The Malcontents: The Best Bitter, Cynical, and Satirical Writing in the World

Rating:
Summary: A good collection, but...
Review: For starters, I can't fault that there is indeed a vast amount of excellent literature in this book, including full editions of some shorter novels. While some of it is familiar, there's a good amount of obscure or hard-to-find inclusions.

On the other hand...there was almost too much familiar ground. I skipped over probably close to half of it for having already read it. While authors such as Voltaire and Wilde are almost necessary inclusions for a book with this title, why include their best-known books rather than throwing the spotlight onto some of their more obscure works? (Though I admit Jane Austen was certainly served well in that department.) Also, 20th-century authors are shamefully neglected (where on earth was James Thurber, who I personally would consider one of the best if not the best satirist of his time?).

Still, despite the uneven selection, this is overall not a bad collection, though I would use it more as a jumping-off point to authors.

Rating:
Summary: I have all this stuff already
Review: I bought this book sight unseen, knowing neither what was in it, nor having any reviews to go on. But then, the fact that it's a Joe Queenan compilation of funny writing was all I needed to know. How could I go wrong ?

The choices in this book undeniably live up to the claim of being the best bitter, cynical and satirical writing in the world. But they will already be well familiar to anyone who seeks out this genre.

The first item presented is "The Birds" by Aristophanes. A great play, but I have it already. Then there's a short satire by Juvenal. Then "The Prince", by Machiavelli, is presented whole. I already have "The Prince". It's one of the first books I ever bought. Then there are short excerpts from "Gargantua and Pantagruel" and "Don Quixote". I already have these books in complete editions. Then there's "Volpone" by Ben Jonson. Then there's Moliere's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme". Then there's Jonahtan Swift's "A Modest Proposal", which I have read many times by now. Then there's Alexander Pope's "The Rape Of The Lock". Then there's "Candide", by Voltaire, which I have already. Then there's an excerpt from "Justine", by de Sade. Then there's "Lady Susan", by Jane Austen, which I have already. Then there's "The Nose", by Nikolai Googol.

Then there are some lesser-known Mark Twain pieces, which I don't have. That's good, because I already have "Huckleberry Finn" and "Puddnhead Wilson". This is the only author for which Queenan is doing what I think he should, by compiling shorter and uncollected works with which someone might not already be familiar.

Then there are some pieces by Ambrose Bierce, which I have already, in that fairly-priced Dover edition. Then there's "The Picture Of Dorian Gray", by Oscar Wilde. Then there's "Mrs. Warren's Profession", by George Bernard Shaw. Then there are some Saki stories. Finally, there are some pieces by Flann O'Brien.

So for the cost and space of a fat 1200 page book, I only get about 600 pages of stuff I don't have already. If you've never bought any funny books before, this volume might be a good one to start with. But, if you own literature, it's likely that you have most of these works already.

Rating:
Summary: For Whom Is This Book Compiled?
Review: The cover says that this is the "Best bitter, cynical, and satirical writing in the world." That such is the case is highly questionable, but let's not quibble about that. I already own much of this material so I was a bit let down about that.

If you have a decent library of the classics you may well find yourself in my position. Voltaire's Candide; Machiavelli's The Prince; Pope's The Rape of the Lock; Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray. They are all sitting on a shelf in my library. What I do not have is Jane Austen's obscure Lady Susan which was not even published until more than 50 years after her death.

I would also note that the selections do not contain any explanatory notes. Many older works use terms and references unknown to the contemporary general reader. If you read Pope's Rape of the Lock in the Norton Anthology of Poetry you will find approximately 75 notes that help the reader understand the classical or eighteenth century references. In "The Malcontents" you get no aids to understanding.

I realize that there may be a certain intellectual snobbery in saying that these works should all be on your bookshelf. I don't think that they need be there, but if you don't already own them, do you want to own them? This book contains a wide smattering of literature from Aristophanes' play The Birds, written around 400BC, to essays by Mark Twain, to short stories by Saki. Whole novels and plays are presented, bulking up the book and limiting the possible variety that could be found in an almost 1100 page volume of satire and cynicism. Indeed only 19 authors are represented.

I really don't think this is a collection that would appeal to the average reader. On the credit page it should be noted that most of this material was taken from Dover editions. As you may know Dover Publications sells very inexpensive copies of the classics. You could get most of the works in this expensive book by purchasing Dover reprints of each of these works for a couple of bucks a piece. And the little Dover books can be easily held when reading in bed, while this compilation can barely be lifted at all.

Rating:
Summary: Pick Up A Copy To Own!
Review: The Malcontents is intended as a definitive anthology of the greatest satirical writing the world has ever seen. Yet right from the start, it becomes apparent that the book has one major flaw.

It's not big enough.

That might seem like an odd observation to make about a book that is 1048 pages in length and covers a span of twenty-four centuries worth of writing (Nineteen writers covered in all, going all the way back to Aristophanes). Yet by trying to shoehorn loads of classic satire in (most often in its full incarnations) Joe Queenan may lead readers to believe that there has been no great satire written after the 60s. And that would be a grace disservice to the likes of Philip Roth, Veronica Geng, Fran Lebowitz, Kurt Vonnegut, David Sedaris and so on.

Even counting the period covered, there's still a lot of great stuff missing. We don't see anything from HL Mencken or James Thurber or SJ Perelman or Roald Dahl. So I propose that Mr. Queenan either compile a second volume or get someone else to do so (If you happen to read this Joe, feel free to e-mail about that compiler position).

Putting these obvious objections aside, one must admit that what is included in this anthology is great. We get satirical classics from writers ranging from Voltaire ("Candide") to Jonathan Swift ("A Modest Proposal") to Irish humorist Flann O'Brien ("Selections From The Irish Times). The works cover the gambit from full-length novels (Oscar Wilde's immortal "The Picture Of Dorian Grey") to plays (George Bernard Shaw's "Mrs. Warren's Profession") to short stories and essays (The seven Mark Twain pieces). There is even a poem thrown in for good measure Alexander Pope's "The Rape Of The Lock").

Most literary connoisseurs will doubtlessly be familiar with much of the material contained here. Yet some of it will come as a surprise. Having been familiar with Jane Austen mainly from high school English classes, I was shocked to discover her early acerbic satirical side. A very worthwhile discover however. And having read "Don Quixote" a long time ago, I was pleased to find that Queenan was right when he observed in the introduction that the writer, beneath his gentle and bittersweet satire, had a sharp disappointment with the world around him. For the record, the only writing Queenan (himself a malcontent) actually does in this anthology is the introduction and the brief bio of each author that precedes a piece.

All of the writing contained in The Malcontents would fall into the category of classic. All classic, all good, even if some of it is overly familiar (Twain's classic "The Literary Offenses Of Fennimore Cooper" for instance). So I can recommend the book to all fans of classic satire, as well as those looking to get a crash course in how to write great satire.

Consider the following from the introduction: "Other writers were chosen because they were masters of getting up people's noses. Rabelias was always in trouble with the church. Moliere was always in trouble with the church. Voltaire was always in trouble with the church. The Marquis De Sade was always in trouble with everybody... Sooner or later we come to believe we are fighting on the same side, that the miscreants he torments and the abuses he denounces are miscreants we want to see tormented and abuses we want to see denounced."

Today, we still see many of the same abuses going on and the same miscreants getting elected to public office and of course the ever-stifling Puritanism that seems to have been cropping up. So we need to keep the malcontents we do have. As long as idiots rule, malcontents will drool. And we're all the better for it (the latter not the former). Don't miss this terrific book! Another recommended Amazon quick-pick is THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez