Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) was an exceptional French writer of prose comedy during the eighteenth century. He is best known for his theatrical works of the three Figaro plays. Beaumarchais had an action-filled career as a watchmaker, musician, secret agent, businessman, diplomat and a financer of revolutions. His literary career was as turbulent as his personal life. After a series of lawsuits in Paris, the accounts of his trials made his reputation as a sarcastic,...
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 a period of major collaboration with various playwrights, from about 1621 to 1625, Ford began working independently; writing plays for theatrical companies like the King's Men at the Blackfriars. Following the literary reign of such figures as Jonson, Marlowe and Shakespeare, Ford felt the need to shock and intrigue audiences with new...
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) was an exceptional French writer of prose comedy during the eighteenth century. He is best known for his theatrical works of the three Figaro plays. Beaumarchais had an action-filled career as a watchmaker, musician, secret agent, businessman, diplomat and a financer of revolutions. His literary career was as turbulent as his personal life. After a series of lawsuits in Paris, the accounts of his trials made his reputation as a sarcastic,...
Ben Jonson's career began in 1597 when he held a fixed engagement in the «Admiral's Men», and although he was unsuccessful as an actor, his literary talent was apparent and he began writing original plays for the troupe. It is known that Shakespeare's company produced several of Jonson's plays, Shakespeare himself appearing in at least one, («Every Man in His Humour»). «Bartholomew Fair» was written in 1614, during the time considered to be Jonson's heyday (1605-1620),...
Born in Skien, Norway in 1828, Henrik Ibsen has often been referred to as the founder of modern drama and modernism in theatre. Ibsen was widely known as an atheist and political radical, and channeled some of those sentiments into his works. «Peer Gynt» captures humankind's unsure, imperfect and opportunistic nature in many memorable scenes: a portrait so intimate and accurate that the play has become a classic in Norwegian literature. This five act play was based on the Norwegian fairy...
Written during the highly successful final years of his life, the plays contained in this edition represent the pinnacle of Moliere's artistry and the most profound demonstration of his vision of humanity: «The Misanthrope,» «The Doctor in Spite of Himself,» a hilarious example of Molière's long-standing skepticism of the medical profession, «The Miser,» «The Shopkeeper Turned Gentleman,» «The Impostures of Scapin,» «The Learned Women,» and «The Imaginary Invalid,» the play that...
This work includes seven of the plays that accredited Molière as the greatest and best-loved French playwright of all times: «The Pretentious Young Ladies,» «The School for Husbands,» «The School for Wives,» a comedy of infidelity and his first great success, «The Critique of the School for Wives,» «The Impromptu of Versailles,» «Tartuffe,» a highly controversial play in its time, and «Don Juan.» Although «Tartuffe» was immediately censured and banned for several years after its appearance on...
