Funniest Classic Novel?

Question

I already know of the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series. Remember, no modern novels--classic.

Answer 1

Catch-22. Ulysses. Don Quixote.

A Confedercy of Dunces isn't a classic yet... but it will be.

You decide.

Update:

Here are a few more candidates: Oblomov. The Good Soldier Švejk. Gulliver's Travels. Tristram Shandy. Three Men in a Boat. At-Swim-Two-Birds.

Various books by P.G. Wodehouse.

Answer 2

Do plays count? "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde is definitely one of my all-time favourite funny classics. Also, "Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Jerome K. Jerome is very funny. And anything at all by P.G. Wodehouse is pretty excellent (you know, Bertie Wooster and Jeeves...), although "classic" might not be exactly the term for it.

Answer 3

I think our concept of what is funny changes with different generations or eras, so what was funny when it was fresh may not be now.

Aesop has some humorous fables. Some of the original Grimm fairy tales are light.

If Mark Twain is classic enough, he certainly has his own satirical brand of humor.

Ben Franklin was quite a wit.

Some of the ancient Greek writers had senses of humor. My favorite quote is: “The most promising of our young men are wasting their youth in drinking bouts, in parties, in soft living and childish folly. . . . You see some of them chilling their wine at the Nine Fountains; others, drinking in the taverns; others tossing dice in gambling dens; and many, hanging about the training schools of the flute girls”

- Isocrates, Antidosis, 353 B.C.E.

Answer 4

Diary of a no one by potential of George Weedon Grosmith seize 22 by potential of Joseph Heller fortunate Jim by potential of Kingsley Amis Gulliver's Travels by potential of Jonathan speedy Northanger Abbey by potential of Jane Austen chilly convenience Farm by potential of Stella Gibbons The existence & evaluations of Tristram Shandy by potential of Laurence Sterne 3 adult adult males In a ship by potential of Jerome ok Jerome The grasp and Margarita by potential of Mikhail Bulgakov The Pickwick Papers by potential of Charles Dickens Don Quixote by potential of Miguel de Cervantes additionally, no longer a novel, yet Nikolai Gogol's The nostril, The Overcoat and Diary Of A Madman are humorous.