Dandy Dick: A Play in Three Acts

by Arthur Wing Pinero

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Plays, Humor

164 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1887

About the author

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director.

Reviews

[Bettie]

A dean gambles his parish funds on a racehorse. Arthur Wing Pinero's farce stars Alec McCowen and Patricia Routledge

Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 7, 1:00pm Saturday 12th December 2009

The LSD referred to here is of course pounds shillings and pence.
;OP

[Tricia]

Augustin Jedd, the dean of St. Marvells, only THINKS he has his family, household, and personal dignity all under control. Enter a couple soldiers courting his daughters, his horse-racing widowed sister, and the race horse called Dandy Dick, and his supposed hold on everything slips from his fingers.

[Laura]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
The Dean is short of cash. Could betting on the horses be the answer?

[Charlie Lee]

Pinero was not good at capturing working-class dialogue, nevertheless this farce is my favourite of his so far. The hypocritical Dean of Dandy Dick was a much better victim than the dull Magistrate of the eponymous play. Also, the plot revolving around betting and attempts to poison a racehorse make for a fresh premise with a good amount of dramatic potential. Even the servant Blore is somewhat likeable in his villainy. As may be expected, the women in this play aren't especially well thought out, but there is at least one great witty exchange regarding a marriage proposal.

[Lynn]

My small online play-reading group discovered Pinero in the last year and this is the second play by him that we've cold-read via zoom - he's a lot of fun. A friend rightly observed that he "reads" more modern than he actually is (19th century). Two winners, thus far, and I expect we'll do more, if available.