Quips and Quiddities: A Quintessence of Quirks, Quaint, Quizzical, and Quotable

Quips and Quiddities: A Quintessence of Quirks, Quaint, Quizzical, and Quotable

This is a modest little volume. It consists but of selections from the Editor's note-book, and its object is but to amuse. It does not even aspire to be read consecutively. The Compiler's hope is only that it may be found a pleasant companion at spare momentsthat it may be considered handy for the pocket, and be thought agreeable to dip into. To that end, two things have been aimed at in selectingbrevity and variety. There is scarcely anything in the volume that cannot be read almost at a glance, and the matter ranges over a wide extent of literary effortover play and poem, over essay and novel, over maxim and epigram, over memoir and diary. There is pun, and there is parody; there is satire, and there is sarcasm. In a word, the little book may say, with Lafontaine, "Diversit c'est ma devise." There is diversity even in the arrangement, which consists merely of a general alternation of the prose and verse. For the rest, the quips and quiddities are in intentional disorder. Let it be added that, though there are a few anonymous passages, most are duly attributed to their writers, together with references to the volumes from which they have been taken. In this, every care has been exercised to arrive at accuracy. The idea of completeness is, of course, foreign to a selection of this sort, and it may be mentioned that the Editor has been specially anxious to avoid as much as possible the ground covered by Mr. Leigh in his "Jeux d'Esprit," and by Mr. Dobson in his "Literary Frivolities." His aim, indeed, has been to take the freshest and least hackneyed of the passages in his collection, though he has not hesitated to include a venerable saying when it has seemed to him as good as it is venerable. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 41713
Author: Adams, William Davenport
Release Date: Dec 27, 2012
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Adams, William Davenport, 1851-1904