Book description
Affectionately combining both the idyllic and ironic, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a colourful, imaginative, and thoroughly entertaining portrait of small town Ontario. This is Stephen Leacock at his best--now available as a Penguin Modern Classic.
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, which first appeared as a newspaper…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
A quick read from 1912: I first read this in college, and it’s still some of the gentlest, sunniest humor I’ve seen—a literary afternoon in the park with a brass band and dogs and Frisbees.
This is a book I can safely read to my grandmother. But I still come back to it, partly because it teaches a great deal about now mostly-gone small-town lives and values (here a fictionalized prewar Orillia, Ontario) and partly because its Bernie Wooster-ish misadventures and wordplay have such a playful joy and innocence.
These are characters I’d want to have as neighbors.
From Ken's list on thoughtful comedy leaves you bored or depressed.
As a writer with a comedic bent myself, I enjoy reading the works of other humorists, and Leacock was one of the best.
The subtlety and wit, and the clever use of the language are like a tonic. Also, as a lover of history, I appreciate the glimpse of the fictitious town of Mariposa from a bygone era.
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