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Chargement... How to Attract the Wombat (original 1949; édition 1935)par Will Cuppy (Auteur), Ed Nofziger (Illustrateur)
Information sur l'oeuvreComment attirer le wombat par Will Cuppy (1949)
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. I am very fond of Cuppy's style, and the prose is of a warm quality. Sadly, a very large number of wild-life films have robbed the book of much shock value. If you want to read the text for what could have been a killer wild-life oddity documentary, or a short TV series, here it is. The book was originally published in 1935. This was Cuppy's third book of complaints about animals. It is mostly about mammals, but also gets into amphibians, birds, insects, worms, Greek poets, and practically everything else. It is rich in empirical science, such as, "A decapitated salamander cannot make quick decisions," and philosophical insights, such as, "Intelligence is the capacity to know what we are doing and instinct is just instinct. The results are about the same." And even aesthetics: "The wart hog is often called the ugliest of all animals but the rhinoceros is uglier because he is larger and there is more of him to be ugly." There is a section titled “Problem Mammals” but Cuppy seemed to have had problems with all the animals in this book, including “birds who can’t even fly” and “birds who can’t sing and know it.” And wombats, of course. “Are wombats people?” he asks, rhetorically. Because animals are, after all, only human. Three whole chapters are devoted to wombats but I can’t say they offer any useful advice on attracting them. No matter. After reading the three chapters you probably won’t even want to attract them! Some people have accused Cuppy of making up things. I have never found any proof of this, but where did he get the factoid on page 116, that a snail can do the hundred yard dash in thirty hours flat? Can’t help wondering about that one! Very funny. Cuppy-strength funny. One does not need to be a wombat fancier to enjoy this book, which is lavishly and delightfully illustrated by Ed Nofziger. Cuppy's offbeat sense of humor shines through this treatise on the animal world. It's a series of short essays, each about an animal (including, of course, the Wombat). There are tidbits of actual information tucked among the silliness -- not very much of it, but what there is seems to be accurate. All in all it's a delightful read. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Appartient à la série éditorialeNonpareil Books (93)
Will Cuppy (author of The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody and one of the great American humorists of the 20th century) here considers notable birds and animals whose habits (and often existence) disturbed him ("Birds Who Can't Even Fly," "Optional Insects," "Octopuses and Those Things"), as well as more mundane creatures like the frog, the gnat, and the moa, who have no visible vices but whose virtues are truly awful. Spanning the breadth of the animal kingdom, Cuppy neatly classes his observations for easy reference: Problem Mammals, Pleasures of Pond Life, Birds Who Can't Sing and Know It. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)814.52Literature English (North America) American essays 20th Century 1901-1945Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Will Cuppy (1884 - 1949) fik denne bog publiceret i 1949, hvilket jo er et stykke tid siden. Den her bog er sat med en digitaliseret udgave af Caledonia, en skrifttype, der er fra 1941. Men jeg synes både skrifttypen og humoren er lidt spinkel i støbningen. Forfatteren har taget en række dyr og skrevet lidt om dem på en humoristisk måde. Men det er der jo både før og siden andre, der har gjort. Fx "Never buy dice from a wombat". ( )