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Rivals, The

Rivals, The

  • Author: Sheridan, Richard Brinsley
  • ISBN: 9780486404332
  • Availability:
$NZ 5.95 $NZ 3.99 Ex Tax: $NZ 3.99
Immensely popular comedy of manners featuring such memorable characters as the lovely Lydia Languish, her suitor, Capt. Jack Absolute; and Lydia's aunt - Mrs. Malaprop, cleverly revolves around false identities, romantic entanglements, and parental disapproval. During a brief but brilliant literary career, Irish-born dramatist and statesman Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 1816) wrote cleverly plotted plays that revealed his nimble wit and keen eye for comic situations. Two of them - The School for Scandal and The Rivals - are among the funniest in the English language. The Rivals, brimming with false identities and with romantic entanglements carried on amid a cloud of parental disapproval, satirizes the pretentiousness and sentimentality of the age. It features a cast of memorable characters, among them the lovely Lydia Languish, whose pretty head has been filled with nonsense from romantic novels; Capt. Jack Absolute, a young officer in love with Lydia; Sir Anthony Absolute, Jack's autocratic father; Sir Lucius O'Trigger, a fiery Irishman; and Jack's provincial neighbor, Bob Acres, a bumptious but lovable country squire in love with Lydia. Hoping to win Lydia's affection, Captain Jack woos the pretty miss by pretending to be a penniless ensign named Beverley, an act that nearly incites a duel with Acres. His actions also provoke serious objections from Lydia's aunt, Mrs. Malaprop, a misspeaking matron whose ludicrous misuse of words gave the English language a new term: malapropism. Ultimately, the hilarious complications are resolved in a radiant comic masterpiece that will entertain and delight theater devotees and students of English drama alike.

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