Combined in this volume are three of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's most loved works, The School for Scandal and The Rivals and The Critic. «The School for Scandal» is Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic comedy that pokes fun at London upper class society in the late 1700s. Often referred to as a «comedy of manners», «The School for Scandal» is one Sheridan's most performed plays and a classic of English comedic drama. «The Rivals» w ...
John Ford (1586-1637) was an English playwright and poet whose interest in aberrant psychology helped him create very unique and very successful works. After collaboration with various playwrights, from about 1621 to 1625, Ford began working independently, writing plays for theatrical companies like the «Kings Men» at the Blackfriars. Following the literary reign of such figures as Jonson, Marlowe, and Shakespeare, Ford felt the need to shock an ...
William Butler Yeats was born near Dublin in 1865, and was encouraged from a young age to pursue a life in the arts. He attended art school for a short while, but soon found that his talents and interest lay in poetry rather than painting. He became an instrumental figure in the «Irish Literary Revival» of the 20th Century that redefined Irish writing. Yeats was a complex man, who struggled between beliefs in the strange and supernatural, and sc ...
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an instrumental figure in the «Irish Literary Revival» of the 20th Century that redefined Irish writing. His father's love of reading aloud exposed Yeats early on to William Shakespeare, the Romantic poets and the pre-Raphaelites, and developed an interest in Irish myths and folklore. He was a complex man, who struggled between beliefs in the strange and supernatural, and scorn for modern science. He was ...
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is revered as one of the great British dramatists, credited not only with memorable works, but the revival of the then-suffering English theatre. Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, left mostly to his own devices after his mother ran off to London to pursue a musical career. He educated himself for the most part, and eventually worked for a real estate agent. This experience founded in him a concern for social injus ...
Considered one of the greatest short story writers of all-time, Anton Chekhov also wrote several plays that are regarded as true dramatic classics. Collected in this volume are five of Chekhov's most popular dramatic works: «Ivanov», «The Sea-Gull», «Uncle Vanya», «Three Sisters», and «The Cherry Orchard». Translated from the Russian by Marian Fell and Julius West, this collection shows Chekhov at his literary best. ...
Aristophanes, the greatest of comic writers in Greek and in the opinion of many, in any language, is the only one of the Attic comedians any of whose works has survived in complete form He was born in Athens about the middle of the fifth century B C, and had his first comedy produced when he was so young that his name was withheld on account of his youth. He is credited with over forty plays, eleven of which survive, along with the names and fra ...
"Lady Windermere's Fan" is Oscar Wilde's classic comedic play set in London in the late 19th century. It is the story of Lady Windermere who becomes jealous of her husband's interest in Mrs. Erlynne. Lady Windermere suspects her husband of infidelity, however unbeknownst to her, Mrs. Erlynne is really Lady Windermere's divorced mother who for the last 20 years was thought to be dead. ...
Aristophanes's «The Birds» is one of the great dramatic comedies from all of classical antiquity. It is the story of Euelpides and Pisthetaerus, two old Athenians, who are disgusted with the litigiousness, wrangling and sycophancy of their countrymen, and resolve upon quitting Attica. Having heard of the fame of Epops (the hoopoe), sometime called Tereus, and now King of the Birds, they determine, under the direction of a raven and a jackda ...
