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The Way of the World
作者Author  /  William  Congreve  威廉.康格里孚

The Way of the World (1700)

 

Provider: Cecilia Liu / 劉雪珍

 

Source: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/abj76/PG/works/way_of_the_world.shtml

   
Restoration comedy was often very witty and clever offering the theatergoer diverting and realistic pictures of the external details of the life, fashion, manners, and speech of the times. As a social comedy of manners, The Way of the World suggests how character determines "manners" and how impulse and desire issue in behavior. 
   
Summary
  Witty, ironic Mirabell is in love with the coquette Millament. But to marry her he must first win over her lovesick old aunt, Lady Wishfort and the estate she holds for the girl. He pretends to make love to the old woman who is receptive to his advances. Things go well until Mrs. Marwood, rejected earlier by Mirabell, threatens to expose his scheme. The plot is revealed and Lady Wishfort says that Millamant may marry Mirabell, but only half of the estate will go with her. More strategems by Miravell, more revelations by Mrs. Marwood. Mirabell then reveals an earlier indiscretion by Mrs. Marwood. This elicits eternal gratitude from Lady Wishfort to Mirabell for saving her from the scandal of a divorce of her daughter. In the end she agrees to the marriage of Mirabell and Millamant. 
 
   
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English Literature I: the Eighteenth Century Litrature

English Literature and Culture: From Medieval Period to the Eighteenth Century

 
     
 
   
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