Precious nonsense
Subtitle: the Gettysburg address, Ben Jonson's epitaphs on his children, and Twelfth night
By: Stephen Booth.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 218
Subjects: Shakespeare, William, -- 1564-1616.; Lincoln, Abraham, -- 1809-1865.; Jonson, Ben, -- 1573?-1637.; Jonson, Ben, -- 1573?-1637.; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism.; Nonsense literature, English -- History and criticism.
Description: What is it about our experience of great literature that makes us treasure these works so highly? Stephen Booth suggests that a great source, perhaps the great source, of the special appeal of our most valued works is that they are, in one way or another, utterly nonsensical.

Reading the rhetorical tangles, the illogical leaps, and the most absurd imagery of three disparate texts - the Gettysburg Address, Ben Jonson's Epitaphs on his children, and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - Booth demonstrates how poetics triumph over logic in the "mind games" that enrich the experience of reading.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.