Humor Classics

In his first published work in prose, James Joyce paints vivid portraits of the people of Dublin, his city of birth, in a collection of stories whose larger purpose, he said, was to depict a "moral history of Ireland". From the first story, in which a young boy encounters death, to the haunting final story involving the middle-aged Gabriel, the book gives an unflinching and realistic portrayal of "dear, dirty Dublin" in the early 20th-century.

Taniya Sexton is an ordinary downtrodden girl with authority issues. Having the working day from hades, she is sucked from our reality and into the fifth dimension when summoned to wage a war. Instantly she's elevated to god status and is worshipped as the almighty god Amrak.

Jacob Greene was a sweet boy raised by a loving, tight-knit family... of cultists. He always obeyed, and was so trusted by them that he was the one they sent out on their monthly supply run (food, medicine, pig fetuses, etc.). Finding himself betrayed by them, he flees the family's sequestered compound and enters the true unknown: college in New York City. It's a very foreign place, the normal world and St. Mark's University. And then his estranged sister arrives in town to kick off the apocalypse....

Prince Charming must work overtime when he becomes embroiled in a plot involving an evil sorceress, an enchanted castle, an angry dragon, and three beautiful damsels in distress. In this hilarious fairy tale parody, Prince Charming is getting tired the constant need to Slay and Rescue.

For Max Schreiber, World War II was an idyll. It is the return home to Connecticut that feels like entering a combat zone. Ridiculed by his wife and daughter, bored by his legal practice, Schreiber spends his evenings drinking and eating alone, hoping that when he goes to sleep he will dream of France and Micheline, the beautiful young woman who may have broken his heart but at least made him feel alive.

If Asher Hearst had a superpower, it would have to be his ability to take a punch, laugh it off, and keep on swinging. So yeah, immortality comes with a few perks. As a college student slash small-time fixer, he's about to take a job that's best left to the pros. A proposition by a dryad to save witches from the Inquisition is a first, but he isn't one to balk when the odds are stacked against him. Especially not while he's drinking on someone else's dime.

John the Revelator awakens in a cave with no memory of his prior life. Guided along El Camino de la Muerte by a demented madman and a philosophical giant, John sets out on a quest to fill in his blank slate and slough off the rot of his soul. Part dark comedy road trip, part spiritual quest, and part horror story, Sloughing Off the Rot is literary alchemy about John's transformation from repugnant wretch to reluctant hero.

"Mystically powered terrorists unleash volatile magic on the world, turning Washington, D.C., into a politically-charged fantasyland ripe for human sacrifice. Attackers with magical abilities bring down a 747 by summoning a dragon to rip it from the sky, using the hundreds of lives lost as a sacrifice to initiate the Change. The country morphs into a new landscape of swords and sorcery. Now computers and other machines are coming to life, and regular people have started to turn into mythical creatures and forgotten deities." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Rejoice! A new messiah has come, and her name is Julie. Born to Murray Katz, the solitary (and celibate) keeper of an abandoned lighthouse on the Jersey shore, our protagonist arrives on Earth boasting supernatural abilities evocative of her divine half-brother, Jesus. As a child, she revels in her talent for walking on water, resurrecting dead crabs, and treating fireflies as luminous alphabet blocks. But after she reaches adolescence, her life becomes as challenging and ambiguous as any mortal’s.

The Wonderful Visit tells the story of an angel who finds himself unexpectedly marooned on Earth. Wells used John Ruskin's remark that an angel appearing on earth in Victorian England would be shot on sight as the inspiration for this tale of a celestial being who is completely out of place in human society. Ironically, the angel's first confidant and protector is a clergyman, who never recovers from the eventual and inevitable disappearance of the angel. Wells dwells in detail on the contrast between the idealism of the celestial visitor and the discourtesy of his hosts.

Neuausgabe im Rahmen von "Frankfurt liest ein Buch 2022". Frankfurt, 1936: Menschenmassen strömen auf den Opernplatz, um Hitler zu sehen. Auch die 19-jährige Susanne ist darunter. Sie wartet auf ein Lebenszeichen ihres Verlobten Franz. Doch Franz ist in die Fänge der Gestapo geraten und wurde tagelang festgehalten. Nach seiner Freilassung hat er sich an dem Denunzianten gerächt und nun bleibt ihm nur die Flucht.

Una auténtica profanación del poder eclesiástico de su tiempo por el maestro del género satírico. El presente volumen reúne tres de las obras más importantes del gran escritor irlandés, todas publicadas en 1704: "Cuento de un tonel", obra maestra de la primera etapa creativa del autor, sátira eufórica que, para muchos, es tan importante como la que le consagró de por vida, "Los Viajes de Gulliver";...

In this story, by American writer Dorothy Parker, a woman gives a laundry list of men she's not married to. She also convincingly states the reasons why she is not and would not want to be married to the various men. Parker's wit and humor shine through as the eccentricities and foibles of the men are described.

What if a story by Mark Twain about political economy had nothing to do with politics or economy? This humorous short story has everything to do with the interruptions by a workman the author faced when trying to pen thoughts on politics. There were many reasons Twain frustratingly agreed to something he never would have asked for, but the result were - shocking.

Hard Times fu pubblicato nel 1854, e tratta della società inglese e della rivoluzione industriale. La città di Coketown, in cui è ambientato il romanzo, è il simbolo della disumanizzazione da parte della società industriale che riduce i lavoratori da esseri a forza lavoro (il testo inglese definisce gli operai Hands, che è stato tradotto letteralmente come Mani, per rispettare la scelta stilistica). Nella famiglia protagonista della storia viene impartita una educazione in cui la fantasia viene messa al bando e colpevolizzata.

With a witty introduction tracing the history of this beloved joke back to 1847, Thorne's collection builds to the ultimate question: Why did one thousand chickens cross the road? The answer might just surprise you... or not!

Ein Nordamerikaner entdeckt das alte Europa! 1878 unternahm Mark Twain eine Reise durch Europa, die ihn nach Deutschland, in die Schweiz, nach Frankreich und Italien führte...

Im zweiten Teil von Mark Twains Bericht über seine Reisen in Europa geht es in die Schweiz. Zwar liegt das, was der Autor dort beschreibt, gut 120 Jahre zurück, aber manches hat durchaus Wiedererkennungswert...

College senior Patty Wyatt is a fun-loving, headstrong, and intelligent girl who gets herself into mischief and learns valuable lessons, both in and out of the classroom. Written in 1903, this is Jean Webster’s first of many great American novels.

First published in 1895 this classic tale of three friends taking a boating holiday on the Thames is as fresh as ever and creates a unique blend of humorous travelogue and historical information; even pausing at times, amidst the comedic mishaps, to reflect eloquently upon life and its sufferings.