A History of Humour: Or Why Shakespeare’s Comedies Are Not Funny

Of all human qualities, humour is perhaps the most puzzling. In this very first history of humour, author and humourist William Hartston looks at every aspect of the evolution of humour and our attitudes towards it with a view to developing a proper Theory Of Everything Humorous.

From comedy in ancient Greece and jokes in ancient Rome, to laughter in the Bible and the secret of comic delivery; from how humour changed following the American civil war, to how Mark Twain changed written comedy in the English-speaking world, William leaves no stone unturned in his quest to understand what makes us chuckle. A History of Humour is academically well-founded, and, unlike almost everything else written on the subject, often hilarious.