"Champagne for my real friends, and real pain for my sham friends." (Wit and Wisdom: The Art of the Put-down)

Member Name: Mutalisk

Product:	Wit and Wisdom: The Art of the Put-down
Date:	12/08/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, fun, easy to read, good toilet literature, entertaining, ascerbic.

Disadvantages: A little dry in places.

Wit and Wisdom: The Art Of The Put-down is a compilation of some of the finest and quintessential examples of (sometimes overly!) dry wit. It includes thousands of quotations from all over the world, and from many different periods of time, from William Shakespeare to Edmund Blackadder, Oscar Wilde to Joan Rivers, this book includes many of the most memorable and ascerbic put-downs the World has thus-far seen, along with who said them, when, and when available and necessary, the context. Here are a few gems:

"Michael Caine can out-act any, well, nearly any, telephone kiosk you care to mention."
-Hugh Leonard, Irish playright

"Unable to accept due to a subsequent arrangement."
-Oscar Wilde responds to a dinner invitation; attrib., perhaps apocryphal, In Kenneth Williams, Acid Drops.

"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
-Samuel Johnson

Although compact, its a thick and heavy tome designed to wile away 5 or 10 minutes browsing when you're bored, and would also be somewhat of a starting text for the aspiring after dinner speaker.

It's set out into 12 chapters, each on a particular subjects, including Trashing TV, Vanity, Ego, Polite Society, Party Pieces, Life, and finally, The Great Wits, which are non-specific-contextual quotations from greats such as Samuel Johnson, Mark Twain, Socrates, Shakespeare, and Dorothy Parker. There's also a very clear and concise index for looking up a particular person or quotation which comes in pretty handy.

The Art of The Put Down is something of a novelty item, to pick up for a quick laugh. It's very much the perfect book for reading on the toilet, well worth the five pounds or so you would expect to pay on Amazon. If you like your dry wit, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Summary: Some brilliant quotations from actors, playrights, sportsmen, performers, politicians and authors.