Absurdity in Gilbert & Sullivan

I fell in love with the comic operas of Gilbert & Sullivan while I was creating one of the narrators for my novel Eleanor’s Wars—Nat is a musical young adult who adores H.M.S. Pinafore and Pirates of Penzance. He may not understand all the political references to life in England during the late 1800s, but he is tickled by the absurdity of these tales. Gilbert & Sullivan put their characters into impossible situations which they then animate with gorgeous music and funny lyrics.

In Pinafore, f...