The Origins of English Nonsense

A major rediscovery and reevaluation of a lost strand of English literature from one of today's most brilliant scholars. Nonsense verse in England is generally thought to have its origins in Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. Noel Malcolm's remarkable book lays before us the extent of its flourishing a full two hundred and fifty years earlier, with the work of such now nearly forgotten nonsense poets as Sir John Hoskyns and John Taylor. It presents an anthology of their work, much of it published he