''A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears'' is a

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

written and illustrated by

Jules Feiffer Jules Ralph Feiffer ( ; January 26, 1929 – January 17, 2025) was an American cartoonist and author, who at one time was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Pulitzer Prize for Editori ...

, first published in 1995 by HarperCollins. The first edition was a

library binding Library binding can be divided into the two major categories of "original" and "after market". The original category is as it says: the book was originally bound with the idea that it would be used in a library setting where the book would receiv ...

with 180 pages.

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Identities contains records of seven editions of this book in 765 libraries worldwide. There is a musical adaptation of the book with music by Julia Adolphe and libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann.

Synopsis

''A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears'' follows the young prince Roger, who haphazardly sets out on a quest to prepare himself to become king. The book expresses the emotions of various individuals through two long-lost lovers reunited, several unlikely couples marrying, and a friend-turned-evil's attempts for revenge. While Roger himself starts out as pure and innocent, he seems somewhat naive and incapable of feeling serious. The quest, which contains plenty of sad events, gradually brings Roger to a point where he still is humorous, but is caring about specific individuals as opposed to finding shallow humor in everything. The beautiful Princess Petulia, and her servant, likewise, find similar changes in personality through their experiences, as they go from being bitterly indifferent to loving and plainspoken to kinder respectively.

Publication history

* * * * * * * (German language)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrel Of Laughs American children's novels 1995 American novels 1995 fantasy novels Children's fantasy novels HarperCollins books Works by Jules Feiffer 1995 children's books Children's books about princes Novels about royalty