The School for Scandal and Other Plays

by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Michael Cordner (Editor)

Richly exploited comic situations, effervescent wit, and intricate plots combine to make Sheridan's work among the best of of all English comedy. The School for Scandal (1777) is his masterpiece, a brilliantly crafted comedy of contrasts in which brothers Joseph and Charles Surface contend for Maria, with hilariously differing intentions and results. Also a work of acute comic irony, The Rivals satirizes the romantic posturing of Lydia Languish while her disguised suitor Captain Absolute's resourceful contrivances advance an ever inventive and skilfully wrought plot. Included in this edition are the opera play The Duenna and the rarely printed musical play A Trip to Scarborough, adapted from Vanbrugh's The Relapse. Sheridan's last play, The Critic, is an exuberant parody of the modish tragic drama of the day. Lampooning Sir Fretful Plagiary's absurdly bombastic historical drama during its confused stages of production, its satire never fails to delight.

The texts of the plays have been newly edited by the General Editor of the Oxford World's Classics English Drama series. A fine introduction and notes on Sheridan's playhouses and critical inheritance make this an invaluable edition for study and performance alike.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Classics, 18th Century, Fiction, British Literature, Irish Literature

436 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1779

About the author

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford (1780–1806), Westminster (1806–1807) and Ilchester (1807–1812). Such was the esteem he was held in by his contemporaries when he died that he was buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. He is known for his plays such as The Rivals, The School for Scandal and A Trip to Scarborough.

Reviews

[gloria .☆ﾟ. · Rating 2 out of 5]

i'm gonna pretend i read more than 20% of this for the time being

[Nouur Benabbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Read for Drama class and I actually enjoyed it.

[Kendall Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you can't enjoy the wordplay of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, then you shouldn't even think of becoming a writer. After all, everyone should experience Mrs. Malaprop at least once in their lifetime.

[Eli Spearing · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one didn’t really land for me. I didn’t pay close attention to the beginning of the plot, which definitely caught up with me later. I want to give it another shot sometime because I feel like I missed something. But honestly, part of the issue is that I’m kind of spoiled by Shakespeare—his dialogue and pacing just hit harder. Sheridan has his moments and I think it would be funny if I reread, but this play wasn’t my fav.

[Sandhya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eighteen century satire on London's uppercrust society, that thrived on malicious gossip and character assasinations.
There are some extremely witty lines to be found here.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

School for Scandal is brilliant. I got to see it performed after I read it and I enjoyed both experiences immensely. Got to love the verbal sparring.

[John Matthew IV · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read the School for Scandal parts. It is a funny play and I look forward to seeing it on the stage.

The "Screen Scene" is the key moment.

The book has a good introduction to the play and provides lots of help with the language -- words change meaning over the centuries.

There is just a brief chronology of Sheridan's life, so if you want to learn about him, you must turn elsewhere. However, the bibliography does greatly help doing just that.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading plays again and concentrating on the pace of spoken language, sets and timing. They are so detailed and the past fast.
This collection of plays are witty, amusing and many characters delight with their acerbic tongues.

[Mshelton50 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading Sheridan's "The Rivals." Mrs. Malaprop was a hoot.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I loved The Rivals, The Critic was cute but dated, and I could not get into The School for Scandal.

[Classvar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for The Rivals, three or four stars for the others.

[Ella Louise Schalski]

Read for class

[Julie Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing and an easy read. Human nature hasn’t changed: people in the 1700s enjoyed spreading rumors as much as people do today.

[John Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Rivals: A courtship comedy involving multiple lovers and a couple of disguised identities. Still holds the stage, in part because of the presence of Mrs. Malaprop, whose habit of inadvertently using soundalike words introduced a new variety of verbal humor. (A fine modern example of a malapropism, which stuck in my mind some years ago, is "tuna camisole.")

The School for Scandal: A classic marriage comedy. Its basic situation, that of an older man who marries a young woman from the country in the hope of acquiring a wife not susceptible to the wiles of city society, is akin to Molière's School for Wives. The context for their wrangling involves a gaggle of gossips led by Lady Sneerwell, as well as the Surface brothers, one thought a wastrel and the other an exemplar of fine upstanding moral sentiment—and then there's the rich uncle who visits in disguise. Have you heard of "the screen scene"? It's in this play, and it's one of English comedy's most ingeniously plotted scenes, which I won't describe in case you haven't encountered it.

The Critic: Wikipedia labels this a satire but also a burlesque, two things that are far from identical, and at least one Goodreads reviewer managed to take it as a critique of critics, which misses a lot to say the least. Suffice it to say that The Critic makes fun of the theater business, much as a number of modern Hollywood films make fun of the film business.

I read those plays in search of inspiration for a project of my own. I skipped The Duenna, Sheridan's libretto for a comic opera, and A Trip to Scarborough, his adaptation of a Restoration comedy by John Vanbrugh called The Relapse.

The introduction, by Michael Cordner, is valuable. His numerous annotations, however, regrettably appear as endnotes rather than footnotes; what's more, they may be useful for young students but will be almost totally unnecessary for anyone acquainted with the earlier stage of English language and literature in which Sheridan's work is situated.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read "The School for Scandal and Other Plays" to preview whether it was a book to include in a unit I was putting together for my British Literature class. It's basically a comedy of manners criticizing the British elite of the day and the machinations and lack of ethics. Many of the character names telegraph whether they are a villain or protagonist, much as many of Dickens' characters do. Lady Sneerwell is the leader of the villains who is trying to ruin a wealthy gentelman's ward in order to cover up her affair with a young bachelor. Mrs. Candour tells the truth but doesn't follow any of what she says. There's a lot of comedy too with people having to hide in closets as well as hidden identities. I'm not sure high school students would think it is funny but collegiate and adults might.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three plays reproduced here confirm that Sheridan's relatively brief career as a writer was not cut short by any lack of skill. "The Rivals" is a sort of "Catfish" in reverse, in which Romantic ideals are perforated and effectively deflated. "The Critic" has lost none of its edge as a critique of those who critique, demonstrating that, truly, there is nothing new under the sun. Best of all, "The School For Scandal" takes to task the eternal and malevolent spirit of alleged "wit" which has come down to our present age in the guise of the painfully un-funny humor represented by Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, et al. If the happy endings to some of these pieces ring false to the modern reader, it is, most likely, a function of our cynicism, which discredits us, not Sheridan.

[Nicola Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review purely for The School For Scandal. The play is a part of the required reading for my English Literature course at Uni and this edition contains very helpful critical and contextual material.

The play itself is an amusing comment on society and it's obsession with surfaces, to the extent in which two characters are known as the Surface brothers. Standing in society becomes a game, manipulated by the Middle-Upper Class. As the play progresses, it becomes clear these individuals are slowly being beaten at their own game, leaving them all with nothing but their surfaces.

If you can get over the older tone of writing, this is worth a read.

[Pol · Rating 4 out of 5]

The editorial matter is a tad disappointing. Cordner waffles on about staging history in his introduction to the plays, but there is little mention of the contexts, viz. the rise of sentimental comedy and Sheridan's reaction to it, &c. Issues of stage history and 'critical inheritance' are secondary; they should've gone in a separate monograph or else briefly mentioned in a paragraph or two. I find the New Mermaids edition of School better in that aspect. Else, the comedies themselves are not bad at all, and worth a read.

[Rivka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was introduced to the plays of Mr. Sheridan by a reference to his play The Critic in Jane Austen's A History of England. That being said, it didn't surprise me that The Critic is one of the wittiest pieces of literature I've ever read! How I would love to any and all of these done on stage! I loved every minute of these plays and I look forward to revisiting them in the future.

[Hayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only have to read The School For Scandal for university but I'm sure I'll be reading Sheridan's other plays soon. The School For Scandal was a short but intriguing play, full of lies and deceit, comedy and mishaps, all leading to an exciting conclusion. Another play which would be excellent to see live!

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much humor there was in The School for Scandal, even if the plot didn't really make sense to me and also didn't seem complete. I couldn't get a good sense of some of the characters, especially Joseph Surface, and was rather disappointed with the ending.

[Zan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fun but it's got nothing on Wilde's social comedies. Though I wouldn't put it past Wilde to have pilfered a few ideas from Sheridan for his own works. I'm thinking of Lady Windermere's Fan and An Ideal Husband in particular.

[foundfoundfound · Rating 5 out of 5]

"school for scandal" or, how to get on in society. urbane, funny, sharp, sophisticated, & unsparing of human nature: wot literature should aim to be. lady sneerwell one of the great queen bees in the canon.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any rating less than 5 ⭐️'s for Sheridan's 'The School for Scandal' demands a reread. Sharp, witty, hilarious, and entertaining, 'The School for Scandal' is as close to 18th century comedic perfection as one can find.

[Bette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to the LA Theatreworks production while reading it (not always simultaneously) enhanced the experience. It's a lot of fun.

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sheridan wrote comedies overflowing with wit and glittering language. Delightful.

[Shaza Bawian · Rating 4 out of 5]

i like