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First performed in 1773, "She Stoops to Conquer" is the timeless comedic drama by Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. The play depicts the story of Charles Marlow, a wealthy young man who is promised in marriage to a woman, Kate Hardcastle that he has never met. While he is eager to meet her and is travelling to her home with his friend, George Hastings, Charles is quite shy in the company of women of wealth. He prefers those of a lower class and...
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Close friends Valentine and Proteus become rivals for the hand of Silvia, daughter of the Duke of Milan, who has promised her to the foolish coward Thurio. Proteus has Valentine banished, but Silvia escapes to the forest to join him. Proteus follows with Julia, who dotes on him. After a confrontation, the Duke eventually allows Valentine and Silvia to wed, and Proteus marries Julia.
4) The frogs
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"This riotous play from ancient Greece's greatest comic dramatist blends fancy dress, earthy slapstick and political debate" --
5) Arcadia
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"In a large country house in Derbyshire in April 1809 sit Lady Thomasina Coverly, aged thirteen, and her tutor, Septimus Hodge. Through the window may be seen some of the '500 acres inclusive of lake' where Capability Brown's idealized landscape is about to give way to the 'picturesque' Gothic style: 'everything but vampires', as the garden historian Hannah Jarvis remarks to Bernard Nightingale when they stand in the same room 180 years later. Bernard...
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This Vintage edition of The Plays of Oscar Wilde contains the plays that made Wilde one of the most important dramatists of his time, including The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the great works of modern literature. Oscar Wilde's plays demonstrate once again why their author must be seen as both an inaugurator and a master of modernism. In his best work, the subversive insights embedded in his wit continue to challenge our common assumptions....
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Shakespeare loved to use the device of mistaken identity, and nowhere does he use this convention more skilfully than in Twelfth Night. Viola, surviving a shipwreck, walks ashore at Illyria, and immediately embarks on a gambit to allow her to make her way in a world of men. Dressed as a man, Viola, now Cesario, insinuates herself into the service of the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. Orsino longs for the love of a neighbouring countess, Olivia , who as...
9) The birds
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In this play, middle-aged Athenian Pisthetaerus creates a new city in the sky assisted by birds, thereby gaining control over all communications between men and gods. He is transformed into a bird-like figure and, with the help of his friends, the birds, he soon replaces Zeus as the pre-eminent power in the cosmos.
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"This edition of All's Well That Ends Well provides, a clear and authoritative text, detailed notes and commentary on the same page as the text, a full introduction discussing the critical and historical background to the play and appendices presenting sources and relevant extracts."--Arden Shakespeare
11) The real thing
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"...The play opens with Max and Charlotte, a couple whose marriage is on the verge of collapse. Charlotte, it is revealed, is actually an actress who is appearing in a play written by her husband, Henry. Max, who plays Charlotte's husband in the piece, is also married to an actress, Annie. Both marriage are at the point of rupture because Henry and Annie have fallen in love. But is it the real thing? Tom Stoppard combines his characteristic wordplay...
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Love and marriage are the concerns of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Lucentio's marriage to Bianca is prompted by his idealized love of an apparently ideal woman. Petruchio's wooing of Katherine, however, is free of idealism. Petruchio takes money from Bianca's suitors to woo her, since Katherine must marry before her sister by her father's decree; he also arranges the dowry with her father. Petruchio is then ready to marry Katherine, even...
13) The rivals
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"Immensely popular comedy of manners featuring such memorable characters as the lovely Lydia Languish, her suitor, Capt. Jack Absolute; and Lydia's aunt -- Mrs. Malaprop, cleverly revolves around false identities, romantic entanglements, and parental disapproval." --
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This is one of Shakespeare's darkest comedies, for the romantic story of a young man, Bassanio, who has squandered his fortune and must borrow money to woo the wealthy lady he loves is set against the more disturbing story of the Jewish moneylender Shylock and his demand for the 'pound of flesh' owed him by the Venetian merchant, Antonio. Here pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic entanglement to display the extraordinary power...
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A satire directed against intellectual pride and pedantry. The King of Navarre and three of his lords vow to spend three years in study and not to see any women. But when the Princess of France arrives with her three ladies, the men break their vow and fall in love with them.
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"The lost twin sons of the old merchant Egeon--both named Antipholus--find themselves in Ephesus, without either one even knowing of the other's existence. Meanwhile, Egeon has arrived in search of the son he thinks is still alive--and has been sentenced to death for the "crime" of being from Syracuse. To add to the confusion, the two Antipholuses have twin servants, both named Dromio. As the four men unwittingly encounter each other, the play is...
17) The Acharnians
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A farcical comedy about war and peace.
18) Tartuffe
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"The religious fraud Tartuffe has wormed his way into the affections and household of rich merchant Orgon, with pantomime piety and counterfeit zeal. So comprehensively has he hoodwinked his host that he looks set to succeed in driving away the son, marrying the daughter, seducing the wife and imprisoning Orgon. Moliere's classic satire was denounced on its first performance as a sacreligious outrage and banned from further public view. Only after...
19) Broadway bound
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[1987]
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Neil Simon continues the semiautobiographical trilogy begun with Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues. Broadway Bound begins with the efforts of Eugene Jerome and his older brother to launch a career as a comedy writing team.
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