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    1,000 Years of Laughter
    1,000 Years of Laughter
    1,000 Years of Laughter
    Audiobook5 hours

    1,000 Years of Laughter

    Written by David Timson

    Narrated by David Timson, Griff Rhys Jones, Carole Boyd and

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Laughter is unique to man. This delightful anthology presents some of the funniest extracts in English literature. David Timson starts with Anglo-Saxon riddles and continues with medieval memories, Tudor comic turns and Restoration buffoonery. The rise of the novel in the eighteenth century brought classic humour from Swift, Sterne and Smollet, passing the mantle to Charles Dickens in the nineteenth century. Included here are rarities as well, from the antiquarian’s cupboard. There are also excerpts from children’s literature and twentieth-century classics as diverse as Dorothy Parker and P. G. Wodehouse. An entertainment from start to finish.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateSep 1, 2002
    ISBN9789629547028
    1,000 Years of Laughter

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    Reviews for 1,000 Years of Laughter

    4.5/5

    3 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Evidently fart jokes and double entendres have been with us as long as recorded humor exists. This book is heavy on British humor, some of which works for me and some doesn't. There are just a few women or Americans included. Mark Twain, is of course witty as ever, Jane Austin, who of course can be quite humorous. Dorothy Parker was a big disappointment. Hers is a story about a woman who is asked to dance by a clumsy man, and she is so mean spirited to me it destroyed all the humor. I guess knowing when to hold back was not her strong suit. The collection ends with Oscar Wilde's entire story The Remarkable Rocket, a real gem.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This anthology is not necessarily a representative selection of humor in English writing from the last thousand years, but it features a curated variety of generally-funny writing alongside thoughtful (though brief) commentary and context on the selections.

      I don't think very many people would find every piece uproarious, but as someone with historical knowledge of the times when the jokes were originally made I found them all quite interesting. My favorites were the Anglo-Saxon riddles which opened the book and the romantic story purportedly written by a 9-year old a century ago.