Three Restoration Comedies eBook: William Congreve, George Etherege, William Wycherley: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Product Description

After the restoration of King Charles II to the British throne in 1660, dramatists experienced new freedom in an age that broke from the strict morality of puritan rule and in which elegance and wit became the chief virtues. Irreverent, licentious and cynical, the three plays collected here hold up a mirror to this dazzling era and satirize the gulf between appearances and reality. In Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676), the womanizing Dorimant meets his match when he falls in love with the unpretentious Harriet, while Wycherley's The Country Wife (c. 1675) depicts the rakish Horner who fakes impotence to fool trusting husbands into giving him easy access to their wives. And in Congreve's Love for Love (1695), the extravagant Valentine can only win his beloved Angelica if he loses his inheritance.

About the Author

George Etherege (1636-1689) invented the comedy of intrigue, and led the way for the masterpieces of Congreve and Sheridan.

William Wycherley (1640?-1716) is famous for his brilliant wit and savagely clever satire which give him a prominent place in the history of English Restoration drama.

William Congreve (1670-1729) was apprenticed under the tutelage of John Dryden. Congreve's wit and his characters' sexual freedom and experimentation were at odds with the thinking of certain moralists of the day. However, he has since been considered one of the most intellectually accomplished of English playwrights.

Gamini Salgado was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and came to England in 1947 to attend the University of Nottingham. He became an expert on Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, and was appointed to the Chair of English at Exeter University in 1977. He died in 1985.

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The type of comedy praised by Voltaire 24 Nov 2011

By Antonio L. Rodriguez

Format:Mass Market Paperback

The comedies produced from 1660, that is after the restauration of the monarchy by Charles II are a mirror, a humourous one, of the English society of the moment. Cromwell, it is well known, closed the theatres. We can know a lot of that period reading Pepy's diary or the books written by J. Evelyn but it's also recommendable to read literature of fiction of that period. Between the five better authors of comedies of the restauration three of them are without any doubt Etherege, Wycherly and Congreve. The book 'Three Restauration Comedies' includes one comedy of each of this authors and the selection have been very adequate. The introduction, made by the editor, is very interesting and readable. The book is beatifully edited.
Congreve received the visit of Voltaire and there is a short account of this visit in his 'Letters on England'. Voltaire was received also by George I, but not by Newton.

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