Customer Rating: 
Summary: A book for pricking poo-flinging monkeys
Comment: "but my sense is that his times were really the last 1900s, not even the times when he wrote."
-- Bruce Applebaum
Does the man who wrote this presume to judge between good and bad writing?
Mencken was, in a literal sense of the term, a prick. He seems to have surveyed his society for inflated egos to deflate with his acrid pen. Mencken is dead, but the sensitive stuff of which Mr Applebaum's ego-baloon is made is easily punctured. Even Mencken's ghost can do it, and has. As his deflating ego sqeeked out its last whine, Mr A. became indignant, set out pugnaciously for revenge on Mencken by writing his blurb, and tripped over his shoelaces.
If you are the kind of nitwit that flings words like ``racist'' and ``bigot'', like an angry monkey throws his poo, at any white man bold enough to suggest that the different races may have different attributes, than you need to read this book. The prick of it may send you howling from your tree, but you may find your way out of the jungle.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a must read
Comment: HL Mencken was one of the greatest journalists of his era in American history, perhaps of all of American history.
Any American who aspires to consider him or herself educated, must read this book, which is his collection of his all time most trenchant essays. The vast majority of his opinionated insights are correct; all of his essays are extremely well written, and very amusing. Even if you don't aspire to consider yourself educated, this book is full of life lessons that most many people have to learn the hard way.
One of the five best books I've ever read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The arrogance of a mere "critic"
Comment: H. L. Mencken is perhaps (along with many of the adherents who pay him more attention than he deserves) the responsible for the creation of the figure known today as "intellectual snob", a person who merely devotes his existence to judge the work of others and who deems himself equally important (or even superior) to the own writers.
I have always thought that this pathetic guy had a recurrent wet dream in which he imagined that he was the author of "The Devil's Dictionary". Unfortunately for him, Ambrose Bierce was one and only. Bad luck, Mr. Mencken.
His taste in literature was nothing out of the ordinary and left something to be desired, as shown by his appreciation of a repellent racist troglodyte like Jack London and other mediocre authors. He even dared to say that Bierce's experimental fictions were useless; this last judgement being quite paradoxical, if we take into account that Mencken always ludicrously tried to imitate Bierce's mordant style for his own sake.
Who cares about this Mencken? He never wrote fiction. He's just a critic... Why bother reading his out-dated and erroneous assessments and his insufferable mental diarrhoea? You'd better be spending your time in real literature and learning to draw your own conclusions about it (I know it's difficult, but you can do it if you try). Use your brain if you have one and forget "the crackpot of Baltimore".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best of the Best
Comment: Mencken is the smartest and funniest essayist ever to write in English, and this is his own selection of his best work. His command of the language is astounding. This should be required reading in all American classroom.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Writing with Worthless Content
Comment: There was a renewed interest in Mencken over the last few years, partly because of the release of the remainder of his literary estate. Along with that, came a couple of biographies, one by Hobson and one by Teachout.
I've read both biographies and made my way through about half of this self-collected work. It boggles the mind that Mencken had (or had he?) the impact that he was supposed to have had during the 1910s through 1930s.
He was wa racist and a bigot. Many of the pieces in Chrestomathy are culled from his "Prejudices" series. Prejudice implies having some experience to base an opinion on. Here is a man who rarely set foot outside of Baltimore, except for regular trips to NYC to meet with his publisher. He said pretty nasty things about Jews (despite Knopf, his publisher and alleged friend, being one), and blacks (at one point claiming that the only intelligent blacks were those who had some white blood introduced by the massa during the good old days of slavery). He lived at home with mom and his siblings until she died, and lived in the same house except for a five year period when he was married (in his 50s). Oh, he did visit Germany a few times -- his family was of German origin and Mencken seemed to have the idea that the master race was reflected in himself - this boozy, narrow-minded fireplug of a man.
Not having a basis in fact for many of his prejudices, that leaves him a bigot. He was ignorant. He was smarmy and thought himself (and those like him) better than just about everybody. He wrote nasty things about his "friends."
So, why is everybody interested in what he has to say? He was considered an iconoclast because he wrote what he thought. But once the shock value is gone, all that is left is some great writing (vocabulary, grammar, style) with some crappy content. What he thought might have reflected his times, but my sense is that his times were really the last 1900s, not even the times when he wrote.
Summary: A book for pricking poo-flinging monkeys
Comment: "but my sense is that his times were really the last 1900s, not even the times when he wrote."
-- Bruce Applebaum
Does the man who wrote this presume to judge between good and bad writing?
Mencken was, in a literal sense of the term, a prick. He seems to have surveyed his society for inflated egos to deflate with his acrid pen. Mencken is dead, but the sensitive stuff of which Mr Applebaum's ego-baloon is made is easily punctured. Even Mencken's ghost can do it, and has. As his deflating ego sqeeked out its last whine, Mr A. became indignant, set out pugnaciously for revenge on Mencken by writing his blurb, and tripped over his shoelaces.
If you are the kind of nitwit that flings words like ``racist'' and ``bigot'', like an angry monkey throws his poo, at any white man bold enough to suggest that the different races may have different attributes, than you need to read this book. The prick of it may send you howling from your tree, but you may find your way out of the jungle.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a must read
Comment: HL Mencken was one of the greatest journalists of his era in American history, perhaps of all of American history.
Any American who aspires to consider him or herself educated, must read this book, which is his collection of his all time most trenchant essays. The vast majority of his opinionated insights are correct; all of his essays are extremely well written, and very amusing. Even if you don't aspire to consider yourself educated, this book is full of life lessons that most many people have to learn the hard way.
One of the five best books I've ever read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The arrogance of a mere "critic"
Comment: H. L. Mencken is perhaps (along with many of the adherents who pay him more attention than he deserves) the responsible for the creation of the figure known today as "intellectual snob", a person who merely devotes his existence to judge the work of others and who deems himself equally important (or even superior) to the own writers.
I have always thought that this pathetic guy had a recurrent wet dream in which he imagined that he was the author of "The Devil's Dictionary". Unfortunately for him, Ambrose Bierce was one and only. Bad luck, Mr. Mencken.
His taste in literature was nothing out of the ordinary and left something to be desired, as shown by his appreciation of a repellent racist troglodyte like Jack London and other mediocre authors. He even dared to say that Bierce's experimental fictions were useless; this last judgement being quite paradoxical, if we take into account that Mencken always ludicrously tried to imitate Bierce's mordant style for his own sake.
Who cares about this Mencken? He never wrote fiction. He's just a critic... Why bother reading his out-dated and erroneous assessments and his insufferable mental diarrhoea? You'd better be spending your time in real literature and learning to draw your own conclusions about it (I know it's difficult, but you can do it if you try). Use your brain if you have one and forget "the crackpot of Baltimore".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best of the Best
Comment: Mencken is the smartest and funniest essayist ever to write in English, and this is his own selection of his best work. His command of the language is astounding. This should be required reading in all American classroom.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Writing with Worthless Content
Comment: There was a renewed interest in Mencken over the last few years, partly because of the release of the remainder of his literary estate. Along with that, came a couple of biographies, one by Hobson and one by Teachout.
I've read both biographies and made my way through about half of this self-collected work. It boggles the mind that Mencken had (or had he?) the impact that he was supposed to have had during the 1910s through 1930s.
He was wa racist and a bigot. Many of the pieces in Chrestomathy are culled from his "Prejudices" series. Prejudice implies having some experience to base an opinion on. Here is a man who rarely set foot outside of Baltimore, except for regular trips to NYC to meet with his publisher. He said pretty nasty things about Jews (despite Knopf, his publisher and alleged friend, being one), and blacks (at one point claiming that the only intelligent blacks were those who had some white blood introduced by the massa during the good old days of slavery). He lived at home with mom and his siblings until she died, and lived in the same house except for a five year period when he was married (in his 50s). Oh, he did visit Germany a few times -- his family was of German origin and Mencken seemed to have the idea that the master race was reflected in himself - this boozy, narrow-minded fireplug of a man.
Not having a basis in fact for many of his prejudices, that leaves him a bigot. He was ignorant. He was smarmy and thought himself (and those like him) better than just about everybody. He wrote nasty things about his "friends."
So, why is everybody interested in what he has to say? He was considered an iconoclast because he wrote what he thought. But once the shock value is gone, all that is left is some great writing (vocabulary, grammar, style) with some crappy content. What he thought might have reflected his times, but my sense is that his times were really the last 1900s, not even the times when he wrote.
A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing Reviews: Page 2 of 4
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