Nonsense Books

Edward Lear

Poetry Children's classics Comic classics

Edward Lear's verses and stories make music from improbable creatures, odd behaviour and playful language.

Read the book Contents

Length: 20 chapters
Reading time: About 1 hr 42 min
Words: 24,194

“How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear!”1 min
Introduction16 min
A Book of Nonsense15 min
Nonsense Songs
The Owl and the Pussycat1 min
The Duck and the Kangaroo1 min
The Daddy Long-Legs and the Fly2 min
The Jumblies3 min
The Nutcrackers and the Sugar-Tongs2 min
Calico Pie1 min
Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow2 min
The Broom, the Shovel, the Poker, and the Tongs1 min
The Table and the Chair1 min
Nonsense Stories
The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Round the World12 min
The History of the Seven Families of the Lake Pipple-Popple10 min
Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets
Nonsense Cookery3 min
Nonsense Botany1 min
Nonsense Alphabets7 min
More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc.
Introduction4 min
Nonsense Botany1 min
One Hundred Nonsense Pictures and Rhymes13 min
Twenty-Six Nonsense Rhymes and Pictures2 min
Laughable Lyrics: A Fourth Book of Nonsense Poems, Songs, Botany, Music, etc.23 min

About the book

Lear's nonsense welcomes people with improbable habits and animals whose ambitions exceed ordinary rules. Short rhymes sit beside songs and longer adventures, including the voyage of the Owl and the Pussycat. Sound and repetition often provide their own kind of logic.

These pieces invite reading aloud, where an unexpected rhyme or a repeated phrase becomes part of the joke. Beneath the apparent disorder, their patterns are carefully sustained. Strange behaviour can appear entirely reasonable within a few lines, while the world's objections become the more puzzling response.

On these lists

Poetry Children's classics Comic classics

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Edward Lear died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original “how pleasant to know mr. lear!”, introduction.