Audiobook · read by volunteers
Comic History of England
Bill Nye (1850–1896)
Read by Ezwa, Kirsten Ferreri, Laurie Anne Walden, Catharine Eastman, Kristin LeMoine, Betsie Bush, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Gesine, Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014), Karen Savage · 19 chapters · 2 h 53
About the book
Edgar Wilson Nye, known to everyone as Bill, was one of the best-loved American humorists of the late nineteenth century, and in his Comic History of England he turns his mischievous pen on a thousand years and more of British royalty, war and politics. The result is irreverent, quick and pleasingly absurd. Kings, queens, invaders and bishops all come in for the Nye treatment: pompous claims are punctured, grand events shrunk to size, and solemn facts dressed in outrageous comparisons. Nye began as a newspaper humorist, and his style may remind modern listeners of a stand-up comedian. A team of LibriVox volunteers takes turns with the nineteen chapters, so the humour arrives in many different voices. If your idea of history is a dusty list of dates, let Bill Nye show you how much fun it can be.
Introduction
Edgar Wilson “Bill” Nye was born in 1850 and died in 1896. He was an American journalist who later became widely known as a humorist, writing for newspapers and touring the country as a lecturer, sometimes in partnership with the poet James Whitcomb Riley. His dry, deadpan style made him a household name in his time.
Comic History of England appeared in 1896, the year of his death, and follows his earlier comic history of the United States. Nye works through the English past from the earliest days of Roman invasion to more recent history, treating each period as an excuse for jokes at the expense of rulers, historians and the habit of taking oneself too seriously. It is not a reliable guide to the facts, and it never pretends to be: the humour depends on exaggeration, anachronism and deliberate nonsense. The chapter titles are a joke in themselves, long, grand and wickedly solemn, such as 'The Troublous Middle Ages: Demonstrating a Short Reign for Those Who Travel at a Royal Gait'.
Readers will find that some of the references and attitudes belong squarely to the Gilded Age, and a few jokes lean on stereotypes that do not sit well today. Even so, the comic energy remains, and the book is a good example of the literary humour that was so popular in nineteenth-century America.
The book has nineteen chapters, including a preface, and lasts almost three hours. A team of LibriVox volunteers shares the reading, so the humour arrives in many different voices. For anyone who likes their history served with a sharp wit, this is a pleasant diversion.
Public domain
Bill Nye died in 1896: 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