★★★★★ It's a classic, and it's brilliant

The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear

Edward Lear

I read The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear over the course of roughly six months. On most mornings I read just two pages. I think this is a good way to read Edward Lear -- if you read it all at once, you would quickly surfeit on it. But at two pages a day it remains fresh. Until I read this, I didn't realize how much of Lear's work I already knew. Many of the poems were familiar, for instance, "The Owl and the Pussycat". And much of it is brilliant.

Much of it is NOT brilliant -- let me be clear about that. The limericks that occupy so much of the book are formulaic and become tiresome, even at the pace of two pages (typically four limericks) a day. The poems in which he tells little stories, e.g. the aforementioned "Owl and the Pussycat" or "The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Around the World", are the best.

My five-star rating is based on a principle -- that an artist should be judged by his best work. Judged this way, it is fair to say that Lear is brilliant, and quite unique.

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