Overview

William Congreve was deeply involved in the events of his turbulent times. That involvement reveals itself in works which have sometimes been regarded as entirely unengaged with the realities of his society. This book attempts to read Congreve's plays and his novella, Incognita, against the political and social upheaval of the period initiated by the rebellion of 1688. A strong supporter of the new world ushered in by William III and Mary, Congreve fought against the reactionary politics of the Jacobite opposition.

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9781839984341

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Reviews

“Novak offers new readings of Congreve while grounding his argument not only in a thorough understanding of the social, political, ethical and religious conflicts of Congreve’s decade of writing for the stage but also in the best historical scholarship of the period and the best literary criticism of Congreve of the last ninety years.”—Kevin J. Gardner, Professor and Department Chair, Baylor English Department, Baylor University, USA “Imaginary Plots and Political Realities in the Plays of William Congreve is an engaging book that makes a significant contribution to Restoration and eighteenth-century studies. Congreve has been ignored too often in recent work on the late seventeenth-century theatre, and Novak’s study should help to remedy this situation by reminding his readers of the dramatist’s crucial role in the stage politics of the 1690s.”—Robert Markley, W. D. and Sara E. Trowbridge Professor, University of Illinois, USA “The book, with its fine-grained attention to the changing political and social circumstances of the 1690s, the decade during which Congreve’s dramatic career unfolded, reads as a synthesis of a career’s worth of thought about the playwright, with fresh perspectives and a clarifying specificity of focus, especially on the question of politics.”—James Noggle, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas and Professor of English, Wellesley College, USA

Author Information

Maximillian Novak is a research professor at the University of California Los Angeles and has published widely on the literature of the Restoration and eighteenth century.

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