Coward Plays: One: Hay Fever, The Vortex, Fallen Angels, Easy Virtue
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few writers captured the glittering, brittle world of 1920s British high society with the razor-sharp wit and theatrical brilliance of Noël Coward, and Coward Plays: One presents four of his most celebrated early works — Hay Fever, The Vortex, Fallen Angels, and Easy Virtue — in a single essential volume. From the chaotic weekend at the Bliss household in Hay Fever to the shocking drug-fuelled drama of The Vortex, these plays chronicle a society teetering between glamour and moral dissolution, wrapped in dialogue so precisely crafted it crackles off the page. Introduced by Mander and Mitchenson, this collection contextualises each work within Coward's meteoric early career, illuminating how a young playwright conquered the West End and redefined modern comedy and drama in a single decade. Coward's genius lies in his ability to skewer the affectations of the English upper class while simultaneously seducing the audience into adoring them — a paradox that gives his work its enduring, unsettling edge. His style is deceptively light, favouring sparkling repartee and impeccable comic timing to deliver truths about loneliness, desire, and social performance that cut far deeper than the laughter suggests. For students of theatre, devotees of literary modernism, or anyone who has ever suspected that elegance and cruelty are close cousins, this collection is an indispensable invitation into one of the twentieth century's most dazzling theatrical minds.
Author: Noël Coward
Format: Paperback
Genre: Plays
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few writers captured the glittering, brittle world of 1920s British high society with the razor-sharp wit and theatrical brilliance of Noël Coward, and Coward Plays: One presents four of his most celebrated early works — Hay Fever, The Vortex, Fallen Angels, and Easy Virtue — in a single essential volume. From the chaotic weekend at the Bliss household in Hay Fever to the shocking drug-fuelled drama of The Vortex, these plays chronicle a society teetering between glamour and moral dissolution, wrapped in dialogue so precisely crafted it crackles off the page. Introduced by Mander and Mitchenson, this collection contextualises each work within Coward's meteoric early career, illuminating how a young playwright conquered the West End and redefined modern comedy and drama in a single decade. Coward's genius lies in his ability to skewer the affectations of the English upper class while simultaneously seducing the audience into adoring them — a paradox that gives his work its enduring, unsettling edge. His style is deceptively light, favouring sparkling repartee and impeccable comic timing to deliver truths about loneliness, desire, and social performance that cut far deeper than the laughter suggests. For students of theatre, devotees of literary modernism, or anyone who has ever suspected that elegance and cruelty are close cousins, this collection is an indispensable invitation into one of the twentieth century's most dazzling theatrical minds.