num_pages: 192
description: Both Sheridan and Goldsmith lamented the popularity of sentimentalcomedy in the later eighteenth century and wrote their witty andsatirical plays (though never lascivious in the manner of Restorationcomedies) to counteract the sentimental mode. The Rivals (1775) was aqualified success: the suave young officer who is 'forced' by hisfather to marry the very girl to whom he is secretly engaged mustalways please; but first audiences were as uncertain as later criticsabout how to evaluate his neurotic friend Faulkland, who invents aseries of caveats for his marriage to the earnest Julia. A countrysquire who becomes alarmingly foppish in town, an impetuous Irishmanand the linguistically challenged Mrs Malaprop complete the cast. Thisedition includes the original preface and several prologues; in anappendix it lists all the fashionable books and songs to which thecharacters allude.
language: English
title: The Rivals
titlecomplete: The Rivals (New Mermaids)
genres: Literature, Fiction, Humor, Theatre, British Literature, 18th Century, Plays, Comedy, Drama, Classics
ratings_count: 2423
places: Bath, Somerset, England
publisher: Methuen Drama