Further, the general critical and popular consensus has been that Leacock's humorous works, after the initial successes of Literary Lapses (1910), Nonsense Novels (1911), Sunshine Sketches and Arcadian Adventures, (1) never rose to. Why should a story cycle that constitutes such a critical coda to Leacock's most famous work be so neglected? The relative inaccessibility of this cycle may well have contributed to its obscurity-despite having run through eight editions, the work has not been in print since 1945 (Spadoni 358) and was not included in the New Canadian Library (NCL) reprint series of Leacock's works. Thus, the Mariposa that might perhaps endure unchanged in memory has been radically altered in reality by the passage of time, and especially by the ravages of war. The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour was named in his honour. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people's follies. Between the years 19, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world. Much that was significant in that cycle's final chapter is brought back into focus: the implicit and long-delayed return to Mariposa after "thirty years" to see "if things had changed much since your day" (Sunshine Sketches 189) finally takes place, and both the reader and the narrator are forced to acknowledge that the town is no longer what it once was. Butler Leacock, FRSC, was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist. Gerald Lynch has recently reasserted the importance of answering "the much vexed question of Leacock's true view of Mariposa" ("From" 98) if the stories in "Mariposa Moves On" do not necessarily provide a comprehensive answer, they do nevertheless offer a fascinating counterpoint to the dappled sunshine of the original cycle. While the original sketches generated the warmth of humour from luminous circumstances with shadows dancing behind them, as with Judge Pepperleigh's abiding grief for his dead son or Dean Drone's visions of his late wife, in this cycle Leacock uses the pretext of a Second World War Victory Loan drive to re-examine the town's character and explore the idea that all dreams must end and even happy memories must fade. In "Mariposa Moves On," Leacock returns to find Mariposa in "the shadow of war" (Happy Stories 203)-a Mariposa where the sunshine has only continued to dim. In Happy Stories, Just to Laugh At (1943), however-the final collection of Leacock's humour published during his life-there is a cycle of short stories that sheds unexpected and intriguing light upon Sunshine Sketches, and which has nevertheless suffered from near total critical neglect. This focus on Sunshine Sketches-and to a far lesser extent on Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich (1914)-reflects a broader critical consensus that there is very little in Leacock's middle and late career as a humorist that warrants significant attention. Virtually all academic writing on Leacock and his works takes Sunshine Sketches as its focus, while major critics and authors have hailed it variously as "the first work to establish a Canadian voice" (Richler xiii), and as one that conveys "the genius of irony, the subtler art, the deeper wisdom" (Ross ix). We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.Although Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912) is just one of the dozens of collections of humorous writing Stephen Leacock released throughout his career, it has come to dominate critical and popular understandings. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. I like to think of that cold drenched window behind the blind, and beyond, the dark bushes in the garden, their broad leaves bright with. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
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