Bon Mots, Wisecracks, and Gags: The Wit of Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and the Algonquin Round Table Kindle Edition

most of this material was recorded in other books - what made this book unique wasthe tremendous number of typos, misprints, etc.watching for them, and counting them, was almost as interesting as reading the storiesof course, it was only $1.99, so i shouldn't have expected much...

The editor has collected a bunch of one-liner anecdotes and vignettes from some of the more prominent Algonquin members (Alex Woollcott, Robert Sherwood, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, FP Adams, Heywood Broun, George S. Kaufman, and Ring Lardner) and cobbled them together in one volume. There is merit in that, I suppose; but it doesn't really do justice to their wit, wisdom, and genius. You'll have a lot more fun reading the actual work of each of these brilliant (and, sadly, mostly forgotten) writers. Compendiums exist for most of them, mostly out of print, and therefore usually available for little or no money, either bound or electronically. Start with Benchley's "Of All Things", or Parker's "What Fresh Hell Is This?", and you'll be hooked, I promise.

This book isn't bad for a Washington, but I think you had to have been a liberal arts major in college to really appreciate it. Even then, it seems a bit too long-winded for me. It's very very old school humor (so old it may even be hard to understand the syntax).EDIT: The Dorothy Parker section is very good and easy to read. A lot of familiar quotes and quotes you didn't know were from Dorothy Parker.

Such brilliant minds, sharp wits, such a classic period in NY society. So why is this book so uninspiring? Maybe better in smaller (one at a time?) doses, with better sense of context?

Maybe the paperback is better but the ebook sucks. A book that I was hoping would be at least amusing became a nightmare. Along with chapter headings like "Dorothy Porker" and "Edna Farber", the thing is so inundated with typos and other lack of proofreading that it's almost unreadable. Nearly every letter 'i', whether capital (personal) or within a word has been replaced with the numeral 1 or an exclamation point or worse. Too many others to list. The 'publisher' obviously just scanned the various parts of the manuscript and then threw it up on Amazon to be downloaded so they could make some fast money. Well, even at $2.99 I'm tempted to 'return' it for a refund, which before this book, I would never have considered. Bad job, guys.

This is a book of quotes so much of the canned questions do not apply. I bought it mainly for the Dorothy Parker quotes and they were choice. But the whole book was excellent, I gave it as a gift to a younger friend and she says she loves it too, It was a good buy !

Exactly what you’d expect when world class wits and humorists gather together for fun and conversation. A totally entertaining and LOL read!

The topic is a rich part of New York's cultural history about the Algonquin "Round Table" - the fabled group of young intellectuals who went to dominate the literary scene. I expected more of the wisecracks & repartees.

A humourless anthology. If at all there's something it's quite banal and longwinded.AVOIDABLE READ.

Came to me in great condition.