The Comic Almanack, Volume 2 cover

The Comic Almanack, Volume 2

Rating 3.5
Word count
868K words
Chapters
87

Tags

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.The Comic Almanack, Volume 2 (of 2) by Gilbert Abbott À Beckett et al.Author: Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863,Language: English, Class: AY: General Works: Yearbooks, Almanacs, Directories, Release Date: Jun 1, 2016

Editor's review

The Comic Almanack, Volume 2 is a typical Victorian comic almanac compilation, gathering texts and cartoons by Gilbert Abbott À Beckett and others, with Thackeray also among the authors. Such almanacs are not systematic treatises but month-by-month collections of illustrated satirical sketches and cartoons, recording the street life, social manners, and popular tastes of the day. Their value lies not in narrative continuity but in offering a window onto nineteenth-century British humor and popular publishing culture. For readers studying Victorian literature, the history of cartooning, or British social customs, it is engaging primary material; for general readers, it suits casual dipping, a few pages at a time, to catch the facetious tone of the era. Note that the language and humor depend heavily on their contemporary context, which may feel remote to modern readers; reading with notes or background material is advised.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Scholars of Victorian popular publishing and humor literature
  • Readers interested in nineteenth-century cartoons and satirical illustration
  • Enthusiasts of British social customs history
  • Casual readers who enjoy short, dip-in-and-out collections

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting continuous narrative or complete stories
  • Readers unfamiliar with nineteenth-century British context who want easily accessible humor
  • Researchers seeking systematic academic argument rather than primary source compilations

Reading tips

  1. Read month by month rather than straight through; treat it as a year's casual browsing.
  2. Pay attention to how illustrations echo the text and note the satirical technique of word-image interplay.
  3. Look up unfamiliar names, events, or slang as you go; background material significantly improves comprehension.
  4. Start with the parts involving Thackeray, then expand to other authors and compare their tones.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87

FAQ

Is this book a solo work by Thackeray?
No. It is a comic almanac compiled by multiple contributors; Thackeray is one of the authors and is listed in the author information, but the book was jointly produced by Gilbert Abbott À Beckett and others and is a collection, not a Thackeray monograph.
Can I read Volume 2 without having read Volume 1?
Yes. Almanac entries are relatively independent and arranged by month rather than as continuous narrative, so starting with Volume 2 causes no break in plot, though you miss the continuity of reading Volume 1 first.
What is the biggest obstacle for modern readers?
Mainly period context. The jokes, allusions, and satirical targets mostly address nineteenth-century British social phenomena and figures; without background knowledge the humor is hard to grasp, so reading with notes or related historical material is recommended.

Comments

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About the author

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) was a nineteenth-century British novelist. Publicly available details of his life are limited, so this entry relies mainly on the 42 works held in the collection and their representative titles. Among them, Vanity Fair is the best known, offering a satirical portrait of society; Barry Lyndon, The History of Pendennis and Henry Esmond are also representative works. Thackeray is known for depicting human weaknesses and social manners in a humorous yet coolly observant tone, with unhurried narration and understated irony. The collection includes novels as well as essays and lectures, giving readers a sense of his writing and of the style of Victorian fiction.

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