense. This collection is a great match for those who love the literary nonsense of Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was written around the same time). Whimsical and sometimes a little dark (ie: How to Make Gosky Patties), these rhymes and songs are really fun to read-aloud. If you haven't yet heard The Owl and the Pussycat or The Jumblies, please ask someone to read them to you, post-haste!

There's only so many limericks you can read successively without beginning to wonder what you're doing with your life.

too long. tedious.

What nonsense, with just a few chuckles. Best suited for younger children with broad vocabularies.

Loved this when I was a kid. Love it now. This book gave me a love for limericks

I remember being fascinated, when young, with what this man could do with the English language. Some of it still holds true. I'd never thought before reading this how much Dr. Seuss must have drawn on Lear.

I'm not sure which edition of Edward Lear's nonsense poetry I read as a kid so I picked this one. Really enjoyed it!

An absolutely wonderful and funny book for all human beings be they adult or child. Put this book on your list to keep on hand to read to any children in your life. Children have fabulous senses of humor. Edward Lear is just as smart and funny today as he was in the mid 19th century when he lived, wrote, and illustrated. No home should be without this book.