Lover's Vows

Kotzebue, August von, 1761-1819Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 114K words
Chapters: 12

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.Lover's Vows by Mrs. Inchbald and August von KotzebueAuthor: Kotzebue, August von, 1761-1819,Language: English, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Oct 1, 2003

Editor's review

Lover's Vows is a play by the German dramatist Kotzebue, adapted into English by Inchbald, often mentioned in theatre history for its connection with Mansfield Park: Austen's characters stage the play. Its value lies first in the text itself—a sentimental bourgeois drama of the late eighteenth century, centering on love, reputation, class, and secrets, with a plot driven by misunderstanding and moral conflict and dialogue bearing the period's distinctive rhetoric. For the general reader it is less a work that succeeds by modern pacing than a window onto late-eighteenth-century stage taste and moral attitudes. It is worth reading as a script, paying attention to act and scene divisions, entrances and exits, and the function of soliloquies, to see more clearly how playwrights of the time organized suspense and emotion. As a public-domain e-book it is short and well suited to reading alongside related literary-historical material. Readers seeking only thrilling plot may find the dialogue long-winded and the resolution preachy, but for those interested in the age of Austen or in sentimental drama, it is a highly useful primary text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary scholars studying late-eighteenth-century European drama and sentimentalism
Readers interested in the background to Austen's work and the intertext of Mansfield Park
Teachers and students who need a public-domain play text for scenes or readings
Lovers of classic literature who enjoy old-fashioned dialogue and moral conflict

Not a good fit for

Modern popular readers seeking fast-paced plots and strong dramatic conflict
Readers unwilling to engage with eighteenth-century rhetoric and lengthy dialogue
General readers looking for a Chinese translation rather than the English original

Reading tips

Start with the dramatis personae and the scene structure, then read scene by scene, noting the rhythm of entrances and exits.
Read the dialogue aloud to catch the stage tone and the emotional function of the soliloquies.
Read alongside the relevant chapters of Austen's Mansfield Park to observe the intertext.
After reading, outline the main characters' moral positions and the order in which secrets are revealed, keeping brief notes.

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

What is the connection between this book and Jane Austen?

Lover's Vows is often mentioned because the characters in Mansfield Park stage the play, and Austen uses that episode to discuss theatrical taste and moral limits. Readers can treat this book as the primary text for understanding that episode, though the two works are not by the same author.

Is this the English original or a Chinese translation?

This is the English electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg, originally by Kotzebue and adapted by Inchbald. There is no Chinese parallel text or annotation, so readers with limited English will need a dictionary or another translation.

Can I understand it without a background in drama?

Yes, but with some patience. Start with the dramatis personae and scene descriptions, treat each scene as a self-contained unit, and note who enters, who exits, and how the secrets are gradually revealed. Familiarity with basic dramatic terms will make it smoother.

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About the author

Kotzebue, August von, 1761-1819 Author · German · 1761–1819

August von Kotzebue (1761–1819) was a German playwright. Born in Weimar, he studied at the University of Jena and later held official posts in Russia, where he was suspected of espionage and exiled to Siberia before being released and returning to public service and founding periodicals. His plays were popular and prolific, marked by exaggerated sentiment and tight plotting that appealed to middle-class audiences. The Stranger and Lover's Vows were widely performed, the latter becoming a familiar English stage adaptation. In 1819 he was assassinated in Mannheim for his conservative stance and political activities, an event that intensified restrictions on liberal thought across the German states.