Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 2; Original Publisher: J. W. Luce and company; Publication date: 1912; Subjects: Drama / General; Drama / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Drama / Shakespeare; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Shakespeare; ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 3; Original Published by: Mineola, N.Y. : Dover Publications in 1911 in 247 pages; Subjects: Drama / General; Drama / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Drama / Shakespeare; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / Shakespeare; ... Read more

Product Description
General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1912Original Publisher: J. W. Luce and companySubjects: Drama / GeneralDrama / English, Irish, Scottish, WelshDrama / ShakespeareLiterary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, WelshLiterary Criticism / ShakespeareNotes: This is an OCR reprint of the original rare book. There may be typos or missing text and there are no illustrations.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

JUST SAW THE PLAY
It is a wild, woolly, farcical, slapstick, poetic-philosophical comedy, which deserves a reading, as the Irish accents can be largely non-understandable.The play had the feel of a classic, although it helpsto know the times and the Irish reaction to it, historically. ... Read more

Product Description
Large Format for easy reading. Although from a middle-class Protestant background, Synge's writings are mainly concerned with the world of the Roman Catholic peasants of rural Ireland. He is best known for his play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots in Dublin. Set in a cottage in County Mayo (on the North-West coast of Ireland), it tells the story of a young man supposedly running away after having killed his father. He arrives at the cottage, and the locals are more interested in vicariously enjoying his story than in condemning his morality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Bona Fide
Years ago I was gently tasked to direct a community theater production. Our cast was eminently capable and willing but we all searched for something, ANYTHING, that would help us not so much get "the music" right as the characterization and context. I found this 1955 recording on audiocassette. A blessing to all here!

Among the cast you should recognize Cyril Cusack ("Fahrenheit 451"), Milo O'Shea ("The Verdict"), and the incomparable Siobhan McKenna ("King of Kings"). And if you find yourself similarly tasked, the play speaks for itself and is as much fun (if not more) performing as viewing. Aim for a small and intimate theater; ours had a bar behind both the players and the audience. Watching the audience at times yielded a revelation. And written in 1907, is it? Read the front page of your hometown newspaper...

"I'm thinking of my luck today, for she will wed me surely, and I a proven hero in the end of all."
When this play was produced for the first time in 1907 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the Irish Independent noted that "a mob of howling devils" rioted at the end of Act I because Synge had used the word "shift," meaning "petticoat." The rioting continued on successive nights for a week, because the focus of the action is Christy Mahon, a fugitive, who ironically gains the adulation of a small village because he claims to have killed his father. Every newspaper in Dublin abhorred the play and the Dublin Evening Mail was appalled at its "libeling" of "the saintly Irish peasant." (Quotations from newspapers of the day are widely available and are a fascinating commentary on the period.) Today, a hundred years later, the play is not dated, feeling completely fresh and completely modern.Our on-going fascination with misdeeds and miscreants appears to be so universal that this wryly satiric play is now regarded as Synge's comic masterpiece.

The plot is well known by now.Christy Mahon arrives at a small country inn in a panic, believing that the peelers are tracking him for the murder of his father.The locals at the inn's bar, instead of being horrified by his actions, admire his courage in taking on his father, and give the meek and timid Christy a feeling of accomplishment that he has never had at home.Pegeen Mike, daughter of the owner, hires him to work at the inn, where he becomes the focus of the town's women, both young and old, as he tells, again and again, the story of his (increasingly brave) fight with his slave-driving father.Christy, however, has eyes only for Pegeen.

The contrast between Christy and Shawn Keogh, the devout man to whom Pegeen is pledged, is hilarious, with Christy depicted as attractive and intriguing, while the traditional and saintly Shawn is shown to be boring and stuffy.Admiring Christy's "poetic" and passionate nature, Pegeen is soon in love with him.The sudden appearance of Christy's father in the village leads to the play's turning point, as the populace, embarrassed by their fawning adulation, turns against Christy.

Lively, satiric, and supremely ironic, the play is broadly farcical, and no modern audience would see it as disrespectful of any particular populace--these characters are typical of humankind with its voyeuristic fascination with criminals and criminality, and the plot line and the general themes are universal.Synge's razor sharp dialogue and his use of local dialect certainly give a sense of "Irishness" to the play, which creates local color and charm by putting the author's ideas into a specific context.The conflicts between the generations, between father and son, between the morality of the church and the immorality of real life, between passion and reason, and ultimately between love and hate make this play a rich dramatic experience, one which some might consider equal to the classic comedies of Aristophanes.nMary Whipple

Riders to the Sea
The Shadow of the Glen (Dodo Press)
The Playboy of the Western World and Other Plays: Riders to the Sea; The Shadow of the Glen; The Tinker's Wedding; The Well of the Saints; The Playboy ... of the Sorrows (Oxford World's Classics)

... Read more

Product Description
A collection of comic monologues for women including works by Shakespeare, Synge, Aristophanes, Wilde, Congreve, Plautus, Moliere, and Mark Twain! ... Read more

Product Description
He gave a drive with the scythe, and I gave a lep to the east. Then I turned around with my back to the north, and I hit a blow on the ridge of his skull, laid him stretched out, and he split to the knob of his gullet. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more