REPUBLIC OF VENICE AUTHOR · DRAMA · TRANSLATIONS INTO ENGLISH
Carlo Goldoni
Also known as: Goldoni, CARLO GOLDONI
Most acclaimed
The Liar
Oliver Lyon, a famous portrait artist living in London, is invited to Hertfordshire to the estate of Sir David Ashmore where the grand 90-year-old gentleman will sit for his portrait. Lyon arrives to a dinner party a day before the scheduled sitting. At the table his attention is immediately drawn to the face of a man he thinks is a gallant adventurer, Colonel Capadose, so enterprising and handsome and brave he seems. He listens to his spirited yet unpretentious discourse as he talks of his good fortunes and risky gambles. Lyon also notices a woman, Everina Brant, he had known many years ago who is attending to the exploits of this clever fellow with an expression of warmth and affection which makes Lyon jealous: he had proposed to this woman who had been his lover, but she had kindly refused. Lyon discovers that Everina was Mrs. Capadose. He speaks with them after dinner and is pleased to learn that Mrs. Capadose is still the modest, unassuming lady he remembered. The next day he meets Sir David, and as they sit together and Lyon begins the portrait, he learns from the older man that Colonel Capadose is a "thumping liar." He is no scoundrel and means no harm; he doesn't steal nor cheat: he just can't seem to offer a straightforward response. From this moment on, Lyon hatches many plots to investigate the state of the Capadose marriage, the reason for the lies, the effect of this deceitful man on his wife, the possibilities of different circumstances for Mrs. Capadose, what might have happened had the past gone differently. Lyon's disposition now makes him a manipulator of the entire situation as he tries to find a way to prove Colonel Capadose's falsehoods. At the end of the story the reader wonders who the real liar is.Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.
Three comedies
"The special genius of the Roman comic poet Plautus is the wedding of native Italian farce with the mature and polished constructions of Greek comedy. The three plays translated in this book all contain that almost inevitable kernel of Greek comic plot: the love affair. But they have little else in common. In the first, a self-inflating soldier tries to live up to his image of himself as a lover. In the second, a beautiful maiden is rescued from an evil pimp. And in the third, an ill-starred husband fancies himself in love with his wife's young housemaid. Clever, or at least ambitious, slaves tend to move the action, in which the rudeness of farce merges with exuberant wit, satire, and parody."--BOOK JACKET.
Selected works
1959
Since his first play, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, which premiered in 1965, McNally has proven himself to be a trailblazing figure and unique voice in American theater, known for his exploration of gay themes and his chronicling of America's changing social attitudes over the past fifty years. His thirty-three plays, nine musicals, three operas, and seven scripts for film and television, are a testament to his astonishing commitment to writing. In Selected Plays, for the very first time, McNally collects a set of eight plays that he considers the most important of his oeuvre, including the Tony-nominated Mothers and Sons and the critically acclaimed And Away We Go, neither of which have been previously published. Introducing each play with a personal essay that recounts an anecdote or discusses an aspect of the play that proceeds it, McNally himself frames his own life in the theater. Selected Plays is a landmark publication, a memoir in plays from one of America's most highly regarded and best-loved playwrights.