From Library Journal
Nineteenth-century Americans were fascinated by the meanings and origins of words and also loved a good joke. In this impressive work of scholarship, West (English, Univ. of Pittsburgh) explores the intense interest in etymology and verbal jesting that informed the writings of the era's major authors. Well-known passages from classic books are reinterpreted by West to show how they are rife with puns, off-color innuendoes, and jocularity. With his main emphasis on Thoreau and other transcendentalists, West also examines works by Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman. His extensive discussion of early figures in philology and language theory, and their impact upon the American curriculum, is especially noteworthy. Highly recommended for larger collections of literary criticism, linguistics, or American studies.-Ellen Sullivan, Ferguson Lib., Stamford, CT Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

SYNOPSIS

West (English, U. of Pittsburgh) interprets Thoreau as an ironic moralist, satirist, and social critic rather than as a nature-loving mystic, and suggests that the major American Romantics shared a surprising conservatism. In his own words, the study is of interest to "anyone curious about what the origins of words have to teach us, the links between language study and literature, the intellectual pretensions of America's English teachers, and how good writers learn to transcend their lessons." He rescues the pun from critical contempt and presents riddles, acrostics, anagrams, dirty jokes, and other forms of wordplay as a serious form of American humor. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal