Lovers, Clowns, and Fairies: An Essay on Comedies - Stuart M. Tave - Books - The University of Chicago Press - 9780226790206 - June 15, 1993
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Stuart M. Tave
Lovers, Clowns, and Fairies: An Essay on Comedies 1st edition

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Through dreams and shadows and strangeness, through blinding charms and eye-opening counter-charms, through moments of mortification and laughter?thus Stuart M. Tave traces the journey of the lovers, clowns, and fairies who populate comedies from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Waiting for Godot. Tave avoids the pitfalls of theory, taking instead a close look at particular works to give us a sense of the relations between certain dramas and novels that are called comedies. The result is a wonderfully readable book that renews our delight in the enchanting possibilities of literature.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, in its "perfection," is Tave's point of departure. Its characters fall neatly into the three groups of Tave's title and fulfill to perfection their functions of desire, foolishness, and power. From the magical concord of Shakespeare's resolution, Tave moves to works whose character face ever greater difficulties in reaching a happy conclusion. From Jonson and Austen to Chekhov and Beckett, he meets comedies on their own terms, illuminating the complex and individual genius of each. A masterpiece of practical criticism, Lovers, Clowns, and Fairies rediscovers the pleasure of reading comedies.

290 pages

Media Books     Paperback Book   (Book with soft cover and glued back)
Released June 15, 1993
ISBN13 9780226790206
Publishers The University of Chicago Press
Pages 290
Dimensions 141 × 214 × 20 mm   ·   352 g
Language English  

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