London Assurance (New Mermaids) - Softcover

Dion Boucicault

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0713626097 ISBN 13: 9780713626094

Publisher: Adam and Charles Black New Mermaids, 2004

Synopsis

Dion Boucicault was a witty, selfish and deceitful charmer, a bigamist, a profligate spendthrift and the author of dozens of successful plays, only a handful of which endure. Among these his early comedies influenced Oscar Wilde, and his Irish melodramas Shaw, Synge, and O'Casey. London Assurance was his first success, a 'modern comedy' which opened at Covent Garden in 1841 and was the hit of the season.

This is the first fully-annotated edition of the play, and it includes an outline of the author's amazing career, an account of the play's composition, and a critical introduction.

About this title

Review:

Sparking, uproarious comedy, bursting with elegant, biting but warm-hearted wit and revelling in its own mastery of theatrical skill. --The Sunday Times

The play brims with brio and youthful high spirits. --The Independent

About the Author:

Dion Boucicault (b. 1820) was an Irish playwright and actor, known as much for his colourful life as his enduring dramas. Called 'the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century' by the New York Times, he was a great favourite of Queen Victoria, who commissioned a portrait of him to hang at Windsor Castle. Boucicault lived on both sides of the Atlantic, becoming a theatrical innovator (championing matinees, and sensational on-stage spectacles) and, with 1895's Octoroon, one of the first authors to depict the life of black people in the US. London Assurance is probably his best known work, though other plays such as The Colleen Bawn and The Shaughraun went on to influence the next crop of Irish dramatists from Wilde to Synge and O'Casey.

About this edition

• Publisher: Adam and Charles Black New Mermaids
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0713626097
• ISBN 13: 9780713626094
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 137
• Editor: James L Smith