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Acomic novel is anovel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, includingP. G. Wodehouse,Henry Fielding,Mark Twain, andJohn Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's literary choice to make the thrust of the work—in its narration or plot—funny or satirical in orientation, regardless of the putative seriousness of the topics addressed.[1]
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Novels, books, plays, and many works of fiction or art can certainly contain and include passages or themes that are comic, humorous orsatirical, but the defining characteristic of this genre is that comedy is the framework and baseline of the story, rather than an occasional or recurring motif. It is the through-line and organizing genre for the novel's tone, orientation and sensibility. A reader is not expected to 'find' or 'discover' a humorous moment within the reality of the text, rather, humor is the ongoing mood, like a comedy movie, rather than a movie that has some comedy or laughs within it.
Literary scholars distinguish textual analysis on this basis; the theory being that a story by Mark Twain that is a satirical critique in its very origin, for example, must be understood differently than a more literal novelistic plot.
The British academic and novelistDavid Lodge, in his bookThe Art of Fiction, identifies two basic sources of humor in the comic novel: situation (at the plot level) and style (at the textual level). According to him, "both depend crucially upon timing, that is to say, the order in which the words, and the information they carry, are arranged."[2]
One of the most notable British comic novelists isP. G. Wodehouse, whosework follows on from that ofJerome K. Jerome,George Grossmith, andWeedon Grossmith (seeThe Diary of a Nobody).Saki's work is also significant, although his career was cut short byWorld War I.
A. G. Macdonell andG. K. Chesterton also produced flights of whimsy related to the genre of comic novels.
Henry Fielding'sThe History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was a notable mid-18th century work in the genre.[citation needed]
Other contemporary British humorists includeGeorge MacDonald Fraser,Tom Sharpe,Kingsley Amis,Terry Pratchett,Richard Gordon,Rob Grant,Douglas Adams,Evelyn Waugh,Anthony Powell,Nick Hornby,Helen Fielding,Eric Sykes,Leslie Thomas,Stephen Fry,Richard Asplin,Mike Harding,Joseph Connolly, andBen Elton.
James Joyce'sUlysses is considered by some to be a comic novel.[3] However, it has literary goals beyond humor, or teaching through humor, with a deeper effort to channel authentic human thoughts and problems in the more traditional style. Critics have noted it is celebrated more for exploring people’s inner lives, in a striking way at the time, than making readers laugh.
Notable American comic novelists includeMark Twain,Richard Brautigan,Philip Roth,John Kennedy Toole,James Wilcox,John Swartzwelder,Larry Doyle,Jennifer Weiner,Carl Hiaasen,Joseph Heller,Peter De Vries,Thomas Pynchon,Kurt Vonnegut,Terry Southern, andChristopher Moore.
