R.G. Collins opens this special issue of Mosaic with an essay titled “Nineteenth Century Literary Humor: The Wit and Warmth of Wiser Men?” in which the central question is: What is humour? In this issue we find essays that together provide a broad survey of nineteenth-century humour, with titles including: “Martin Chuzzlewit: The Novel as Comic Entertainment,” “Wayward Wisdom: Wordsworth’s Humor in Lyrical Ballads,” “Dickens: The Smile on the Face of the Dead,” and “Faun and Satyr: Meredith’s Theory of Comedy and The Egoist.”