In Laughter, Literature, Violence, 1840-1930 we see the convoluted relationship between laughter, violence, war, horror and death. ... This is a text for the academic to help him or her to interrogate and to investigate and a book for the interested party, who enjoys the subject. Both are well served. It is not too academic to put off the casual reader, yet it has enough gravitas to educate and intrigue. (Jon Wilkins, Everybody's Reviewing, Everybody's Reviewing, everybodysreviewing.blogspot.com, March 23, 2019)
1. Preface: Allegories of Laughter. I. Comedy and Hybridity. II. Laughter and Annihilation.- 2. His 'Last Jest': On Laughter, Edgar Allan Poe and 'Hop-Frog'. I. Comedy and Horror. II. Laughter and Democracy. III. Laughter and Leap-Frog.- 3. 'Unseemly Levity': On Memoirs, Humour and Edmund Gosse. I. Humour and Genre. II. Humour and Emotion. III. Humour and Text. IV. Humour and Beyond.- 4. 'Perfect Laughter': On War, Wyndham Lewis and The Wild Body. I. Laughter and Dualism. II. Laughter, Dualism and Bodies. III. Laughter, Dualism, Bodies and Anarchism.- 5. Epilogue: 'Derisive Laughter': On Superiority, Katherine Mansfield and 'Miss Brill'.