COMIC CARGO

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21975, 26 December 1936, Page 13

COMIC CARGO

the Second Century of Humour. Stories by Anthony Armstrong, etc. Hutchinson and Co. Ltd. 1019 pp. (4/G itet.) Through Whltcmttbe and Tombs Ltd. Nearly 50 contributors, more than 50 contributions, 1000 pages and a sheaf on to that, drawings by “Fougasse”—this second “Century of Humour” is as generously packed as any other book in the series and fully equals in quality the earlier funny one. Here are some of the classics of humour: three of Bret Harte’s prose parodies, for example, the great chapter of “Pickwick” in which Winkle shows himself “an impostor, sir . . a humbug, sir” on the ice, one of Max Adder’s sketches* Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” two rich samples of Mark Twain’s humour of travel, and—to add a possible surprise—a capital piece of Anthony Trollope. Wells appears in the superb battle of the Potwell Inn, from “Mr Polly”; it is pleasant to welcome ahd approve the hame of Richard Garnett aniong ahthologlsed humorists; Artemus Ward, Anstey, and Frank Stockton are not to be denied; “Saki” receives the compliment of a double; and readers who recognise only the freshest names Will brighten up at the mention of, say, Michael Arlen, Ben Travers, P. G. Wodehouse, Denis Mackail, and Louis Golding. Ahd, for a last word, those who have a taste far the Manzanilla of humour* dry, bleak almost, cleah, bright, and cold as air off the high peaks in the sun, will look Iflrst for Ring Lardner's story, “The Facts.”