She Stoops to Conquer

Oliver Goldsmith author James Ogden editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:29th Aug '03

Should be back in stock very soon

She Stoops to Conquer cover

This drama text is one of a series of important English plays. It includes a critical introduction, biography of the author, discussions of date and sources, textual details, a bibliography and information about the staging of She Stoops to Conquer"."

The action of She Stoops to Conquer (1773) is largely confined to a night and a day in Squire Hardcastle's somewhat dilapidated country house: Young Marlow, on his way there to meet the bride his father has chosen for him, loses his way and arrives at the house assuming it is an inn. The prospect of meeting the genteel Miss Hardcastle terrifies the diffident youngster; but the serving-girl Kate - in fact, Miss Hardcastle, who chooses not to clarify the misunderstanding - immediately catches his fancy and cannot complain of a lack of ardour in her well-born suitor. After a series of trifling confusions and the inevitable eavesdropping-from-behind-a-screen, all is resolved so pleasingly that the comedy has been a favourite with amateur and professional companies and their audiences for over 230 years.

Oliver Goldsmith's comedy was a milestone: yes, it's fast and funny, almost farcical at times, a great night out, and so on, but it's also a psychological masterpiece written at the time when English society began its stately progress towards its admirable class system. Sunday Times "A bomproof comedy...Oliver Goldsmith's play is about the clash between town and country, between varying degrees of pretension." Robert Dawson Scott, The Times, 04.06.08 'Against Sean Crowley's elegant blank canvas of a set, which allows a home to be mistaken for an inn, Goldsmith's themes of class and snobbery unfold with delicious clarity. The performances are both ticklish and sophisticated - the actors step outside the action to address the audience directly - and yet played for traditional laughs and tremendous relish.' Elisabeth Mahoney, Gaurdian, 01 May 2009

ISBN: 9780713667943

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 6mm

Weight: 128g

144 pages

2nd edition