The wonder

Description

"Susanna Centlivre's play The Wonder (1714) was one of the most popular works on the eighteenth-century English stage. Set in Lisbon, the plot interweaves two romantic intrigues around one "secret": the heroine Violante is hiding her best friend, Isabella (who is the sister of her own lover, Don Felix), from Isabella's father, who wishes to marry her off to a rich but decrepit old merchant. Because she is sworn to secrecy, Violante cannot reveal Isabella's whereabouts, nor can she explain to Felix why Isabella's new lover, a dashing British soldier, happens to be about the house, prompting Felix's intense jealousy. Centlivre's critique on the tyrannical patriarchs in the world of the play is at the same time a veiled critique of similar conditions in Augustan-era Britain." "This Broadview edition includes contemporary responses (by Richard Steele and Arthur Bedford), biographical accounts, selections of Centlivre's poetry, and early nineteenth-century criticism (by Elizabeth Inchbald and William Hazlitt)."--Jacket.

Subjects

Genres

• Drama.

Series Statement

• Broadview literary texts

Other Editions

• The wonder: a woman keeps a secretBroadview Press2004-01-01
• The wonder!T. Lowndes1770-01-01
• The wonder!W. Oxlade1775-01-01
• The wonder!Printed for T. Lowndes, T. Caslon, and W Nicoll1777-01-01
• The wonderPrinted for T. Lowndes, T. Caslon, and W. Nicoll1777-01-01
• The wonderLowndes, Caslon and Nicoll1777-01-01