How a guide is built
One guide = one book, written with a fixed ten-chapter matrix. The point is simple: you can skim in minutes, or you can stay for the mechanics — voice, devices, pressure points, and what the book does to you.
Readnote — a short, signed note. No sermon.
Incipit — the opening lines (original language).
Characters — archetypes + line-citations.
Currents, branches — and the “Neo” layer
Each book gets a major current (Comedy of Society / Crime Comedy / Neo-Nonsense). Some books also carry a Neo lineage as a branch: a post-war comic grammar (obsession, mediated life, self-world, modern drift) that can sit on top of Society or Crime.
Major current = the stable entry point for browsing.
Branches = the texture (Frustration, Schemer, etc.).
Neo lineage = a modern layer that can “cross over”.
Editor’s rows (quick entry)
If you don’t know where to start: pick a row, swipe, click. The rest is just reading.
Comedy of Society
Friction with groups: family, work, class, institutions — the rule versus the self.
Crime Comedy
Plans, transgression, moral systems turning ridiculous — the law as farce engine.
Neo-Nonsense
Post-war modern comedy: obsession, drift, new logics — the world as unstable machine.
By decade
A fast way to feel tone shifts across time. Click a decade to jump to its list.
A–Z novel guides
Search by title or author. Filter by major current, decade, or “Neo lineage” crossover.
Titles & translations
Some entries are kept under an English working title when no confirmed English edition exists. The original title remains visible inside each guide (and can be refined later).