Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy

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RESTORATION AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COMEDY
The First Edition of this acclaimed classroom text presented five distinguished comedies from an especially exciting and innovative period in English theater and society: William Wycherley's TAe Country Wi/e, George Etherege'sT^e Man 0/Mode, William Congreve's TheWay of the World. Richard Steele's The Conscious Lovers, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal. This Second Edition builds on its predecessor's strengths by adding a sixth play, Aphra Behn's The Rover, a comedy that has clearly come into prominence in recent years. The plays are fully annotated for the modern reader and are accompanied by six illustrations.
The close relationship between theater and society during the period continues to be the focus of "Contexts." The editor offers contemporary discussions on the following topics: "On Wit, Humour, and Laughter: 1650-1775," "The Collier Controversy: 1698," "Steele and Dennis: On The Man of Mode and The Conscious... Tovább

Fülszöveg

RESTORATION AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COMEDY
The First Edition of this acclaimed classroom text presented five distinguished comedies from an especially exciting and innovative period in English theater and society: William Wycherley's TAe Country Wi/e, George Etherege'sT^e Man 0/Mode, William Congreve's TheWay of the World. Richard Steele's The Conscious Lovers, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal. This Second Edition builds on its predecessor's strengths by adding a sixth play, Aphra Behn's The Rover, a comedy that has clearly come into prominence in recent years. The plays are fully annotated for the modern reader and are accompanied by six illustrations.
The close relationship between theater and society during the period continues to be the focus of "Contexts." The editor offers contemporary discussions on the following topics: "On Wit, Humour, and Laughter: 1650-1775," "The Collier Controversy: 1698," "Steele and Dennis: On The Man of Mode and The Conscious Lovers." and "Stages, Actors, and Audiences."
"Criticism" has been revised to reflect recent approaches in scholarly interpretations. Two seminal essays from the First Edition have been retained—Charles Lamb's appreciation of the period's comedy and L. C. Knights's condemnation of it. New essays by locelyn Powell, Harriett Hawkins, Elin Diamond, Martin Price, and Laura Brown have been added.
The Selected Bibliography has been thoroughly updated.
ABOUT THE SERIES: Each Norton Critical Edition includes an authoritative text, contextual and source nnaterials, and a wide range of interpretations— from contemporary perspectives to the most current critical theory—as well as a bibliography and, in most cases, a chronology of the author's life and work.
Cover illustration: The "screen scene" from The School for Scandal, reproduced by permission of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Vissza