Stage-Land (Dodo Press) - Jerome K. Jerome

An Enjoyable Diversion

This is a lovely short book of comedy in which Jerome K Jerome parodies the various stereotypical characters that regularly appeared on stage in plays in the late nineteenth century, many of which we can still recognise on television today. Written in the style of The Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow, Stage-Land is at all times amusing and sometimes down right hilarious. The chapters are as follows:

The Villain
The Heroine
The Comic Man
The Lawyer
The Adventuress
The Servant-Girl
The Child
The Comic Lovers
The Peasants
The Good Old Man
The Irishman
The Detective
The Sailor

Jerome wrote situation comedy long before the phrase was coined and his work is perhaps an ancestor of TV sitcoms such as Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe And Son. Stage-Land is a little gem and well worth an hour or two of anyone's time. For some bizarre reason The Hero has been missed out which is in earlier editions, otherwise it is fine.