Comedy of Manners

Comedy of Manners PDF Author: David L. Hirst
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351629905
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
First published in 1979, this book traces comedy of manners from the 1660s to the then present — a scope beyond the traditional focus on the Restoration and early twentieth century. It uncovers an underestimated subversive potential and socially critical force in this particularly English dramatic form, emphasising the distinctive subjects and style that distinguish it from more general forms of witty social satire. The author discusses the major comic dramatists of the post-Restoration period; reassesses the significance of Sheridan, Wilde and Coward; and examines the continuation of the tradition in modern writers. This book will be of interest to students of English literature and drama.

Comedy of Manners

Comedy of Manners PDF Author: David L. Hirst
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351629905
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 138

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in 1979, this book traces comedy of manners from the 1660s to the then present — a scope beyond the traditional focus on the Restoration and early twentieth century. It uncovers an underestimated subversive potential and socially critical force in this particularly English dramatic form, emphasising the distinctive subjects and style that distinguish it from more general forms of witty social satire. The author discusses the major comic dramatists of the post-Restoration period; reassesses the significance of Sheridan, Wilde and Coward; and examines the continuation of the tradition in modern writers. This book will be of interest to students of English literature and drama.

The Comedy of Manners

The Comedy of Manners PDF Author: John Palmer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English drama
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description


The School for Scandal

The School for Scandal PDF Author: Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description


The Contrast

The Contrast PDF Author: Cynthia A. Kierner
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814783430
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
“The Contrast“, which premiered at New York City's John Street Theater in 1787, was the first American play performed in public by a professional theater company. The play, written by New England-born, Harvard-educated, Royall Tyler was timely, funny, and extremely popular. When the play appeared in print in 1790, George Washington himself appeared at the head of its list of hundreds of subscribers. Reprinted here with annotated footnotes by historian Cynthia A. Kierner, Tyler’s play explores the debate over manners, morals, and cultural authority in the decades following American Revolution. Did the American colonists' rejection of monarchy in 1776 mean they should abolish all European social traditions and hierarchies? What sorts of etiquette, amusements, and fashions were appropriate and beneficial? Most important, to be a nation, did Americans need to distinguish themselves from Europeans—and, if so, how? Tyler was not the only American pondering these questions, and Kierner situates the play in its broader historical and cultural contexts. An extensive introduction provides readers with a background on life and politics in the United States in 1787, when Americans were in the midst of nation-building. The book also features a section with selections from contemporary letters, essays, novels, conduct books, and public documents, which debate issues of the era.

Interpreting Ladies

Interpreting Ladies PDF Author: Pat Gill
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780820316642
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Interpreting Ladies explores the defense by the Restoration comedy of manners of an ideal of aristocratic, conservative, English masculinity against the heavily satirized encroachments of French foppishness and the pretensions of the aspiring merchant class. Using Freud's theory of obscene wit, in which obscene jokes become reassuring testimonies of male privilege, as well as more recent theoretical descriptions of the discursive processes of meaning and desire, Gill considers the position of both the female protagonists and the female spectators in Restoration satire. She sketches the historical events and issues that create the link between morality and rhetoric and that serve to connect each to class and status. Gill posits that the moral indeterminacy and slippage in satiric language is closely linked to male uneasiness about female honesty, and the dramatists' arguments in defense of their satiric treatments of female hypocrisy, duplicity, and sexual desire expose the gap in the moral premise of Restoration comic satire. It is a gap, Gill contends, that has everything to do with women - with female characters and putative female spectators - and it is why she states that "any reading that proposes to account for the equivocal satiric practice of Restoration comedy must therefore of necessity include a feminist critique".

This Much Huxley Knows

This Much Huxley Knows PDF Author: Gail Aldwin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781684337316
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Seven-year-old Huxley searches for a best friend but life is confusing when he doesn't know who is trustworthy.

˜Theœ way of the world

˜Theœ way of the world PDF Author: William Congreve
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description


The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest PDF Author: Oscar Wilde
Publisher: First Avenue Editions ™
ISBN: 1467756547
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 93

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Book Description
Jack Worthing gets antsy living at his country estate. As an excuse, he spins tales of his rowdy brother Earnest living in London. When Jack rushes to the city to confront his "brother," he's free to become Earnest and live a different lifestyle. In London, his best friend, Algernon, begins to suspect Earnest is leading a double life. Earnest confesses that his real name is Jack and admits the ruse has become tricky as two women have become enchanted with the idea of marrying Earnest. On a whim, Algernon also pretends to be Earnest and encounters the two women as they meet at the estate. With two Earnests who aren't really earnest and two women in love with little more than a name, this play is a classic comedy of errors. This is an unabridged version of Oscar Wilde's English play, first published in 1899.

Marriage ? la Mode

Marriage ? la Mode PDF Author: John Dryden
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803265561
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Whether for love or ambition, for parental approval or reasons of state, marriage has complicated the lives of all who enter into it. First performed in 1671, Dryden’s Marriage à la Mode portrays the motives high and low that make marriage the pivotal institution of a nation. Like Dryden’s best tragicomedies, Marriage à la Mode has a double plot. The hopes that marriage excites and the regrets it suffers, the possibilities it opens and the opportunities it denies, its potential nobility and its vulnerability to decay provided Dryden with plentiful dramatic material. Comedy and pathos intersect in plots that entangle and surprise like marriage itself.

Daisy Miller

Daisy Miller PDF Author: Daniel Mark Fogel
Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title--offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged. American teenager Daisy miller was on a holiday--and Europe might never recover. From Switzerland to Rome, she caused scandals everywhere: because Daisy Miller did w"hatever" she wanted, with "whomever" she wanted, "whenever "she chose. And she truly didn't care what society thought. But Winterbourne, a dignified, proper, upper-crust young man, was utterly fascinated by her. To the horror of his relatives and friends, Winterbourne helplessly followed Daisy across a continent. Even though Daisy was too much woman for WInterbourne to every understand... And even though Daisy Miller might be a danger to herself.