From Plautus, Cervantes, and Dickens to Evelyn Waugh, Joseph Heller, and Tom Stoppard, from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Arsenic and Old Lace and Woody Allen, this concise and readable book provides a thorough introduction to comic criticism. Nelson shows that there are significant recurringpatterns of comedy both in the classics and in more popular and commercial works. He discusses such themes as the link between comedy and carnival, the apparent obsession of modern writers with linguistic comedy, and the dilemma of feminists faced with traditional comedy that is largely sexist innature.