Author: George Etherege Publisher: A&C Black ISBN: 1408144654 Category : Drama Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
Verbal brilliance, urbane sophistication and sexual conquest are the measures of success for the fashionable set who watched themselves being represented on the Restoration stage. Yet idealisation and satire, as this edition of Etherege's masterpiece shows, are flip sides of the same coin, and the play betrays deep anxieties about ridicule and social failure. Any London beau would emulate Dorimant, the unconscionable rake who loves 'em and leaves 'em, but he would also secretly fear that he in fact resembled Sir Fopling Flutter, the model of all Restoration fops, in his vanity and affectation. The women fare no better, being offered for identification Dorimant's discarded mistress Loveit, scheming for revenge, or the beautiful but hard-headed Harriet, who dares Dorimant to woo her in the country, for 'I know all beyond Hyde Park is a desert to you and that no gallantry can draw you farther'.
Author: George Etherege Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1474289525 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
Arguably the most perfectly poised of Restoration wit comedies, The Man of Mode is a finished exercise in dramatic sprezzatura, or nonchalance, matching the beguiling 'easiness' and 'complaisance' of its central character. The play's imaginative brilliance depends upon its author's ability to hint at the dark abyss of passion and emotional violence at whose edge the modish denizens of the town perform their graceful ballet. Its seemingly casual construction and wanton breaches of comic decorum mask a ferocious artistic control designed to upset the complacency of the audience's moral, social and aesthetic assumptions by luring them into sympathy for a character whose dangerous 'wildness' they ought to deplore. It is at once among the funniest and the most unsettling of comedies in English. The full, modernized play text is accompanied by incisive commentary notes, while its engaging introduction unpacks the complexity of the Restoration's political and theatrical context, analyses the play's performance history (including Nicholas Hytner's 2007 modern-dress version) and demonstrates Etherege's linguistic finesse. This edition is supplemented by a plot summary and an annotated bibliography. The New Mermaids plays offer: · Modernized versions of the play text edited to the highest textual standards · Fully annotated student editions with obscure words explained and critical, contextual and staging insight provided on each page · Full Introductions analyzing context, themes, author background and stage history
Author: Scott McMillin Publisher: W. W. Norton ISBN: Category : Drama Languages : en Pages : 580
Book Description
The five plays included in this volume William Wycherley's "The Country Wife," Sir George Etherege's "The Man of Mode," William Congreve's "The Way of the World," Sir Richard Steele's "The Conscious Lovers" and Richard B. Sheridan's "The School for Scandal" are the most distinguished comedies written during an especially exciting and innovative period in the London theater and English society. This Norton critical edition offers an authoritative text for each play and a unique collection of documents and critical essays (ranging from Charles Lamb to the present) for a deeper understanding of them.
Author: Barbara Kachur Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1137047798 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
Etherege & Wycherley is the first book-length study devoted solely to these two leading comic dramatists of the early Restoration period. B.A. Kachur explores the major plays by George Etherege and William Wycherley within the context of the cultural, social and political changes that marked the reign of Charles II, and addresses issues such as marriage, manners, heroism, sovereignty and anxieties over class hierarchies which preoccupied late seventeenth-century England. The book provides studies of the following plays: - She Would If She Could - The Man of Mode - The Country Wife - The Plain Dealer In addition to examining the plays as cultural and historical texts, Kachur offers: - Biographical sketches detailing the dramaturgical styles of the two playwrights - An overview of Charles II's reign, including its effects on the dramatic literature of the era - A survey of Carolean theatre and drama outlining innovations in staging, and major dramatic genres - Performance histories which illuminate the ways in which twentieth-century directors have interpreted the comedies to make them accessible to modern audiences
Author: George Etherege
Author: Sir George Etherege
Author: George Etherege
Author: George Etherege
Author: Scott McMillin
Author: Sir George Etherege
Author: Barbara Kachur
Author: George Etherege
Author: George Etherege
Author: Sir George Etherege