A Book of Burlesques
Comic Assaults on American Morals, Politics, Literary Fashion, and Provincial PruderyBy H. L. Mencken
Length2h 57m
About this audiobook
Published in 1916, A Book of Burlesques gathers H. L. Mencken's irreverent sketches, satirical portraits, and comic essays into a sustained assault on the platitudes of American cultural life. Its targets include literary pretension, middle-class respectability, popular taste, and the pieties of reform, all rendered through exaggeration, parody, caricature, and deliberately abrasive wit. Mencken's style is energetic and epigrammatic, combining journalistic directness with the rhetoric of the polemicist and the structural freedom of the burlesque. The volume belongs to the early twentieth-century tradition of American satire, while also anticipating the sharper cultural criticism associated with modernism and the Jazz Age. Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956) was a Baltimore journalist, editor, critic, and one of the most influential—and controversial—American prose stylists of his generation. His work for the Smart Set and the American Mercury developed his reputation as a "sage" who opposed sentimental nationalism, intellectual conformity, and the commercialization of culture. A Book of Burlesques reflects both his autodidactic breadth and his conviction that ridicule could expose social hypocrisy more effectively than solemn argument. Readers interested in American literary history, satire, journalism, and the formation of modern cultural criticism will find this collection especially rewarding. It is best approached not as detached social science but as a brilliant, provocative performance: excessive by design, historically revealing, and still memorable for its linguistic force.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.7 (103)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreHumor
Length2 hrs 57 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 27, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Prejudices, Second Series (Annotated)
2III.—THE WEDDING III.—The Wedding. A Stage Direction
3IV.—THE VISIONARY IV.—The Visionary
4V.—THE ARTIST V.—The Artist. A Drama Without Words
5VI.—SEEING THE WORLD VI.—Seeing The World
Show all chaptersShow less
6VII.—FROM THE MEMOIRS OF THE DEVIL VII.—From the Memoirs of the Devil
7I.—For Americanos
8II.—For Hypochondriacs
9III.—For Music Lovers
10IV.—For Hangmen
11V.—For Magazine Editors
12IX.—ASEPSIS IX.—Asepsis. A Deduction in Scherzo Form
13I.—The Rewards of Science
14II.—The Incomparable Physician
15III.—Neighbours
16IV.—From the Chart
17V.—The Interior Hierarchy
18CLASS II
19CLASS III
20CLASS IV
21CLASS V
22CLASS VI
23XI.—THE JAZZ WEBSTER XI. The Jazz Webster
24XII.—THE OLD SUBJECT XII.—The Old Subject
25I.—Men
26II.—Women
27III.—Babies
281. Scene Infernal.
292. The Eternal Democrat.
303. The School of Honor.
314. Proposed Plot For a Modern Novel.
325. Victory.
33XV.—VERS LIBRE XV.—Vers Libre
Notes on Democracy (Annotated)H. L. Mencken6h 9m4.4 (484)$2 · $0.00
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (Annotated)H. L. Mencken10h 21m4.0 (631)$2 · $0.00
A Book of Prefaces (Annotated)H. L. Mencken7h 52m3.8 (67)$2 · $0.00
Prejudices, First Series (Annotated)H. L. Mencken7h 23m4.3 (92)$2 · $0.00
Damn! A Book of CalumnyH. L. Mencken1h 9m3.8 (383)$1 · $0.00
In Defense of WomenH. L. Mencken5h 52m3.8 (877)$2 · $0.00
The American LanguageH. L. Mencken10h 52m4.1 (554)$2 · $0.00
Prejudices, fifth seriesH. L. Mencken7h 16m4.1 (22)$1 · $0.00
Prejudices: EssaysH. L. Mencken7h 15m4.4 (110)$2 · $0.00
The American Credo (Annotated)H. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan4h 27m3.7 (51)$2 · $0.00
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (Summarized Edition)H. L. Mencken5h 3m4.0 (593)$2
Notes on Democracy (Summarized Edition)H. L. Mencken2h 20m4.1 (635)$2
Notes on DemocracyH. L. Mencken5h 52m4.1 (864)$2 · $0.00
In Defense of WomenH. L. Mencken4h 36m3.9 (604)$2 · $0.00
In Defense of WomenH. L. Mencken5h 58m3.7 (875)$1 · $0.00
The American Language (Annotated)H. L. Mencken18h 39m4.3 (889)$1.99 · $0.00
H. L. Mencken - Premium CollectionH. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan51h 5m4.4 (11)$2 · $0.00
The American Language: Development of English in the United StatesH. L. Mencken18h 31m4.3 (597)$2 · $0.00
In Defense of Women (Annotated)H. L. Mencken6h 17m4.3 (258)$1.99 · $0.00
Lost In TranslationAudrey Davis9h 15m4.4 (235)$17 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett13h 36m4.5 (163.8K)$33 · $0.00
Woman UninterruptedBrodie Kane7h 1m4.6 (562)$24 · $0.00
1984 & Animal Farm (Annotated)George Orwell15h 54m4.5 (220.8K)$3.99 · $0.00
Kingsblood Royal (Annotated)Sinclair Lewis14h 42m4.6 (264)$2 · $0.00
This Is Going to HurtAdam Kay5h 47m4.4 (444.7K)$24 · $0.00
You Will Get Through This NightDaniel Howell6h 56m4.4 (11.8K)$24 · $0.00
Northanger Abbey (Annotated)Jane Austen10h 7m4.5 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
My Dear HamiltonStephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie23h 7m4.4 (63.6K)$46 · $0.00
THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS & SCREWTAPE PROPOSES A TOAST (Annotated)C. S. Lewis5h 6m4.4 (471K)$2 · $0.00
BufferingHannah Hart5h 55m4.4 (12.4K)$24 · $0.00
The Office BFFsJenna Fischer, Angela Kinsey8h 26m4.3 (45.4K)$26 · $0.00
The Collected Stories of Dorothy ParkerDorothy Parker8h 36m4.3 (13.6K)$1 · $0.00
LambChristopher Moore15h 22m4.3 (211.3K)$33 · $0.00
#IMomSoHardKristin Hensley, Jen Smedley7h 19m4.3 (7.3K)$24 · $0.00
Mixed PlateJo Koy8h 18m4.3 (7.1K)$26 · $0.00
Over the TopJonathan Van Ness5h 50m4.3 (87.3K)$24 · $0.00
It Never EndsTom Scharpling8h 53m4.4 (2.3K)$20 · $0.00
More Tales of the CityArmistead Maupin8h 23m4.3 (22.6K)$26 · $0.00
Joyful Recollections of TraumaPaul Scheer6h 38m4.3 (8.2K)$7 · $0.00
You may also like
IntentionsOscar Wilde6h 13m4.1 (993)$2 · $0.00
How to Be Successful without Hurting Men's FeelingsSarah Cooper1h 39m4.1 (5.7K)$15
Sartor Resartus The Life and Opinions of Herr TeufelsdröckhThomas Carlyle8h 55m3.9 (13.6K)$2.30
The Devil's DictionaryAmbrose Bierce7h 7m4.2 (11.3K)$2.30
Literary LapsesStephen Leacock5h 24m4.1 (761)$1 · $0.00
A Tale of a TubJonathan Swift4h 18m3.7 (12.8K)$2.30 · $0.00
The Dilbert PrincipleScott Adams1h 11m4.0 (48.5K)$13 · $0.00
The Devil's DictionaryAmbrose Bierce7h 59m4.1 (160.2K)$0.60 · $0.00
Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the ComicHenri Bergson4h 12m3.9 (3.1K)Free
Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You DoJames Thurber, E. B. White3h 5m3.8 (1.1K)$20
Bouvard and Pécuchet (A Satirical Novel) (Annotated)Gustave Flaubert14h3.8 (4.6K)$2 · $0.00
On Masturbation: "Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism"Mark Twain1h 30m3.7 (1.1K)$1 · $0.00
H. L. Mencken - Premium CollectionH. L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan51h 5m4.4 (11)$2 · $0.00
A Satire AnthologyCarolyn Wells9h 37m3.8 (77)$2.30
H. L. Mencken - Premium Collection (Annotated)George Jean Nathan, H. L. Mencken50h 57m$2 · $0.00
The Essential Works of Henri Bergson (Annotated)Henri Bergson27h 38m$2 · $0.00
Prejudices, First Series (Annotated)H. L. Mencken7h 23m4.3 (92)$2 · $0.00
Comic History of EnglandBill Nye3h 45m$2 · $0.00
The Roycroft Dictionary, Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy DaysElbert Hubbard1h 58m$2 · $0.00
The Art of Aubrey Beardsley (Annotated)Arthur Symons1h 44m4.0 (47)$2 · $0.00