Hood, Thomas. Hood's Own : or Laughter from Year to Year (2 vols, First and Second Series) First Series : Being former Runnings of his Comic Vein, with an Effusion of New Blood for General Circulation; Second Series : Being a further Collection of his Wit and Humour, with a Preface by his Son. London: Edward Moxon & Co. , 1861. [11543]
Two volumes in half red morocco, red cloth boards, pink & blue marbled end papers, top page edges gilt, top of boards sunned (see pics), joints and edges rubbed, vol. ii. with light separation at the bottom of the front joint, 8 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches. Vol. I. - steel-engraved portrait of Hood, viii, 568 clean pp.; Vol. II. - wood engraved scene as frontis, xii, 564 clean pp. There are hundreds of comic woodcuts in the set. Good. Hardcover.
A collection of comic stories from the publications of Thomas Hood.
"Mr. Hood possesses an original wealth of humour, invention and an odd sort of wit that should rather be called whimsicality, or a faculty of the 'high fantastic.' Among comic writers he is one of those who also possess a genuine pathos; it is often deep, and of much tenderness, occasional of expression, and full of melancholy memories. The predominating characteristics of his genius are humorous fancies grafted upon melancholy expressions." - Richard H. Horne, 1844, A New Spirit of the Age. Found p. 130, vol. iii., Moulton's Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors.
Thomas Hood (1799-1845), b. & d. in London, England. A poet, journalist, and humorist, a "notable writer of comic verse, having originated several durable forms for that genre...There is something sinister about Hood's sense of humour, a trait that was to reappear in the 'black comedy ' of the latter 20th century. His pages are thronged with comic mourners and undertakers, and a corpse is always good for a laugh. He was famous for his punning, which appears at times to be almost a reflex action, serving as a defense against painful emotion." - Encyclopedia Britannica online.
