A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears

Wizards, magic powder, giants and a funny prince make this book very specialPrince Roger sets out eagerly on a quest and finds a few adventures, a lot of friends, a damsel or two in distress (not!) and himself, in the end. A ‘carrier of joy’ whose mere presence causes everyone to laugh uncontrollably, Roger finds cruelty and kindness equally amusing, and expects his quest to be a lark. It’s anything but: As Roger passes through the Forever Forest, nearly starves at the Dastardly Divide, sees people at their worst in the Valley of Vengeance, and temporarily despairs in the Mountains of Malice, he sobers up, learns to care for others, becomes an expert peacemaker, does Good Deeds, and falls in love with Lady Sadie, who says what she thinks as she repeatedly saves his bacon.’—K. ‘Feiffer’s worldly-wise, confiding tone and sense of the absurd are highly congenial, and the drawings are a vintage Feiffer delight.’—Publishers Weekly.100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1995 (NY Public Library)Uploader's noteThe original paper book/PDF contains lots of illustrations, the author's line drawings. Hundreds of them. He sometimes comments on them ("Take this guy. See how grumpy he is?"...).With one exception, I have decided not to spend the many hours it would take to copy and insert the images into the EPUB. If you want illustrations, get the PDF. If you prefer using an e-reader and "only" want to read the story, which is indeed very funny and read-worthy on it's own - this EPUB is for you.---First published 1995No retail ebook availableCreated from PDF of the paperback 1998 edition (3rd printing 2000) Michael di Capua Books/HarperCollins180 pagesISBN 0-36-205926-2Converted by xun to EPUB2 with ABBYY, properly designed in Sigil, validated with FlightCrew.Proofread by MSheila in Sigil.