The Bab Ballads
A New Selection
Published on 30. August 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
232 pages
978-1-80447-066-4 (ISBN)
Description
'"What?" said the reverend gent,
"Dance through my hours of leisure?
Smoke? Bathe myself with scent?
Play croquet? Oh, with pleasure!"'
Today W.S. Gilbert is best known for the comic operas he produced in collaboration with Arthur Sullivan, but another of his great - and numerous - literary contributions were his humorous ballads, written and illustrated under the pseudonym 'Bab'.
Combining his trademark absurdist wit with keenly observed character studies, the ballads are a satirical tour de force that lambast society figures. This new selection, chosen and introduced by Andrew Crowther, Secretary of the W.S. Gilbert Society, brings together the very best of the ballads and presents the 'Bab' works for a new readership.
"Dance through my hours of leisure?
Smoke? Bathe myself with scent?
Play croquet? Oh, with pleasure!"'
Today W.S. Gilbert is best known for the comic operas he produced in collaboration with Arthur Sullivan, but another of his great - and numerous - literary contributions were his humorous ballads, written and illustrated under the pseudonym 'Bab'.
Combining his trademark absurdist wit with keenly observed character studies, the ballads are a satirical tour de force that lambast society figures. This new selection, chosen and introduced by Andrew Crowther, Secretary of the W.S. Gilbert Society, brings together the very best of the ballads and presents the 'Bab' works for a new readership.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Heavily illustrated (black and white pen drawings)
Dimensions
Height: 129 mm
Width: 198 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80447-066-4 (9781804470664)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) was a dramatist, poet, author, illustrator and librettist. Although he was a prolific writer, producing around 75 plays and dramatic works, he is best known today for the comic operas he produced in collaboration with Arthur Sullivan, including HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado, which continue to enjoy huge popularity worldwide. Andrew Crowther is not only the Secretary of the W.S. Gilbert Society, author of the major biography Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan, and the undisputed authority on the life and works of W.S. Gilbert, but is also himself a writer, author of the short novel Down to Earth and a variety of comic plays including Welcome to Paradise, Funny Men and Working Lives. His works seem to share with Gilbert's a heartfelt belief in the complete nonsensicality of the universe.
Content
'W.S. Gilbert: A Brief Introduction', 'Introduction', 'Preface to The Bab Ballads (1869)', The Bab Ballads: 'Captain Reece', 'The Rival Curates', 'General John', 'Haunted', 'The Troubadour', 'Ferdinando and Elvira', 'Babette's Love', 'To My Bride', 'Sir Macklin', 'The Yarn of the Nancy Bell', 'The Bishop of Rum-Ti-Foo', 'The Precocious Baby', 'Thomas Winterbottom Hance', 'A Discontented Sugar Broker', 'The Ghost, the Gallant, the Gael and the Goblin', 'At a Pantomime', 'Thomson Green and Harriet Hale', 'The Story of Prince Agib', 'Ellen McJones Aberdeen', 'Peter the Wag', 'Joe Golightly', 'Gentle Alice Brown', 'Mister William', 'The Bumboat Woman's Story', 'Pasha Bailey Ben', 'Lieutenant-Colonel Flare', 'Lost Mr Blake', 'The Baby's Vengeance', 'Annie Protheroe', 'Gregory Parable, LL D', 'Brave Alum Bey', 'Sir Barnaby Bampton Boo', 'The Modest Couple', 'My Dream', 'The Haughty Actor', 'The Two Majors', 'Emily, John, James and I', 'The Perils of Invisibility', 'The Fairy Curate', 'The Way of Wooing', 'Etiquette', Notes, 'The Selected Ballads in Chronological Order'