Audiobook · read by volunteers
Cobb's Anatomy
Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944)
Read by Carl Vonnoh, III · 4 chapters · 1 h 44
About the book
Irvin S. Cobb was one of the funniest American writers of his day, and Cobb's Anatomy is a good place to find out why. Its title promises a solemn lecture on the human body, but what it offers is the voice of a born humorist, who treats his subject with a straight face and a mischievous tongue. Cobb had been a newspaper man since his teens, and it shows: the sentences are quick, the comparisons are comic and the exaggeration is affectionate. This is humour from the early years of the twentieth century, and it is wonderfully easy on the ear. Short, silly and cheerfully irreverent, it is the kind of book that was made to be enjoyed aloud. Four chapters and an hour and three quarters of cheerful nonsense for anyone who needs a smile.
Introduction
Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born on 23 June 1876 and died on 11 March 1944. At seventeen he began writing for the Paducah Daily News, the newspaper of his hometown in Kentucky, and at nineteen he became its managing editor, at that time the youngest in the country. He later worked as a columnist, humorist and author in New York, and became widely known for his stories and for his appearances as a speaker.
He wrote a good deal of fiction, including some tales of horror, but his lasting reputation rests on his humour. Among his best-known creations is Judge Priest, a genial small-town judge from Kentucky who appears in a long series of stories. Cobb's Anatomy, published in 1912, is one of his comic works. It belongs to a type of American humour that flourished in the early twentieth century, in which an ordinary subject is treated with solemn exaggeration and the speaker's easy manner carries the reader along.
The book was produced for a wide readership, and the style is conversational, which makes it a pleasure to hear aloud. Cobb's easy, confiding voice is never far from the page, and the habits of the newspaper columnist, quick and to the point, suit the form. The recording is read by a single LibriVox volunteer, and the four chapters last about an hour and three quarters.
Why listen now? Because humour dates quickly, and it is a pleasure to find some that has not. Cobb's jokes are gentle, and his timing is excellent. It makes a light and amusing break between heavier listening, and a window onto the comic taste of a century ago.
Public domain
Irvin S. Cobb died in 1944: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text