The Playboy of the Western World and Two Other Irish Plays
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Book Overview
A murderer becomes the toast of the village as his charm negates his crime. A young countess saves her tenants from starvation, but only by selling her soul to the Devil. The sleepy parish of Nyadnanave sees a vision of a cockerel that dares the inhabitants to break the shackles of Church and State. All these plays were met with moral outrage and rioting in their native Ireland. Yeats's 'The Countess Cathleen' (1892), J. M. Synge's 'The Playboy of the Western World' (1907) and O'Casey's 'Cock-a-doodle Dandy' (1949) emerged from a period of traumatic change for Ireland. While the plays bear witness to the immmense social upheavals of the turn of the twentieth century, they also represent a new age of Irish drama that rose from the turmoil, and their lessons ring true to this day.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0140188789
ISBN13:9780140188783
Release Date:May 1997
Publisher:Penguin Group
Length:224 Pages
Weight:0.40 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 5.1" x 7.8"
Age Range:18 years and up
Grade Range:Postsecondary and higher
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Excellent sample
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
I bought this for the O'Casey play and found it lived up to expectations. What I wasn't expecting to enjoy so much was Synge's "Playboy". Whereas O'Casey and Yeats here require some familiarity with the society and politics of Ireland of the time, Synge's play is a brilliant riot in any setting. Throw in one of Behan's plays and perhaps something from Martin McDonagh and you have an excellent sample of Irish drama of the last century.
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