The Little Book of Venom

by Jennifer Higgie

Mean-spirited and offensive? Absolutely. Uncharitable and slanderous? You bet. But The Little Book of Venom also contains some of the most amusing and drollest wit ever recorded. A unique addition to any humorist's collection, this compilation of history's cruelest insults and put-downs features some of the world's most famous composers, writers, artists, actors, and politicians, including Richard Wagner, William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, Thomas Jefferson, James Whistler, Noel Coward, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, Groucho Marx, Jane Austen, Queen Victoria, Edith Wharton, Nietzsche, and many, many others. From music, art, politics, and philosophy to royalty, religion, love and marriage, nothing is safe from belittlement in this hilariously witty and entertaining volume.

On Music

"Wagner has beautiful moments but awful quarter hours." - Gioacchino Rossini

On Writers

"One of the nicest old ladies I ever met." - William Faulkner on Henry James

On Love

"If you're afraid of loneliness, don't marry." -Anton Checkov

On the Stage

"A woman whose face looked as if it had been made of sugar and someone had licked it." -George Bernard Shaw on Isadora Duncan

On Art

"There is one thing on earth more terrible than English music, and that is English painting." -Heinrich Heine

On Royalty

"Now at least I know where he is." -Queen Alexandra shortly after her husband, Edward VII, had died.

On People and Places

"Of course, America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up." -Oscar Wilde

On Men

"The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs." -Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Humor

167 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Naomi]

A really quick, cute book of insults. Not much more to it, but I can see why it was recommended to me. I enjoyed the quick read and some of them given the time period/target insult were hysterical.

[Cass]

warrants a 'meh' response

[Adrienne]

A quick read, but an acerbic and witty one. This small book is filled with both hilarious and cringe-worthy insults from composers, authors, politicians, and more.