The Country Wife (NHB Drama Classics) - Softcover

William Wycherley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1854592254 ISBN 13: 9781854592255

Publisher: Nick Hern Books, 2001

Synopsis

Number fifty-one in NHB's Drama Classics Series, providing the world's great drama at a great price.

The introduction to this edition of The Country Wife includes a short biography of William Wycherly and chronology of his work; a guide to what happens in the play; a short history of the play its source material, form and context; and a guide to Restoration comedy, society and theatre.

Restoration era London: Puritan laws and censorship laws are repealed; theatres re-open; and the cosmopolitan wives are living it up with extravagance, infidelity and impertinence towards their cuckold husbands. But when Margery the country wife comes to town, she arrives with strict handholding from her uptight husband and is promptly locked in a house. But then the door opens to Horner, a reputed womanizer...

About this title

Review:

The Country Wife is shown to surpass much Restoration comedy in structural and thematic unity by counterpointing the principal's attitudes on sex and marriage. Although the plot is episodic and portrays multiple sets of lovers, Wycherley succeeds in evolving a clear dramatic line. --Seventeenth Century News

Book Description:

Cambridge Literature is a series of literary texts edited for study by students aged 14–18 in English-speaking classrooms. It will include novels, poetry, short stories, essays, travel-writing and other non-fiction. The series will be extensive and open-ended, and will provide school students with a range of edited texts taken from a wide geographical spread. It will include writing in English from various genres and differing times. The Country Wife by William Wycherley is edited by Ken Bush, Denefield School, Reading.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1854592254
• ISBN 13: 9781854592255
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160
• Editor: Trevor Griffiths