Eight Great Comedies: The Complete Texts of the World's Great Comedies from Ancient Times to the Twentieth Century

by Sylvan Barnet (Editor), Morton Berman (Editor), William Burto (Editor)

“A remarkably rich and stimulating volume...A unique blending of emotional and intellectual experience.”— Los Angeles Times

Here in one volume are the complete texts of eight of the world’s greatest plays, masterful examples of the comic view of life in drama. This outstanding treasury of great reading includes the bawdy humor of Machiavelli’s Mandragola ; the poignant, searching wit of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya ; the ironic social comment of Shaw’s Arms and the Man ; and five other influential works, including a new translation of Molière’s satire The Miser , which the editors have prepared especially for this book.

Accompanied by provocative essays that define and explore the spirit, structure, and meaning of comedy, this unique volume is an ideal companion to the editors’  Eight Great Tragedies .

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Classics, Literature, Drama

469 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Sylvan Barnet is an American literary critic and Shakespearean scholar. He is a Fletcher Professor of English Emeritus at Tufts University.

Barnet is the author of numerous books and articles on Shakespeare. He is the general editor of the Signet Classics Shakespeare,[1] the author of A Short Guide to Shakespeare,[2] and has written many textbooks. He is the co-author with William Burto of occasional essays on aspects of Japanese art.[3] He has also written books about the art of writing.

Reviews

[Viktoriya]

I bought this collection only because it has "The Importance of Being Ernest" by Oscar Wilde in it. At the time, that's all I wanted to read and didn't care about any other plays in this collection. This play is AWESOME!!! I also read Machiavelli's "Mandragola" and Moliere's "The Miser" and enjoyed both of them. Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" left much to be desired. I found the whole plot stupid and the play simply didn't make sense (why did Viola hide her identity and presented herself as a man?) I have no desire to read Anton Chekhov in English (will read him only in Russian) and the other remaining plays don't interest me.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several of these playwrights I'd heard of, but not so much for comedy. I'd read all of Shakespeare's plays and enjoyed rereading Twelfth Night. The only one I had not heard of was John Gay, author of the Beggar's Opera; not sure I understood the humor. I was surprised by Machiavelli, Chekhov, and Moliere as I associate them with more dramatic writing. Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest was hilarious and the rest were funny. Shaw's Arms and the Man was ridiculous in its reality. The essays were informative and enlightening.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taken as a group, this is a pretty solid collection. I wouldn't categorize all of them as 'comedies', however. Only four seemed like true 'comedies' to me. The other four were more like 'slice of life plays that contained some humor'. I'll let you decide which is which.

[Silvio]

I quickly realized that I'm not interested in this at this point in the unfolding

[Judith]

I'm actually reading the 1958 edition (from last summer's library book sale classics grab bag), but this one had a cover image :-). I was immersed in Chekhov (which you are now nodding at in agreement if you remember my previous infatuation with Gogol). Honestly I need a bright shiny new edition with plenty of introductory, explanatory, timelines, maps, etc to seduce me into re-reading Machiavelli, Shakespeare and Moliere when I am wide awake enough to have a cognizant read.

[Andrew Neuendorf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great ones: Aristophanes' The Clouds, Twelfth Night, Importance of Being Earnest....it's just that the print is too small, sometimes blurry, and the plays contain no line numbers. I took a risk with this one for my Humor in Literature class and kind of screwed my students over on the poor quality of the production. It was real damn cheap though.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The selection of 8 ranged from Aristophanes to Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest is really quite funny, a story of mistaken (and fake) identity.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Importance of Being Earnest - 4.5/5
The Miser - 3/5
Uncle Vanya - 2/5
Arms and the Man - 2.5/5