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Marriage A La Mode (New Mermaids)
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Product Description
Dryden's audiences in 1671, both aristocratic and middle-class, would have been quick to respond to the themes of disputed royal succession, Francophilia and loyalty among subjects in his most successful tragicomedy. In the tragic plot, written in verse, young Leonidas has to struggle to assert his place as the rightful heir to the throne of Sicily and to the hand of the usurper's daughter. In the comic plot, written in prose, two fashionable couples (much more at home in London drawing-rooms than at the Sicilian court) play at switching partners in the 'modern' style. The introduction of this edition argues that Dryden's own ambivalence about King Charles and his entourage, on whom he came to rely more on more for patronage, manifests itself in both plots; most of all perhaps in the excessively Francophile Melantha, whose affectation cannot quite hide her endearing joie-de-vivre.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1464220 in Books
- Published on: 2007-09-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 120 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
"In the romantic heroic word, truth must out and the real king be discovered; in the sexual comedy the players also discover a larger design, which keeps tripping them up, bringing them to a fuller sense of human reality."-The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography (The Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography )
Customer Reviews
Developing the Comedic Genre in Restoration England
Dryden's "Marriage A-La-Mode" can be thought of as a Comedy of Manners play of the Restoration era but was actually written before the genre took true form and had a part in developing its eventual popularity. "Marriage A-La-Mode" satirizes the English Aristocracy and has the distinction of creating what became comedic typologies, especially in the character of Melantha. The separate storylines are only superficially interwoven though both are explicitly critical of aristocratic lifestyles and attitudes. If you like the genre of Restoration Comedy, Dryden's "Marriage" is a good bet and without the over-complicated plots of Sheridan.
WOW
THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING, PACKED WITH DRAMA, AND SUSPENSE, AND COMEDY. EVERYTHING THE 1999 ACADEMY AWARDS DIDN'T HAVE
