Comic novel

A comic novel is a novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole.

Notable authors of comic novels

British

One of the most notable of British comic novelists is P. G. Wodehouse, whose work follows on from that of Jerome K. Jerome, George Grossmith, and Weedon Grossmith (see Diary of a Nobody).

Saki's work is also significant although his career was cut short by World War I.

A. G. Macdonell and G. K. Chesterton also produced flights of whimsy.

Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was a notable mid-18th century work in the genre.

More contemporary British humorists are Tom Sharpe, Kingsley Amis, Terry Pratchett, Richard Gordon, Rob Grant, Ian Ross, Douglas Adams, Evelyn Waugh, Nick Hornby, Helen Fielding, Eric Sykes, Leslie Thomas, Stephen Fry, Richard Asplin, Mike Harding, Joseph Connolly, and Ben Elton.

James Joyce's Ulysses is also considered by some to be a comic novel.,^[1]

Alastair Pack's Quentin Cundick and The Web of Machinations is a comic novel which derives humour from an alternative Britain where Wales and England are at war.

American

Notable American comic novelists include Mark Twain, Philip Roth, John Kennedy Toole, James Wilcox, John Swartzwelder, Larry Doyle, Jennifer Weiner, Carl Hiaasen, Joseph Heller, Peter De Vries, Kurt Vonnegut, and Terry Southern.

References

See also

• Comedy
• Fiction