A comic novel is a Novel of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's literary choice to make the thrust of the work—in its narration or plot—funny or satirical in orientation, regardless of the putative seriousness of the topics addressed.
Definition
Novels, books, plays, and many works of fiction or art can certainly contain and include passages or themes that are comic, humorous or
Satire, but the defining characteristic of this genre is that comedy is the framework and baseline of the story, rather than an occasional or recurring motif. It is the through-line and organizing genre for the novel's tone, orientation and sensibility. A reader is not expected to 'find' or 'discover' a humorous moment within the reality of the text, rather, humor is the ongoing mood, like a comedy movie, rather than a movie that has some comedy or laughs within it.
Literary scholars distinguish textual analysis on this basis; the theory being that a story by Mark Twain that is a satirical critique in its very origin, for example, must be understood differently than a more literal novelistic plot.
Notable authors of comic novels
British
One of the most notable British comic novelists is P. G. Wodehouse, whose work follows on from that of Jerome K. Jerome,
George Grossmith, and
Weedon Grossmith (see
The 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 related to the genre of comic novels.
Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was a notable mid-18th century work in the genre.
Other contemporary British humorists include George MacDonald Fraser, Tom Sharpe, Kingsley Amis, Terry Pratchett, Richard Gordon, Rob Grant, Douglas Adams, Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, Nick Hornby, Helen Fielding, Eric Sykes, Leslie Thomas, Stephen Fry, Richard Asplin, Mike Harding, Joseph Connolly, and Ben Elton.
Irish
James Joyce's
Ulysses is considered by some to be a comic novel.
[Bowen, Zack. Ulysses as a comic novel. Syracuse University Press, 1989.] However, it has literary goals beyond humor, or teaching through humor, with a deeper effort to channel authentic human thoughts and problems in the more traditional style. Critics have noted it is celebrated more for exploring people’s inner lives, in a striking way at the time, than making readers laugh.
American
Notable American comic novelists include
Mark Twain, Richard Brautigan,
Philip Roth, John Kennedy Toole, James Wilcox, John Swartzwelder, Larry Doyle,
Jennifer Weiner,
Carl Hiaasen,
Joseph Heller, Peter De Vries,
Thomas Pynchon,
Kurt Vonnegut,
Terry Southern, and Christopher Moore.
Persian
Iraj Pezeshkzad
See also
