The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody: Great Figures of History Hilariously Humbled

by Will Cuppy

Book Overview

Ever wonder what Nero did before he began fiddling about in Rome, or wanted the bare facts about Lady Godiva? Maybe you've found the story of Lucrezia Borgia a bitter pill to swallow, or wanted the straight skinny on corpulent King Henry the Eighth, but you haven't the stomach for stuffy history books. Now these and twenty-two more of history's most famous personages are brought brilliantly to life, in this collection of unfailingly accurate yet undeniably...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088029809X
• ISBN13: 9780880298094
• Release Date: April 1992
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

I love it

This book is so incredibly funny. It is about all sorts of historical figures. Cuppy is an amazing writer. He writes about all the things that they did and makes them seem rather dumb. To truely appreciate this book to it's full value there has to a understanding of what my friend and I call dry humor others might say sarcastic, blunt, intelligent. Whatever you call it, but if that is you and you don't have to love history but read this book it is wonderful.

the funniest history book ever written

I must have read this book twenty times at least, and I never get tired of it. Every time it seems just as funny, as Will Cuppy tells us about the lives of historical characters, from Cheops ( or khufu) through to Catherine the Great, taking in such diverse characters as Cleopatra, Attila the hun, Lady Godiva, henry the eight, John Smith, and miles Standish. His wonderful dry comments are hilarious, as on Charlemagne who was born in the dark ages when people were not very bright. They have been getting brighter and brighter ever since, until finally the are like they are now'Or on the American revolution , started because the colonists had to pay takes to which their consent had not been asked ' today we pay taxes but our consent has been asked, and we have told the government to go ahead and tax us all they want to. We like it'This is a sublime book, the one I'd take with me to a desert island if i had to choose only one.

History Nerds Will Worship, Others Will Sit and Giggle Madly

This is a fantastic book for anyone who enjoys, educated humor. Since history is my passion, I've found this book -- accurate, entertaining, and sharply witty -- to be a wonderful method of reflecting on serious courses in a different light. And yet those who dislike history lessons can expect to enjoy this too, from what I've heard. (Plebeians. ::cough::)For those with a good sense of irony, sarcasm, and very dry humor, Willy Cuppy's comments (and the funny, tangential runoff of his writing, found in the footnotes of every page) feel almost tailor-made. There's a sense of very personal humor, as though you're party to a running monologue with this writer, in some warm room somewhere with burnished leather easy chairs. It's just sad Cuppy didn't get the acclaim he deserved within his lifetime.

Absolutely hilarious!

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody is a work of genius. Will Cuppy masterfully combines historical fact with his irreverent observations of various personages. Here are Cleopatra, King James, and Lucrezia Borgia as you've never seen them before, just to name a few. Not only will you burst your seams laughing, but you'll even learn something!