Résumé
Résumé de Livres de non-sens
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For parents reading aloud, lovers of wordplay, and anyone who enjoys light verse with a kind heart and pen drawings of odd birds and wide-eyed creatures.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Nonsense Books gathers the comic verse, stories, recipes and alphabets of Edward Lear, an English painter and poet who died in 1888. Lear first won readers with A Book of Nonsense in 1846, a volume of limericks he wrote and drew for the children of the Earl of Derby, whose estate he visited as a bird painter. More volumes followed in 1871, 1872 and 1877, and the books were later brought together under one title.
What do you get from it? You get quick, silly poems that sound wonderful aloud, and pen drawings that Lear made himself, with long-legged men, odd birds and round, wide-eyed creatures. You also get a lonely, tender note under the jokes, since many of his characters are outsiders who go off to sea or sit alone and long for company. The book rewards a child and an adult in different ways. Let us begin with the form that started it all, the limerick.
Dans ce résumé
- 1The limerick that began it allFree
- 2A sea voyage for two unlikely lovers
- 3Voyagers and wanderers in odd boats
- 4Lonely creatures and tender sadness
- 5Playing with words, food and plants
- 6How to read Lear and why he lasts
Point clé 1 sur 6
The limerick that began it all
Lear did not invent the limerick, but he made it famous and gave it its first great run of books. A typical Lear limerick opens with a line that names a person and a place or a trait, such as an Old Man with a beard or a Young Lady of somewhere far off. The next lines describe what that person does, and the last line often repeats the first line's ending almost word for word, so the verse seems to chase its own tail.
That repeated ending is one of Lear's quiet signatures. Later writers of limericks like a sharp joke in the last line. Lear prefers a soft, circular closing, as if the poem has sat down and gone nowhere. The humour comes from the odd scene itself, not from a clever punch.
The people in these verses are often in trouble, and the crowd around them is cruel. They are called absurd, they are chased by neighbours, or they are told off by They, a faceless group that appears again and again. The victim is usually unbothered, or ends up happy in a strange way. Some readers see in this a gentle plea for the odd one out.
Lear's drawings are part of the joke. He sketches each figure in a few quick lines, often with a tiny head, huge nose or stretched body, and the picture adds details the words leave out. If you read the limericks aloud and look at the sketches together, you get the full effect. Nothing in them is meant to teach a lesson, which was unusual in children's books of his day.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Livres de non-sens
What is Nonsense Books by Edward Lear about?
It is a collection of comic poems, limericks, stories, recipes, botany and alphabets. The pieces take place in a made-up world of odd people and animals, and Lear illustrated them himself with quick pen drawings.
What is a runcible spoon?
It is a made-up item from The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. Lear never defined the word, and it has no fixed meaning. It was chosen for its sound, and later writers have borrowed it for odd cutlery.
Are Lear's nonsense poems only for children?
No. Children enjoy the rhythm, rhymes and silly pictures, while adults often notice the loneliness, wit and love of language underneath. Lear wrote for the children of friends, yet many adults treasure the poems too.
When did Edward Lear write his nonsense books?
His first volume, A Book of Nonsense, came out in 1846. Further collections of songs, stories, botany and alphabets followed in 1871, 1872 and 1877, and the books were later gathered into one collection.
What is the main message of Lear's nonsense?
There is no single lesson, but the poems often favour kindness to odd people, the courage to set out, and the comfort of company. They also show that play and sadness can sit side by side.