Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Book of Nonsense

By: Edward Lear
Narrated by: Linda Barrans
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $7.13

Buy for $7.13

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

It is probably no surprise that Edward Lear felt the need to make children laugh.

He was born in 1812 in North London, youngest-but-one of 21 children. Money problems led to his leaving home at the age of four with an older sister, who looked after him as a mother until she died.

His health was always poor, and, while still young, he started suffering from depression, which he called "The Morbids". A professional artist, his failing eyesight caused him to switch from the detailed painting of birds to producing landscapes for travel books.

He travelled widely and ended his life in Italy. He never married, and late in life relied for companionship on his cat, Foss, and on his Albanian chef, Giorgis - who was apparently a much better friend than a chef. The joy of Lear's Limericks - a form which he made popular - are his complete disregard for logic and his love of words - boldly inventing new ones if nothing better came to hand. An artist, a musician, a composer, a lover of poetry. It is a bitter-sweet thought that such a gifted man, who struggled to find happiness in his own life, leaves, as a legacy, a book to make children laugh.

There was an Old Derry down Derry,
Who loved to see little folks merry;
So he made them a book, and with laughter they shook
At the fun of that Derry down Derry.

Public Domain (P)2017 Linda Barrans
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about A Book of Nonsense

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.