Esquisse sur le Nord-Ouest de l'AmÚ³erique Book

Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. If you're a fan of Monty Python, Jerry Seinfeld, the Marx Brothers, Jonathan Swift or Steve Martin, I highly recommend this book.

This book was written by E.B. White and James Thurber in 1929, and I will never, never look at the author of Charlotte's Web the same way again. It is still remarkably topical; while some of the phrasing is dated, the dry satirical wit is priceless.

Some passages (although the humor has less punch when taken out of context):

Chapter 2: How to Tell Love from Passion
Let us say you have sat down to write a letter to your lady....Finally you get settled and you write the words, "Anne darling.." If you like commas, you put a comma after "darling"; if you like colons, a colon; if dashes, a dash. If you don't care what punctuation mark you put after "darling", the chances are you are in love--although you may just be uneducated, who knows?
Chapter 3: A Discussion of Feminine Types
Successfully to deal with a woman, a man must know what type she is. There have been several methods of classification, none of which I hold thoroughly satisfactory, neither the glandular categories--the gonoid, thyroid, etc.--nor the astrological--Sagittarius, Virgo, Pisces, and so on. One must be pretty expert to tell a good gonoid when he sees one. Personally, I know but very little about them, nor if I had a vast knowledge would I know what to do with it.
Chapter 4: The Sexual Revolution: Being a Rather Complete Survey of the Entire Sexual Scene
The sexual revolution begins with Man's discovery that he was not attractive to Woman, as such. The lion had his mane, the peacock his gorgeous plumage, but Man found himself in a three-button sack suit. His masculine appearance not only failed to excite Woman, but in many cases it only served to bore her.And I swear that the rest of Chapter 4 was stolen by Seinfeld for an episode.

Chapter 6: What Should Children Tell Parents?
So many children have come to me and said, "What shall I tell my parents about sex?" My answer is always the same: "Tell them the truth. If the subject is approached in a tactful way, it should be no more embarrassing to teach a parent about sex than to teach him about personal pronouns. And it should be less discouraging."As a side note, I thought page 117 was hysterical.

There are also 50 or so illustrations by Thurber scattered throughout the book, which are Pythonesque in their demented sense of humor.

While I borrowed this book from the library, I plan on buying it as soon as possible.