The Works of George Farquhar: Volume I
George Farquhar author Shirley Strum Kenny editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:30th Jun '88
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
George Farquhar was the most popular, and perhaps the best playwright of his time. The Irish-born actor and military officer arrived in London before he was twenty, captivated audiences with his lively, good-natured comedy, philandered with the leading actresses and female playwrights, married a widow with children, and wrote, besides the eight plays, many poems, letters, prologues and epilogues, an epic, and a miscellany, before his untimely death in 1707, not yet thirty. Shirley Strum Kenny has provided the first scholarly edition of the works since Stonehill's in 1730, in a reliable old-spelling text. She has added to the canon materials not printed since the beginning of the eighteenth century, some of which have never before been identified as Farquhar's. Each play has an introduction describing its sources and composition, theatrical and publication history, influence, and textual problems. The introductions to the non-dramatic works contain similar information, and relate the works to the contemporary events which occasioned them. Questions of authorship for newly-identified works, and possible or doubtful attributions are carefully considered.
'this is a highly satisfactory edition ... And with its appearance, we can hope for some overdue reassessment of Farquhar. Farquhar is a more important and varied writer than anthologies reveal, and this edition represents scholarship of a high order. It will remain a much-used and valued tool long after the six trendy critical monographs you might buy instead have lapsed into datedness and desuetude. Unfashionable as such scholarly monuments have become, we should be grateful to Shirley Kenny for her years of editorial labour and to OUP for continuing to make such editions available.' Robert D. Hume, The Pennsylvania State University. Philological Quarterly
'impressive edition ... Professor Kenny has provided a critical edition of Farquhar ... incomparably the best edition in which to read Farquhar' D.J. Womersley, Jesus College, Oxford, Notes and Queries
'I cannot fault her edition ... an authoritative and readable text.' Patrick O'Sullivan, University of Bradford, British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
'Each of the pieces has an introduction which discusses sources, composition, and publication, together with a thorough stage history. The explanatory notes are substantial, and there is a full index. All this richly detailed information is compactly presented and will be invaluable to students of Farquhar and his theatre ... a substantial achievement for which one is grateful.' Paul Hammond, University of Leeds, Review of English Studies, Vol XLI No 163 Aug '90
ISBN: 9780198118589
Dimensions: 224mm x 147mm x 42mm
Weight: 972g
690 pages