The Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear,
the book is short, the end is near;
for whatever it lasts, it's bursts of blasts,
that puny pun-ny book by Edward Lear.

No illustrations, limericks only

The wonderful drawings are not here nor are the big poems. What is this book without The Owl and th

There was an untalented man named Lear
Who thought he was Seuss, or Silverstein, I fear
Well I tell ya, he wasn't
And I wished I doesn't
Had read this kerfloppety schmear

3.5 stars
Technically the title admits that it is filled with nonsense and it does not lie. It's filled with disconnected quintains. Some of them are fun, some of them present new words that can be googled and learned, some poems seem to say: Learn geography with Lear! There are some slightly gruesome ones with people dying in uncommon ways and it seems to be kink with Lear, but whatever keeps his boat floating!

Things I liked:
1: The invention of words. My favorite: ombliferous. I think we should invite gen Z to a Lear reading party and have them find uses for those unknown, made up words and popularize them.
2: Edward Lear said: away with toxic masculinity and I love it!
ㅤㅤㅤ"There was an Old Man with a poker,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤWho painted his face with red oker;
ㅤㅤㅤㅤWhen they said, “You’re a Guy!”
ㅤㅤㅤㅤHe made no reply,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤBut knocked them all down with his poker."
3: Some of the poems appear like writing prompts inviting someone else to make a story out of them, since a lot of the people he writes about are a little bit off and fantasy authors do love to write about characters with strange quirks. Examples:
ㅤㅤㅤ1: "There was an Old Person of Cromer,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤWho stood on one leg to read Homer"
ㅤㅤㅤ2: "There was an Old Person of Tring,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤWho embellished his nose with a ring;
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤHe gazed at the moon,
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤEvery evening in June"
ㅤㅤㅤ3: "He built a balloon, To examine the moon"

*Only got to read an edition with 112 poems and no illustrations, so I might be severely lacking in some other fun stuff.*

The absurdity is especially delightful to experience alongside a child.

It is always fun to read Lear.

The preeminent example of nonsense literature and limerick. Short mini-tales in verse that are fun, whimsical, humorous, and rhyme, but ultimately don’t have much logical sense, even if the structure of the individual sentences possess a sense, logic, and even a repetitive structural pattern. It is the ultimate example of style before substance, while being light-hearted and lacking the seriousness of other types of literature that emphasize style over meaning such as some of the French Symbolist poets.

“The Book of Nonsense” by Edward Lear was published in 1846, during the Victorian “Golden Age” of children’s literature, which was really the first time that books for young people were published for the purpose of enjoyment. Lear is attributed with having invented the Limerick rhyme form, and this book of a little over 100 short verses is a wonderful glimpse of not only his invention, but the historical period during which he wrote it.

I would recommend that the reader acquire a copy of this book with Lear’s original illustrations, because, in my opinion, they bear equal weight in the delivery of his witty punchlines. (I enjoyed this eBook version of it: http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/BoN/i...).

For a modern child, this book of poetry may not be entirely understood. There are references to disregarded historic names of people and places (which actually refutes the title “Book of Nonsense”). But if viewed as nonsense, the poetry will make clever children snicker at the sometimes questionable content.

I can't help but perceive many of the verses in this book as uninventive and contained. Perhaps this is due to having read poets whose work was influenced by Lear (Shel Silverstein in particular), who pushed the limits on nonsense even further. Thus, I kept my review of “Nonsense” under four stars. It is truly an artifact from the Victorian age, which is why, when googling such a telling title, children and parents are probably expecting something containing far more gobbledygook than is found in the pages of “The Book of Nonsense”.

Magnificent! I just love how it's a fast read. It also shows how someone, if they try, can discover and use different words from the norm. I was just amazed at the many, less or hardly ever used, words were placed in this artwork.

When I was a child, I enjoyed Lear, but I read only a poem or two at a time. This book was "way too much of a good thing." If I ever read another "There was an old man from" or "There was an old person from" poem again, it will be too soon. He had several alphabets. Many used the same thing for the letters. For example, all used "Xerxes" for the letter "X." Why not a xylophone? In addition to poems and alphabets, Lear included some nonsensical biological drawings and a couple short stories. "The Owl and the Pussycat" is probably Lear's best-known work, and there's a reason for that. It's his best. Lear is best consumed in small doses, and this volume gives one entirely too much nonsense.

Edward Lear's "Book of Nonsense" is a book about old men from random places who do random shit for no reason. It is the single greatest book ever written and you should read it now and die. If me and Steven Quartz Universe were on a desert island and had this book, we would fuck each other a lot. Frank Zappa says read this book.

fabulous.