Behind the Beyond Review

Behind the Beyond By Stephen Leacock
  ...Tea in a problem play is the same as whisky in a melodrama 


Behind the Beyond is a collection of humorous short stories based on satire, irony and situational humor. These stories include grand backdrops like the chateau of versailles and Moulin Rouge of Paris as well as commonplace backdrops like the dentist’s and Hair saloon. The stories have themes like fear, apprehension, hyperbole, adventure and boredom.

Each story in this gamut of tales will overwhelm the reader so much as to kill him with hysteria. The wit ,of Leacock, is downrightly quick and malignant. Even the most austere critics will not be able to contain their chuckles while reading these stories. The sentence structure is easy to read if the reader does not fall from fits of laughter. One of the most amusing feature of this book is that the lines end abruptly and give the reader just enough time to understand the humor. This makes the humor unprecedented and unpredictable, which makes these stories all the more covetable. It is difficult to understand why some parts make one laugh when really there is nothing extraordinary about them. One must just accept ,at the end, that this is because of earnestness of writing,stupendous timing and great sense of humor of Leacock. I must confess that this book is the greatest piece of comic literature, nay, art that I have known. It is recommend to all who have even a little appetite for comedy.