Kun lesket lempivät: A Comedy in Four Acts

Lassila, Maiju, 1868-1918Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
65K words
Chapters
7

Tags

Foreign Language Books Dramatic LiteratureForeign Literature Country SocietyFamily BondsWidow RemarriageHumor ReliefStage ScriptSatirical StyleFinnish Comedy

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.Kun lesket lempivät: Nelinäytöksinen huvinäytelmä by Maiju LassilaAuthor: Lassila, Maiju, 1868-1918,Language: Finnish, Class: PH: Language and Literatures: Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures, Release Date: May 17, 2015

Editor's review

This is a four-act comedy by Finnish author Maiju Lassila, available as a free eBook from Project Gutenberg. Lassila excels at setting stories in rural or small-town life, using a light touch to present misunderstandings and romantic maneuvers among his characters. The title may be translated as When Widows Fall in Love, and the play centers on a widow's romantic choices. It suits readers interested in modern Finnish drama and Nordic popular comedy. The four-act structure makes it easy to read act by act, and the dialogue-driven comic pacing also suits reading aloud or small-scale staging. The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text, easy to search and cite, but readers must supply their own Finnish reading ability.

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Reading tips

  1. Start with the character list and act summaries to clarify each act's setting and relationships before entering the dialogue
  2. Read act by act, reviewing after each how misunderstandings and conflicts advance
  3. If staging, annotate speakers' tones and stage directions as you read
  4. Combine with Lassila's biography and the context of modern Finnish drama to understand the social observation in the comedy

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7

FAQ

What language is this book in, and what reading foundation is needed? The original is in Finnish and is a public-domain electronic text. Readers need some Finnish reading ability, or must rely on dictionaries and translation tools; there is no Chinese parallel text.
Is it suitable for script readings or small theater staging? Yes. It is a four-act comedy driven by dialogue, with clear character relationships, making it easy to read by role or stage excerpts. It is advisable to read the whole play first to grasp the pacing, then divide rehearsal by act.
What should be noted when using the Project Gutenberg edition? This is a free public-domain eBook, convenient for searching, citing, and copying, but the layout is plain and detailed notes may be lacking. When citing, note the source and verify the text version yourself.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Lassila, Maiju, 1868-1918 Author

Lassila, Maiju (1868–1918) is an important author in Finnish literary history. Public information about her is limited, and the details of her life are not recorded in the available sources, yet the thirty works held here show how prolific she was. Her representative works include Tulitikkuja lainaamassa, Kuolleista herännyt: Seikkailukertomus eli etsijän tarina, Manasse Jäppinen, Pojat asialla and Mestari Nyke: Romaani, merkkiteos, whose titles often suggest humour, adventure and everyday life. Her output spans novels and stage works; Luonnon lapsia: 4-näytöksinen huvinäytelmä, for instance, is a four-act comedy. She often drew on rural figures and the fortunes of ordinary people, writing in a light, playful tone with gentle satire of human manners and social life. Her works circulated widely among Finnish readers, and some have become enduring pieces in the national literary tradition.