Lynne Truss’ Eats, Shoots & Leaves—a book about punctuation that became a surprise best-seller in Britain—has just been published in the U.S. Here, Truss chooses her favorite comic novels.
Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith (Oxford, $9). The faux-naive narrator is now a very well-established strain of English comic writing, yet the diary of Charles Pooter remains fresh and funny to this day.
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope (Oxford, $9). Studying Barchester Towers before my university entrance exams, I managed not to notice that it’s hilarious. I now regard it as the pinnacle of English comic writing. Published in 1857, the second of the Barsetshire Chronicles, it’s a story of virtue versus ambition, in the context of High Victorian church, politics, and journalism.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Trick of It by Michael Frayn (Picador, $12). A highly sophisticated comic novel about an academic who marries the woman novelist whose work he has admired. Once married, he undermines her fatally. A novel about talent, jealousy, and the fatal vulnerability of creative people, it is funny, painful, superb.
The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E. Bowman (Pimlico, $14). First published in 1956, this is that rare beast: a mountaineering spoof. The tone is that of Three Men in a Boat; the context is Everest; the punch line is, “We had climbed the wrong mountain.” Team member Tom Burley succumbs to every kind of lassitude imaginable: heat lassitude, valley lassitude, glacier lassitude.
The Compleet Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle (out of print). A one-volume edition of the great Molesworth books of the ’50s. Like Wodehouse, Molesworth uses American slang to fantastic effect. But the best things in Molesworth are the sound effects. Wam Plunk Bish Bash Zunk.
The Code of the Woosters
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful northThe Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
-
Crossword: September 14, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War IIFeature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
-
Helen Schulman's 6 favorite collections of short storiesFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, and more
-
Beatriz Williams' 6 timeless books about history and human relationshipsFeature The best-selling author recommends works by Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and more
-
Aysegul Savas' 6 favorite books for readers who love immersive settingsFeature The Paris-based Turkish author recommends works by Hiromi Kawakami, Virginia Woolf, and more
-
Geoff Dyer's 6 favorite books about the realities of warFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Ernie Pyle, Michael Herr, and more
-
Laura Lippman's 6 favorite books for those who crave a high-stakes adventureFeature The Grand Master recommends works by E.L. Konigsburg, Charles Portis, and more
