Camfield offers a comprehensive examination of the ways humour was used by major writers of fiction in 19th-century America. Camfield argues that humour serves as an important tool for both men and women to manage the ideology of domesticity so prevalent at the time, and he shows how gender comes to bear upon comic techniques and sensibilities.

Camfield offers a comprehensive examination of the ways humour was used by major writers of fiction in nineteenth-century America. Camfield argues that humour serves as an important tool for both men and women to manage the ideology of domesticity so prevalent at the time, and he shows how gender comes to bear upon comic techniques and sensibilities.

Gregg Camfield is to be much commended for his efforts in this book. The theorizing in his final chapter, because it promises to introduce literary studies to the commentary on 'humor' being done in other disciplines, itself makes reading the book worthwhile.