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We laugh in many ways and for different reasons, and we often laugh when reading contemporary British fiction-but why? Obviously, we need a new definition of English humor. Marsh provides it by elaborating a comprehensive theory of laughter that comes alive thanks to astute close readings illuminating the comic turn in British fiction. He offers all at once an encyclopedia of comedy and witty surveys of Martin Amis, Nicola Baker, Jonathan Coe, Magnus Mills, Howard Jacobson and Zadie Smith. This eminently teachable book is bound to become a classic of humor studies. * Jean-Michel Rabate, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, USA * This serious work on comedy should be read by everyone with an interest in contemporary English fiction. In clear and intelligent prose, Huw Marsh's insightful book engages with major and, in some cases, critically underappreciated authors to offer new ideas about the comic and a new shape to the field. * Robert Eaglestone, Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought, Royal Holloway, University of London *

We laugh in many ways and for different reasons, and we often laugh when reading contemporary British fiction-but why? Obviously, we need a new definition of English humor. Marsh provides it by elaborating a comprehensive theory of laughter that comes alive thanks to astute close readings illuminating the comic turn in British fiction. He offers all at once an encyclopedia of comedy and witty surveys of Martin Amis, Nicola Baker, Jonathan Coe, Magnus Mills, Howard Jacobson and Zadie Smith. This eminently teachable book is bound to become a classic of humor studies. * Jean-Michel Rabate, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, USA *

Quietly brilliant ... as a work that is at once tightly focused on contemporary literature and truly cross-disciplinary in its approach, it will be an essential read both for students and researchers of contemporary literature and for a wider pool of comedy scholars. * Textual Practice * [A] detailed and compelling showcase for analysing modern literature as comedy. * The Humour Studies Digest * Insightful ... Marsh’s sole authorship offers the perspective of only one critic, yet The Comic Turn in Contemporary English Fiction unpacks numerous aspects of contemporary comic writing, one in each chapter. * HUMOR * This valuable 2020 book neatly brings us up to date (pre-covid) and makes the case that ‘comedy offers a new vocabulary for thinking about contemporary English fiction’ (210) drawing on the frameworks of other disciplines, not least comedy studies. * Comedy Studies * Alongside the subtle and thoughtful insights about the centrality of comedy to literary meaning, there is much to be learned here about how that comedy illuminates contemporary issues, such as national identity, class, and the nature of work. And indeed, one of the delights of the book is a renewed sense of fiction’s gifts for elucidating such issues. * C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-century Writings * We laugh in many ways and for different reasons, and we often laugh when reading contemporary British fiction—but why? Obviously, we need a new definition of English humor. Marsh provides it by elaborating a comprehensive theory of laughter that comes alive thanks to astute close readings illuminating the comic turn in British fiction. He offers all at once an encyclopedia of comedy and witty surveys of Martin Amis, Nicola Baker, Jonathan Coe, Magnus Mills, Howard Jacobson and Zadie Smith. This eminently teachable book is bound to become a classic of humor studies. * Jean-Michel Rabaté, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, USA * This serious work on comedy should be read by everyone with an interest in contemporary English fiction. In clear and intelligent prose, Huw Marsh’s insightful book engages with major and, in some cases, critically underappreciated authors to offer new ideas about the comic and a new shape to the field. * Robert Eaglestone, Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought, Royal Holloway, University of London *

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Huw Marsh is Lecturer in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature at Queen Mary University of London, UK. He is the author of Beryl Bainbridge (2014) and works mainly on post-war and contemporary fiction.

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