Volpone - Couverture souple

Jonson, Ben

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0713654333 ISBN 13 : 9780713654332

Editeur : Methuen Drama, 2003

Synopsis

Volphone's reverential prayer to his heaps of gold launches the sharpest, funniest play about money and morals in the 17th century - a play still wickedly relevant on the same topics four centuries later. Ben Jonson's comedy depicts selfishness thinly veiled by sanctimonious speeches, lust and possessiveness poorly disguised as love and marriage, and cynical legalism passing itself off as pure justice, alongside snobbery, class warfare and greed. The wily protagonists keep a dozen conventional plots spinning in the minds of their dupes, and when their amazing juggling act finally unravels, there are yet more twists - and an even deeper cynicisim - to the story. The play is partly a beast-fable: the wily fox, Volpone, plays dead to lure flesh-eating birds that he can then consume. But the beasts are the human race, and polite society the biggest, greediest scam of them all. This student edition contains a lengthy Introduction with background on the author, date and sources, critical interpretation and stage history. Robert N. Watson is Distinguished Professor of English at UCLA. His publications include Critical Essays on Ben Jonson (as editor) and Ben Jonson's Parodic Strategy. He also edited the New Mermaids edition of Every Man in His Humour.

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Ben Jonson (1572-1637) was an English dramatist and poet, whose reputation amongst playwrights of the period is only second only to Shakespeare's. Although Jonson found little success as an actor, his reputation as a dramatist was firmly established in 1598 with Every Man in his Humour. This sucess was followed by Every Man out of his Humour and the classically influenced satire Cynthia's Revels. Jonson wrote all of the major comedies upon which his reputation is now based during the period 1605 to 1614.

Robert N. Watson is Distinguished Professor of English and Associate Dean of Humanities at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He is the author of many award-winning books, including Back to Nature: The Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance (2006) and Shakespeare and the Hazards of Ambition (2004), and editor of several volumes of Ben Jonson's plays.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Methuen Drama
• Date d'édition: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0713654333
• ISBN 13: 9780713654332
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 208
• Éditeur: Watson Robert N.
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible