Delphi Collected Works of Stephen Leacock

by Stephen Leacock

The internationally acclaimed Canadian humorist, Stephen Leacock produced over thirty books of light-hearted sketches and essays. The beguiling fantasies and hilarious tales of ‘Literary Lapses’ (1910), ‘Nonsense Novels’ (1911) and ‘Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town’ (1912) helped launch Leacock’s career as a master writer of humour. He also produced learned and well-researched non-fiction books, including important historical works on his beloved home of Canada and detailed reviews of literary figures. This comprehensive eBook presents Leacock’s collected works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Leacock’s life and works
* All 12 short story collections available in the US public domain, with individual contents tables
* Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories
* Easily locate the short stories you want to read
* Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Rare non-fiction works
* Includes Leacock’s play ‘Q’
* Features Peter McArthur’s seminal biography – discover Leacock’s literary life
* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres

Please note: the eBook contains as many Leacock works as possible available in the US public domain. New texts will be added to the edition as they become available.

Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles

CONTENTS:

Contents
The Fiction
Literary Lapses
Nonsense Novels
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Behind the Beyond
Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich
Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy
Further Foolishness
Essays and Literary Studies
Frenzied Fiction
The Hohenzollerns in America
Winsome Winnie
My Discovery of England

The Short Stories
List of Short Stories in Chronological Order
List of Short Stories in Alphabetical Order

The Play
“Q”: A Farce in One Act

The Non-Fiction
Elements of Political Science
Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks: Responsible Government
Adventurers of the Far North
The Dawn of Canadian History
The Mariner of St. Malo
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice

The Biography
Stephen Leacock by Peter McArthur

2983 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 26, 2018

About the author

Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock, FRSC, was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people's follies. The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour was named in his honour.

Wikipedia article.

Reviews

[Godly Gadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wit from one of the most widely read humorists from a century ago, and mostly still enjoyable today (3.5 stars)

Canadian writer Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) is said to have been the most widely read humorist in the English-speaking world at his peak (1915-1925). As well as non-fiction works about political science, he wrote over thirty books of humour, most being collections of sketches or short stories.

Leacock has sometimes described as a Canadian Mark Twain, and while some think this gives him too much credit, I can appreciate the comparison with the famous American humorist. Some of Leacock’s work is also reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse, although Leacock's wit and wordplay isn't quite on the same level as Wodehouse either. There's also a stronger undercurrent of satire of the rich and powerful in his writings than Wodehouse. But his influence is undeniable, and later humorists like Groucho Marx and Jack Benny all owe a big debt to Leacock, and his whimsical style also finds an echo in the absurdist British comedy of Spike Milligan, Monty Python, and The Goons. Travel writer Bill Bryson's style also reminds me somewhat of Leacock.

Some of Leacock's sketches feel somewhat dated, and don't speak as well to a modern audience outside of their original context. But many of them are still highly entertaining. His two best known works of fiction are "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town" (1912) and "Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich" (1914). The first is a humorous and affectionate portrayal of the quirks and follies of characters in a small fictional Canadian town through a series of loosely interconnected scenes. The story of the sinking of the Mariposa Belle in the story “The Marine Excursions of the Knights of Pythias” was my favourite here. The second is a more biting satire of the hypocrisy and vanity of the wealthy upper-class.

While I didn’t particularly enjoy his two best-known works just mentioned (aside from the story of the sinking of the Mariposa Belle in “The Marine Excursions of the Knights of Pythias”), that’s mostly a matter of personal taste. His other collections of sketches contain some real gems, especially his well-regarded books “Literary Lapses”, “Nonsense Novels”, and “Frenzied Fiction”. I didn't find all of his work to be worth reading, and many would agree that he's also written some dull pieces that weren't really funny to begin with. But these are my personal favorite sketches that I highly recommend seeking out, and which I would happily to re-read at any time.

From the collection "Literary Lapses" (1910)
⁃ A, B, and C: The Human Element of Mathematics
⁃ A Manual of Education
⁃ Getting the Thread of It
⁃ How to Live to be 200
⁃ My Financial Career
- Number Fifty-Six
⁃ The Conjurer’s Revenge
⁃ The Life of John Smith

From the collection "Nonsense Novels" (1911)
- Maddened by Mystery: or, The Defective Detective
- "Q." A Psychic Pstory of the Psupernatural
- Guido the Gimlet of Ghent: A Romance of Chivalry

From the collection "Frenzied Fiction" (1918)
⁃ A Prophet in our Midst
⁃ Personal Adventures in the Spirit World
⁃ The New Education
⁃ The Old, Old Story of Five Men Who Went Fishing

From various other collections:
- How We Kept Mother's Day (1926)
- The Hallucination of Mr. Butt (1915)

I did try a few other of his better known collections, but found that I didn’t really care for them:
- Moonbeams From the Larger Lunacy (1915)
- Winsome Winnie and Other New Nonsense Novels (1920)
- My Remarkable Uncle and Other Sketches (1942)

Leacock's work is in the public domain and can easily be found online. If you've never read any Leacock, "My Financial Career" is a good place to start, and is one of his best-known sketches. It describes the hilarious misadventure of a man crippled by anxiety trying to make his first deposit at a bank.