Five O'Clock Tea: Farce

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 37K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Five O'Clock Tea: Farce by William Dean Howells. Author: Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Jan 5, 2009

Editor's review

Five O'Clock Tea: Farce is a one-act comedy by William Dean Howells. Short in length and concentrated in setting, it draws its humor from mismatched dialogue and the misalignments of social etiquette. The play brings the social occasion of "five o'clock tea" to the stage, using pleasantries, misunderstandings, and contrasts of status around the tea table to gently satirize the formulas and vanities of middle-class sociability of the time. Howells is known for mild irony; this play advances its comic effect not through exaggerated plot but through the rhythm of language and the self-exposure of its characters, making it an accessible introduction to late nineteenth-century American comedy of manners. The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain English eBook, convenient for classroom reading, dramatic rehearsal, or close reading of a short play. When reading, note the subtext in the dialogue, how characters maintain propriety and how they betray their awkwardness, and the author's good-natured mockery of social custom. For theater researchers, it is also a small specimen for observing one-act structure and stage arrangement.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students in American literature and drama courses who need a short play sample
Readers who enjoy comedies of manners and social satire sketches
Teachers and theater groups who need material for classroom reading or small-scale rehearsal
Readers who use fragmented time to read public-domain English short plays

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting long plots and complex character arcs
Beginners unfamiliar with English play format and stage directions
Audiences who prefer strong conflict or avant-garde theatrical style

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the jokes, then read by role to feel the rhythm and pauses of dialogue.
Mark characters' "polite words" in social settings against their true intentions and compare the gap.
Understand the specific targets of satire by considering late nineteenth-century American social etiquette.
Try to restore the script to stage action and consider how staging would enhance the comic effect.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is the length of this play suitable for classroom use?

It is short, concentrated in setting, and has few characters, making it suitable for classroom reading or small-scale rehearsal. Teachers can excerpt passages for dialogue analysis or have students read the whole play by role and discuss the comic mechanisms of social etiquette.

Do I need to know Howells before reading this play?

Not necessarily, but knowing his style of mild irony helps. The play's humor relies largely on dialogue and social situations, so readers can enter the text directly and then supplement the author's background afterward.

How difficult is it to read a public-domain English play?

The language is generally not very difficult, but it includes stage directions and colloquial dialogue, requiring adjustment to play format. It is advisable to read the character list and scene descriptions first before entering the dialogue for smoother comprehension.

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About the author

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920 Author

William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was an American author and literary editor, with 107 works held in the collection. His writing spans novels, travel books, memoirs, and literary essays, and his representative works include My Mark Twain, Indian Summer, A Boy's Town, A Modern Instance, and A Hazard of New Fortunes. Howells drew on close observation of everyday life, writing in a plain style with gentle irony and attending to moral questions and human situations amid social change; his travel book Venetian Life and his memoir Literary Friends and Acquaintance record his journeys and personal recollections of American literary figures. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here; readers may turn to the works above to learn about his subjects and style.