R of Rs 63:110 Ja ’21 80w
MENCKEN, HENRY LOUIS. Book of burlesques. *$2 Knopf 817
20–26583
“The present edition includes some epigrams from ‘A little book in C major,’ now out of print. To make room for them several of the smaller sketches in the first edition have been omitted. Nearly the whole contents of the book appeared originally in the Smart Set.” (Author’s note) Contents: Death: a philosophical discussion; From the programme of a concert; The wedding: a stage direction; The visionary; The artist: a drama without words; Seeing the world; From the memoirs of the devil; Litanies for the overlooked; Asepsis: a deduction in scherzo form; Tales of the moral and pathological; The jazz Webster; The old subject; Panoramas of people; Homeopathics; Vers libre.
“Mr Mencken is a clever and witty satirist, with an encyclopædic knowledge of the latest crazes and imbecilities.”
+ Ath p322 Mr 5 ’20 160w Booklist 17:85 N ’20
“The great difficulty about this book is that it will not irritate the intelligent and none but the intelligent can be amused by it.”
+ − Dial 68:401 Mr ’20 100w
“Satire at times extravagantly and cheaply cynical, but also at times keen and entertaining is to be found in ‘A book of burlesques.’”