1st Edition
Edward Lear as Victorian Modernist The Illustrated Limericks
By Thomas Dilworth
Copyright 2026
246 Pages
132 B/W Illustrations
by
Routledge
246 Pages
132 B/W Illustrations
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Edward Lear as Victorian Modernist offers a bold new reading of Lear’s limericks as foundational works of literary modernism. Far from being mere nonsense for children, Lear’s picture-limericks—each a fusion of image and verse—operate as bi-modal metaphors that generate meaning through juxtaposition rather than narrative continuity. This interpretive mode, rooted in fragmentation and allusion,... Read more
Introduction
1 Autobiographs
2 Alluding
3 Punning
4 Society and Self
5 Ideation
6 Basics
7 Sexing the Limerick
8 Abstracts
9 Conclusion
Biography
Thomas Dilworth is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, University of Windsor, Senior Honorary David Jones Research Fellow, formerly a Killam Fellow, H.D. Fellow (Yale), and a winner of the British Council Prize in the Humanities. He is the author of over 150 articles and chapters, and editor, co-editor, or author of a dozen books, most recently the author of David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet—five-times chosen Book of the Year in the TLS.
