Synopses & Reviews
In "this inventive and playful book" (Newsday), James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Adopting a different style for each chapter — from dramatic dialogue to sermon, heroic couplets to a barroom monologue — Geary embodies wit in all its forms. Wit's End agilely balances psychology, folktale, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, demonstrating that wit and wisdom are really the same thing.
Review
"Geary is a keen storyteller, promiscuous with quotes and figures. One could do worse at a cocktail party than simply opening his book at random and reading aloud.” The New Yorker
Review
[Wit’s End is] an entertaining exploration of how intellectual dexterity manifests itself in both verbal and visual form.… [Geary] shows here that he’s fully equal to the task, enhancing our appreciation of how true wit can both amuse and enlighten.” Shelf Awareness
Review
“Wit’s End is delicious. James Geary has managed to produce a witty book about wit that steers an elegant path between waggishness and wisdom.” Stephen Fry
Review
“Juggles scholarship, humorous anecdote and critical insight with a diabolical, almost sinister dexterity.” Washington Post
About the Author
James Geary is the author of four previous books, including the New York Times bestseller The World in a Phrase, and is the deputy curator at Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism. A sought-after speaker and avid juggler, he lives near Boston, Massachusetts.