Plays: Second Series

Galsworthy, John, 1867-1933Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 253K words
Chapters: 26

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.Plays : Second Series by John GalsworthyAuthor: Galsworthy, John, 1867-1933,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 26, 2004

Editor's review

This is the second collection of plays by John Galsworthy in English, a public-domain e-book. Galsworthy was born in 1867, died in 1933, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932; his plays often concern social justice, class, and legal ethics. This volume suits readers who have already read his first collection or have some initial acquaintance with his dramatic style. The electronic edition is plain text, with no production notes or annotations, so readers must use stage directions to imagine the scenes. It can be compared with other British problem plays of the same period to observe how the author presents conflict through dialogue. Suitable as selected reading for theatre enthusiasts and English literature students.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Theatre readers interested in British problem plays
English literature students who need to read play texts
Readers who know Galsworthy's novels and want to explore his plays

Not a good fit for

Stage professionals seeking production notes and directors' commentary
First-time readers of English plays who need a detailed introduction

Reading tips

Read the contents first to get a sense of each play's themes, then closely read one or two
Mark the stage directions while reading and try to reconstruct the scenes mentally
Compare with problem plays by Ibsen or Shaw

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 kind of work by Galsworthy is this?

According to the source, this is the second series of John Galsworthy's plays, an English dramatic text. Galsworthy is known for the novel series The Forsyte Saga and also wrote several plays on social issues; this collection is part of his dramatic work.

Can I read it without experience of reading drama?

Yes, but it helps to learn the basic format of a play first, such as the character list, stage directions, and dialogue. Public-domain e-books usually have no annotations, so new readers might try one short play before deciding whether to read the whole collection.

Does the e-book include production photos or annotations?

According to the source, this is a plain-text e-book released by Project Gutenberg, with no mention of production photos, annotations, or an introduction. Readers who need production background should consult theatre history sources or related scholarship.

Related on WeRead

Comments

Find this book

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

Galsworthy, John, 1867-1933 Author

John Galsworthy (1867–1933) was a British novelist and playwright known for his detailed portrayal of English social life from the late Victorian period to the early twentieth century. The library holds fifty-six of his works, including novels, serial fiction, and plays. Representative titles include The Forsyte Saga in its complete form and in Volumes I and II, To Let, Strife: A Drama in Three Acts, and Justice. His fiction often centers on family relationships, attitudes toward property, and shifts in social class, written in a restrained and observant style that attends to the interplay between individual psychology and social environment. His plays frequently explore tensions between law, morality, and personal circumstance. Overall, his work combines realistic depth with readability and has had a lasting influence on English literature. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted here; this introduction is based mainly on the works held in the library.