A-Z Wednesday: "D"

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicki at Reading At The Beach, and here are the guidelines:

To join, here's all you have to do:

Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:

1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc.)
4~ Return to the host's blog and leave your link in the comments.

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This week's letter for A-Z Wednesday is "D." So I went to my shelves, and this is what I pulled out.

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, by Will Cuppy (1950)

1. Description from GoodReads:

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 hilarious biographies. You'll laugh while you learn about the very real people behind the legendary names, including why Montezuma was so vengeful, and why Catherine was so Great. You'll even finally lay to rest the rumor that Charlemagne was called "Chuck" by his friends.

2. See a little more about the book and the author (and read a few excerpts) here.

3. And a photo of the recent reissue:


Cuppy's wonderful humor is reason enough to read the book. But the original illustrations by William Steig are a very special added attraction.