Last month we ran a series of 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read – which of your all-time favourite comedy novels did we miss?
The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim (1909)
This story describes the adventures of an Anglo-German group of holidaymakers who travel through the English countryside in three horse-drawn Romany caravans. Written in the form of a journal by one of the group, Baron von Ottringel of Storchwerder, a major in the Prussian army, it is a scathing attack on male pomposity and sexism. At times cruelly funny, Von Arnim’s gentle mocking of German and English national stereotypes had me in stitches.
Hildegard Dumper, Bristol
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin by David Nobbs (1975-78)
David Nobbs’s The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is hilarious from start to finish and boasts an undercurrent of poignant seriousness. I would urge anyone who hasn’t read it to do so quickly and then watch the original TV series before the remake comes along. Earwig.
Nicholas Royle, Manchester
Some Experiences of an Irish RM by Somerville and Ross (1899)
This classic tale draws on the authors’ childhoods in 19th-century south-west Ireland. The adventures of Major Sinclair Yeates, recently married and newly arrived Resident Magistrate, target of every plausible rogue in the area, are told with warmth and wit. In the course of his duties and social life he tangles with a range of wonderfully realised characters, from eccentric members of the Anglo-Irish gentry to the native horse dealers/thieves, tenants/poachers, household servants and his unforgettable landlord, Flurry Knox. I first read this hilarious book when I was 14 and have returned to it regularly ever since; the magnificent set pieces and gentle humour never fail to make me laugh.
Ruth Anderson, Birmingham
Trooper to the Southern Cross by Angela Thirkell (1934)
This was written under a male pseudonym, “Leslie Parker”. Thirkell may not have been a feminist, but a more biting satire on male complacency would be hard to find. It was written a few years after her flight from Australia (and from her second husband) and is quite unlike her other work. Thirkell captured a certain kind of male mentality – practical, self-sufficient, not so much condescending as oblivious to all emotional values – so perfectly that contemporaries had no doubt the author was a man.
Margaret Pelling, Oxford
Drowned Hopes by Donald Westlake (1990)
Westlake’s reputation as king of the comic crime caper is well-earned. His novels employ tight plots peopled by everyday recidivists and related with pace and humour – notably in the banter between his characters. There are about-turns aplenty as a gang of mismatched criminals attempt to retrieve the plunder of a bank heist from its hiding place . . . at the bottom of a reservoir. This isn’t as straightforward as it might seem.
Ian Joyce, Milton Keynes
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Full article and photo: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/feb/20/fiction-bestbooks
