The Way of the World - Couverture souple

Congreve, William

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 055703194X ISBN 13 : 9780557031948

Editeur : Lulu Press, Inc., 2008

Synopsis

William Congreve's "The Way of the World" represents a large, distinguished, and notorious body of drama—Restoration comedy; and more specifically, it is one of the most brilliant examples of the English "comedy of manners," which gives an external picture of social life, with all its activity, intrigues, and foibles. The chief foreign influence under which it arose is that of Molière, though by no means can all of its traits be traced to his paternity. The type is easily recognizable by its characterization, its plotting, its style, and its morals. Long after we have forgotten the story, the impression of the whole play is almost as sharp as ever, the impression of a gay, unscrupulous social life, and of unparalleled mental agility and cleverness. "The Way of the World," for all its malice, all its irony, all its merriment, is as austere as tragedy, as rarefied as thought itself.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

eat honour of our country, have flourished under your influence and protection. In the meantime, poetry, the eldest sister of all arts, and parent of most, seems to have resigned her birthright, by having neglected to pay her duty to your lordship, and by permitting others of a later extraction to prepossess that place in your esteem, to which none can pretend a better title. Poetry, in its nature, is sacred to the good and great: the relation between them is reciprocal, and they are ever propitious to it. It is the privilege of poetry to address them, and it is their prerogative alone to give it protection. This received maxim is a general apology for all writers who consecrate their labours to great men: but I could wish, at this time, that this address were exempted from the common pretence of all dedications; and that as I can distinguish your lordship even among the most deserving, so this offering might become remarkable by some particular instance of respect, which should assure your lordship

Présentation de l'éditeur

If seventeenth- and eighteenth-century comedy differ in that the former is about sex (and adultery actually happens) while the latter is about love (and adultery is merely threatened), then Congreve - writing at the turn of the century - occupies a phase of transition. Mirabell is no saint, but he deserves the title of 'hero' for masterminding the action with the same wit and humanity with which the dramatist designed the play. Mirabell is both financially and amorously interested in the skittish Millamant, who declares that she might, with certain provisos, 'dwindle into a wife'. The introduction to this edition clarifies the playwright's and his characters' highly intricate plotting and argues that the key metaphor of the play is card-playing, in which fortune, cunning, concealment and a high trump drawn from the sleeve at the right moment will win the game - and the heiress.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Lulu Press, Inc.
• Date d'édition: 2008
• ISBN 10: 055703194X
• ISBN 13: 9780557031948
• Reliure: Broché
• Langue: anglais
• Nombre de pages: 112
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible