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Average Customer Rating:   Blue Comedy the Old Fashioned Way... Here is a case where a free book isn't much of a bargain. It might even ben considered overpriced.
Suffice it to say, I found this book unimpressive.
The book begins with an overly detailed commentary about the book itself, which is more prolific than a few well written commentaries on better works of literature. This commentary starts off with a short history of the work, followed extensively by various and sundry celebrities giving their impressions of the work, and their defnitions of obscene literature. This is the highlight of what you read.
The book itself is sort of on the level of Beavis and Butthead in an earlier century.
I say this, since the opening scene is basically a 'Who farted?' sort of opener followed by some material with pertains to the sex function. This is all set in Elizabethan England, so it really sort of reminds me of some sort of scetch from Monte Python. Except Monte Python was funny. This is sort of like watching a Monte Python episode where you don't get the joke. Utterly ridiculous.
It is true this book is not pornography. Pornography impies a certain intent. This book does, however, contain certain slang references that should embarass you to repeat in public and lots of adult subject matter. It even has a word that I've heard on nothing less than R rated movies. While this word might not shock you, I think that most people would consider it vulgar, at least in the sense that it could not be consider part of polite dinner conversation. It shocked me to see it, not knowing it was even around back then. Certainly, the presence of these things makes this a bit of a naughty read, and not suggested to bring with you to read to your five year old daughters reading circle.
I just don't find any value in this book, even with Mark Twain writing it. Even though I am a fan of Twain, I don't find any reason to cherish every stupid sexual lymric he wrote. If only this book was printed on paper, I could put it to use as a liner for a bird cage. As is, just a waste of space... The commentary is actually more interesting than the story Literary critic Edward Wagenknecht called 1601 "the most famous piece of pornography in American literature."
Just to be clear, it's not really pornography. Rather, it's a short story featuring Queen Elizabeth I, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Shakespeare, the Duchess of Bilgewater, Sir Walter Raleigh and a few other people all in a closet talking passing gas and sex.
Sound strange?
Well, it is and only so-so funny.
3/4 of this download is a fairly interesting commentary on the history of the story and about the characters. We learn that Twain wrote this as a diversion after the publication of Tom Sawyer (while he was working on Huckleberry Finn) during a time of writer's block. Twain showed it to some friends who published a few copies and then it snowballed. Twain's 1601 went "viral" before there was an internet, apparently. A Curiosity This brief sketch, though emblematic of Twain's style, was designed only as a private joke among friends. It was printed in very limited quantities during Twain's lifetime, and it seems doubtful that he ever ascribed any lasting literary importance to it.
To me, the sketch is too short to represent a highly developed literary endeavor. Also, it isn't very funny, with its childish scatological humor.
This particular printing includes some interesting, though poorly organized addenda. It is printed in a bare-bones, desktop publishing format.
I would not recommend it to the general reader. It would be marginally interesting only to the Twain scholar. |  |
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