Tricks of the trade by Sir John Collings Squire
Tricks of the trade by Sir John Collings Squire. It is a collection of humorous literary parodies and pastiches written in the early 20th century. The book playfully examines the “tricks” of authorial style—how poets and prose writers achieve their effects—by mimicking their voices across comic verse and a short dramatic piece. The first half, “How They Do It,” spoofs contemporary and popular authors’ signatures: rollicking choruses for Belloc, simple nature-notes for
W. H. Davies, trumpet-blast patriotism for Newbolt, a long gritty ballad of crime and salvation in Masefield’s manner, a leaping paradoxical chant for Chesterton, mock-Celtic wistfulness and faux folk-song, a breathless, self-analytical life-fragment in the tone of H. G. Wells, and a talky play-scene à la Shaw. The second half, “How They Would Have Done It,” recasts familiar poems or texts as if written by others: Wordsworth solemnizes The Everlasting Mercy, Swinburne luxuriates over Horatius, Masefield roughens Casabianca, an Elizabethan dilates on She dwelt among the untrodden ways, Pope tidies Break, break, break into couplets, Gray surveys Spoon River, a “very new” poet reduces The Lotus-Eaters to laconic modernism, Henry James transforms the Church Catechism into filigreed dialogue, Byron romps through The Passing of Arthur, and Tagore turns a moral maxim into fragrant, flowing prose. Together the pieces form a brisk, witty tour of literary mannerisms, both affectionate and sharp. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Squire, John Collings, Sir, 1884-1958 |
|---|---|
| Title | Tricks of the trade |
| Original Publication | London: Martin Secker, 1918. |
| Note | Chiefly poems. |
| Credits | Jwala Kumar Sista, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Parodies |
| Subject | English wit and humor |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78197 |
| Release Date | Mar 12, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 264 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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