Remarks

Nye, Bill, 1850-1896Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 882K words
Chapters: 89

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Remarks by Bill NyeAuthor: Nye, Bill, 1850-1896,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Jun 1, 2005

Editor's review

This "Remarks" is a collection of essays by the nineteenth-century American humorist Bill Nye, a type of public-domain literature relatively little noticed by Chinese readers. Its value lies not in a systematic body of thought but in a light, newspaper-column tone: drawing on everyday observation, social customs, and human foibles, the author creates humor through exaggeration, irony, and self-mockery, reading like the chat of a talkative newspaperman from an earlier age. For readers familiar with the nineteenth-century American newspaper humor tradition, this book serves as a primary sample for understanding that genre; for general readers, it is better suited to casual reading in spare moments than to serious study requiring sustained effort. Note that many jokes depend on the context, place names, and current events of the time, and today's readers may lack the background knowledge; do not insist on catching every point—grasping the tone and structure is enough. Overall, this is a small book suited to browsing at random and occasional moments of recognition.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American newspaper essays and the humor genre
Casual readers who enjoy light short pieces and can browse them on the commute
Language learners studying public-domain English texts or early popular reading matter
Culture enthusiasts who want to learn about social customs and everyday anecdotes of an earlier age

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic thought or deep social analysis
Readers of fiction who need coherent plot and complete narrative
Beginners unfamiliar with English who are unwilling to consult reference works for background

Reading tips

Read piece by piece, two or three at a time; there is no need to finish in one sitting.
Skip unfamiliar names and places at first, then look up the background after finishing a piece.
Read alongside newspaper humor from the same period to appreciate the genre's period character.
Keep a pen to mark turns of phrase you find amusing, making it easy to revisit the author's comic technique.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a collection of essays?

According to the source materials, it is Bill Nye's "Remarks," a literary work closer to a collection of newspaper essays and humorous short pieces than to a novel with a coherent plot. Read it as a series of independent short pieces.

Can readers with poor English read this book?

The original is in English, and much of the humor depends on nineteenth-century context and current events. Readers with average English will find it difficult; use annotations or reference works, and start with short pieces rather than forcing yourself through the whole book.

Why do some jokes go over my head?

Many of the jokes rest on the news, place names, and social habits of the time. With the passage of time the context is lost and readers find it hard to reconstruct. This is normal; grasp the tone and rhetorical structure first, then fill in understanding with background materials.

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About the author

Nye, Bill, 1850-1896 Author

Bill Nye (1850-1896) was a nineteenth-century American humorist known by the pen name "Bill Nye"; his real name was Edgar Wilson Nye. Public information is limited, but it is confirmed that he was born in the United States and long worked in journalism and editing before turning to full-time writing. He excelled at producing humor through exaggeration, irony, and Western dialect, and his works consist mainly of humorous sketches, essays, and parodies of history books. Ten of his works are held in the collection, including Bill Nye and Boomerang, Comic History of England, Comic History of the United States, and A Guest at the Ludlow, and Other Stories. The two "comic histories" retell English and American history in a teasing manner and well display his jesting style. His writings had a certain influence on late nineteenth-century American humorous literature and are often associated with the newspaper humor tradition of his time.