{"product_id":"love-for-love-9780713643237","title":"Love for Love","description":"More successful in its day than The Way of the World, which is now\u003cbr\u003eaccounted Congreve's best play, Love for Love (1695) is a comical farce\u003cbr\u003emanifesting the verbal polish and the theatrical wit that audiences so\u003cbr\u003eenjoy in Congreve. Valentine, Sir Sampson's dissolute eldest son, finds\u003cbr\u003ehimself at a standstill; the only way out of his financial difficulties\u003cbr\u003eis to give in to his father's pressure to renounce his right of\u003cbr\u003einheritance. While this suggestion immediately increases the chances of\u003cbr\u003ehis bluff younger brother Ben on the marriage mart, Valentine's own\u003cbr\u003echances with his beloved Angelica would proportionally decrease. To\u003cbr\u003eavoid having to sign the renunciation Valentine puts on an 'antic\u003cbr\u003edisposition' and pretends to be mad. Angelica, seeing through him, \u003cbr\u003eprovokes him back into sanity by pretending to agree to marry his\u003cbr\u003efather. Valentine recovers, the lovers reunite, and Ben, too, has\u003cbr\u003emeanwhile found the girl of his heart\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e William Congreve\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bloomsbury Publishing PLC\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/29\/1999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 160\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.80h x 5.12w x 0.44d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780713643237\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCongreve, William:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \"William Congreve (1670-1729) was an English playwright, and one of the most sophisticated exponent of the comedy of manners during the Restoration era. Congreve wrote five plays before he was 30. His first, \u003ci\u003eThe Old Bachelor\u003c\/i\u003e, was an enormous success at Drury Lane in 1693, in a production starring Thomas Betterton and Mrs Bracegirdle. According to Congreve he wrote the play to amuse himself during a convalescence. \u003ci\u003eThe Double Dealer\u003c\/i\u003e (1694) was not so well received but in 1695 he produced another hit, \u003ci\u003eLove for Love\u003c\/i\u003e (again with Betterton and Mrs Bracegirdle), to open the new Lincoln's Inns Fields Theatre. Its success secured his reputation and earned him a share in the theatre. His promise to write at least one play a year for the theatre of which he was now a part owner, was unfortunately not fulfilled. Congreve's only tragedy, \u003ci\u003eThe Mourning Bride\u003c\/i\u003e (1697), was his most popular work during his lifetime but is now rarely seen. It starred Mrs Bracegirdle as Almeria, a part that became much coveted by tragic actresses. In 1700 \u003ci\u003eThe Way of the World\u003c\/i\u003e - a highly sophisticated and complex work now considered his masterpiece - met with a cool reception. This failure, together with his continued discomfort at having been attacked in Jeremy Collier's influential pamphlet \u003ci\u003eA Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage \u003c\/i\u003e(1698), persuaded him to retire. (Congreve had replied to Collier with little effect in \u003ci\u003eAmendments of Mr Collier's False and Imperfect Citations\u003c\/i\u003e.) Voltaire later visited him and accused him of wasting his genius. Congreve told him he wished to be visited as a gentleman, not as an author. To this Voltaire replied that if Mr Congreve were only a gentleman, he would not have bothered to call upon him. Congreve was by all accounts a warm man who won the love and respect of his many friends. John Dryden called him the equal of Shakespeare, Alexander Pope dedicated his translation of the Iliad to him in 1715, and John Gay called him an 'unreproachful man'. When he died he left nearly all of his £10,000 estate to his mistress, Henrietta, the second Duchess of Marlborough, who arranged for his burial in Westminster Abbey.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":40104741896307,"sku":"9.78E+12","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_c544bf30-7f8a-4138-a408-b8403bf2901f.jpg?v=1653229559","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/love-for-love-9780713643237","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}