Photo de l'auteur

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1) (1751–1816)

Auteur de The School for scandal

Pour les autres auteurs qui s'appellent Richard Brinsley Sheridan, voyez la page de désambigüisation.

58+ oeuvres 3,051 utilisateurs 36 critiques 2 Favoris

A propos de l'auteur

The son of Thomas Sheridan, the Irish actor and theater manager, Richard Brinsley Sheridan began writing plays as a youngster in Bath. He went on to become one of the most successful playwrights of the later eighteenth century, manager of the Drury Lane Theater, and also a politician and orator of afficher plus some note in the House of Commons. Along with his friends David Garrick (seeVol. 3) and Oliver Goldsmith, Sheridan was a member of the Literary Club of Samuel Johnson, having been proposed for membership by Johnson himself. Like Goldsmith, Sheridan also attacks "The Sentimental Muse" of weeping comedy. In his best-known play, The School for Scandal (1777), Sheridan revives the Restoration comedy of manners with its portrait of the beau monde and its deflation of hypocrisy. The play is indebted to William Congreve as well as to Moliere (see Vol. 2), and the picture of society is based on Bath and London. In The Rivals (1775), Sheridan amuses himself with the language games of Mrs. Malaprop and her "nice derangement of epitaphs." The allusions are consistently literary, as in her simile "as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile." Sheridan's acute ear for banalities and truisms is best seen in The Critic (1779), a burlesque of sentimental and inflated plays as well as self-important criticism. The play ridicules "false Taste and brilliant Follies of modern dramatic Composition." Sheridan's sparking dialogue, lively scenes, and masterful dramatic construction have proved to be enduringly popular. (Bowker Author Biography) afficher moins
Crédit image: From Wikimedia Commons. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, by sir Joshua Reynolds.

Œuvres de Richard Brinsley Sheridan

The School for scandal (1777) 1,041 exemplaires
The Rivals (1775) 526 exemplaires
Sheridan's Plays (1881) 228 exemplaires
The Critic (1779) 53 exemplaires
Plays (1931) 15 exemplaires
The Duenna (1775) 8 exemplaires
The Plays of Sheridan (1926) 6 exemplaires
St. Patrick's Day (1775) 4 exemplaires
A Trip To Scarborough (2004) 3 exemplaires
Origins of the School for Scandal (1986) 3 exemplaires
The Rivals. Ed. L Balston. (1931) 1 exemplaire
Poems 1 exemplaire
The Rivals AUDIO (1988) 1 exemplaire
Scarborough and the Critic (2012) 1 exemplaire
S&S Little Classics 1 exemplaire

Oeuvres associées

Four English Comedies of the 17th and 18th Centuries (1606) — Contributeur — 361 exemplaires
Eighteenth-Century English Literature (1969) — Auteur — 186 exemplaires
Masterpieces of the Drama (1966) — Contributeur — 179 exemplaires
Twelve Famous Plays of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century (1933) — Contributeur — 141 exemplaires
The Standard Book of British and American Verse (1932) — Contributeur — 114 exemplaires
Treasury of the Theatre: From Aeschylus to Ostrovsky (1967) — Contributeur — 48 exemplaires
English Comedies (1935) — Contributeur — 44 exemplaires
Six Eighteenth-Century Plays (1963) — Contributeur — 36 exemplaires

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Nom légal
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley Butler
Date de naissance
1751-10-30
Date de décès
1816-07-07
Lieu de sépulture
Westminster Abbey, London, England, UK
Sexe
male
Nationalité
Ireland
Lieu de naissance
Dublin, Ireland
Lieu du décès
London, England, UK
Lieux de résidence
Dublin, Ireland
London, England, UK
Bath, Somerset, England, UK
Études
Harrow School
Professions
playwright
Manager, Drury Lane Theater
Member of Parliament (Whig)
politician
orator
Relations
Sheridan, Frances (mother)
Blackwood, Helen Selina Sheridan (granddaughter)
Norton, Caroline (granddaughter)
Lefanu, Alicia Sheridan (sister)
Sheridan, Betsy (sister)
Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan (great-nephew) (tout afficher 11)
Dufferin, Lord (great-grandson)
Broughton, Rhoda (great-great-niece)
Blackwood, Caroline (descendant)
Sheridan, Caroline Henrietta (daughter-in-law)
Sheridan, Thomas (father)
Organisations
Garrick Club, London, England, UK
Literary Club, London, England, UK
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
Courte biographie
Richard Brinsley Sheridan is still popular today for his satirical, witty comedies of manners such as The Rivals (1775) and The School for Scandal (1777). He also served as a Member of Parliament for 32 years. He was part of an acting and literary dynasty: His mother Frances Sheridan, née Chamberlaine, was a playwright and novelist, and his father Thomas Sheridan was an actor-manager who went on to write several books on education. Many of his descendants, his two sisters, and some of their descendants also became writers.

Membres

Critiques

Some of them are quite funny, and often revived. "A Trip to Scarborough": not so much.
 
Signalé
DinadansFriend | Jan 8, 2024 |
Money and love, and their interaction are often a matter for comedy, and this play is a classsic of that genre. the Surface brothers are engaged in the pursuit of both money and love, and are trying to swim in the society of upper class England in the 1760's. Joseph is an unlikeable hypocrite and his brother Charles has an amount of familial and emotional honesty. Very few of the characters get any mercy from the author, who as an Irish outsider, in his own life, has a clear vision of the the people he had to deal with in reality. Sheridan gives us the pleasure of condemning others for their weaknesses while insulating us from too much introspection. The play is quite witty and plays well on the stage.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
DinadansFriend | 16 autres critiques | Nov 17, 2023 |
I fell in love with Restoration comedies through these two plays (though Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" was quickly added).

October 2015 While I have reread them more than once, it has been some time since I revisited "The School for Scandal". It was a joy to discover that this satire still makes me laugh.

A big part of the fun for me were the names -- Lady Sneerwell, Sir Benjamin Backbite, Mr. Joseph Surface, Mrs. Candour, Miss Gadabout, Sir Filagree Flirt ... I could go on but the point has been made. This satire about gossip and hypocrisy may feel dated in its setting to some readers (though it is like home to me after all the Georgette Heyer I have read), but the situations are still relevant & still funny. As David Garrick (in the original production at Drury Lane Theater in 1777) said in his prologue:

"Thus at our friends we laugh, who feel the dart;
To reach our feelings, we ourselves must smart."

So true! Whether it is the slapstick pie in the face or slip on the banana peel or the more sophisticated comedy of manners presented here, we laugh at things that would not be funny if they were happening to us. Being talked about behind our backs is one of those situations.

A few funny bits (my underlining):

Joseph Surface: The license of invention some people take is monstrous indeed.
Maria: 'Tis so; but, in my opinion, those who report such things are equally culpable.
Mrs. Candour: To be sure they are; tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers -- 'tis an old observation, and a very true one" but what's to be done, as I said before? how will you prevent people from talking? To-day, Mrs. Clackitt assured me, Mr. and Mrs. Honeymoon were at last become mere man and wife, like the rest of their acquaintance. She likewise hinted that a certain widow, in the next street, had got rid of her dropsy and recovered her shape in a most surprising manner. And at the same time Miss Tattle, who was by, affirmed, that Lord Buffalo had discovered his lady at a house of no extraordinary fame; ... But, Lord, do you think I would report these things! No, no! tale-bearers, as I said before, are just as bad as tale-makers."

And

Mrs. Candour: They'll not allow our friend Miss Vermillion to be handsome.
Lady Sneerwell: Oh, surely she is a pretty woman.
Crabtree: I am very glad you think so, ma'am.
Mrs. Candour: She has a charming fresh colour.
Lady Teazle: Yes, when it is fresh put on.
Mrs. Candour: Oh, fie! I'll swear her colour is natural: I have seen it come and go!
Lady Teazle: I dare swear you have ma'am: it goes off at night, and comes again in the morning.

Hahahaha!! But the main theme of the play revolves around two brothers: Joseph and Charles Surface. Everyone (except Lady Sneerwell) thinks Joseph is the virtuous good brother and Charles is the profligate ne'er-do-well. But, as Sheridan has foreshadowed for us, we must look below the surface to find the true character of these two men.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
leslie.98 | 1 autre critique | Jun 27, 2023 |
I listened to this full audiobook via the L.A. Theatre Works website. I so do enjoy this play, especially Mrs. Malaprop! A wonderful way to spend a grey morning :)
 
Signalé
leslie.98 | 6 autres critiques | Jun 27, 2023 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
58
Aussi par
12
Membres
3,051
Popularité
#8,370
Évaluation
½ 3.7
Critiques
36
ISBN
190
Langues
4
Favoris
2

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