Edward Lear & the Snargetted Flartlethants of Nonsense

Edward Lear’s A Book of Nonsense helped popularize the limerick in the mid-1800s. His absurd characters and situations, coupled with his fanciful renderings, amused both children and adults. To put Lear’s poems in conext, Kleefeld has paired them with essays on Lear himself and the broader scope of nonsense verse. The book can be read simply for entertainment, relaying tales of the likes of the Young Lady of Dorking and the Old Man of Apulia, but readers will also find interest in discovering how and when Lear wrote his verse, and what sort of structure and rules govern the field of nonsense.