Four English Comedies: Volpone; The Way of the World; She Stoops to Conquer; The School for Scandal

by Ben Jonson, William Congreve, Oliver Goldsmith

414 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems. A man of vast reading and a seemingly insatiable appetite for controversy, Jonson had an unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets. A house in Dulwich College is named after him.

See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Jonson

Reviews

[Ned Hanlon]

An up and down collection of plays. Volpone was disapointing (was interested in it becasue John Musto wrote an opera on the play). She stoops to Conquer was the best of the bunch ; it was a charmingly poor man's Jane Austen novel.

Read these if in need of diversion in this order (from most diverting to least):
1) She Stoops to Conquer
2) The School for Scandal
3) The Way of the World
4) Volpone