"The book combines two main lifetime publications of the founder and the most prominent representative of the poetry of the absurd. Edward Lear (1812-1888) is a famous English poet and artist, the father of the literary limerick, a genre that had a noticeable influence on the literature of the late 19th and the entire 20th century. The limericks (216 funny five-line verses) are presented in the original language with parallel translations made by the best Russian interpreter of nonsense poetry Boris Arkhiptsev, and are accompanied by the author's illustrations. The translator devoted more than 20 years of his life to the work, achieving a unique result, an unprecedented fullness of disclosure of the author's intention in combination with the beauty and naturalness of the sound of Russian verse. The book immerses the reader in the atmosphere of subtle English humor, superbly conveyed by the translator, in the world of the absurd, making it close and understandable to a person of any age - from primary school to senior pensioners.
