Description

Book Synopsis
Through dreams and shadows and strangeness, through blinding charms and eye-opening counter-charms, through moments of mortification and laughterthus Stuart M. Tave traces the journey of the lovers, clowns, and fairies who populate comedies from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Waiting for Godot. Tave avoids the pitfalls of theory, taking instead a close look at particular works to give us a sense of the relations between certain dramas and novels that are called comedies. The result is a wonderfully readable book that renews our delight in the enchanting possibilities of literature. A Midsummer Night's Dream, in its perfection, is Tave's point of departure. Its characters fall neatly into the three groups of Tave's title and fulfill to perfection their functions of desire, foolishness, and power. From the magical concord of Shakespeare's resolution, Tave moves to works whose character face ever greater difficulties in reaching a happy conclusion. From Jonson and Austen to Chekhov and Beck

Lovers Clowns Fairies An Essay on Comedies

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    A Hardback by Stuart M. Tave

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      Book details

      Publisher The University of Chicago Press
      Published 6 January 1993
      ISBN-13 9780226790190
      978-0226790190
      ISBN-10 0226790193
      Also in:
      Literary studies: general Literary studies: plays and playwrights

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Through dreams and shadows and strangeness, through blinding charms and eye-opening counter-charms, through moments of mortification and laughterthus Stuart M. Tave traces the journey of the lovers, clowns, and fairies who populate comedies from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Waiting for Godot. Tave avoids the pitfalls of theory, taking instead a close look at particular works to give us a sense of the relations between certain dramas and novels that are called comedies. The result is a wonderfully readable book that renews our delight in the enchanting possibilities of literature. A Midsummer Night's Dream, in its perfection, is Tave's point of departure. Its characters fall neatly into the three groups of Tave's title and fulfill to perfection their functions of desire, foolishness, and power. From the magical concord of Shakespeare's resolution, Tave moves to works whose character face ever greater difficulties in reaching a happy conclusion. From Jonson and Austen to Chekhov and Beck

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