Review
"The Bab Ballads of W. S. Gilbert, admirably introduced and annotated by James Ellis, is a real treat." - New Yorker "Thanks to Mr. Ellis, all the known poems...dress-rehearsals as it were for the operas, are now printed together. And of course they are accompanied by the original Chesterton-delighting illustrations." - Christian Science Monitor
Product Description
W.S. Gilbert, author of the Savoy Operas, was also creator of the Bab Ballads -"possibly the best comic verse - and surely the best illustrated - in the English language", according to James Ellis. Gilbert published these poems, together with his own, grotesque drawings signed "Bab", a childhood nickname, in "Fun" and other magazines in the late 19th century. In 1898, the older and by then distinguished Gilbert substituted pallid and inoffensive drawings for the originals, which he had come to believe "erred gravely in the direction of unnecessary extravagance". Since then the ballads have been collected and published in various editions, most of which have featured the revised drawings and only a selection of the poems. This is the only book to offer the complete collection of ballads with all original illustrations, a tribute to the comic genius of a writer known as "the most original dramatist of his generation". This collection should delight readers with its irreverence and wit.
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