Poison: A Farce

Baker, George M. (George Melville), 1832-1890Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 51K words
Chapters: 6

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.Poison: A Farce by George M. BakerAuthor: Baker, George M. (George Melville), 1832-1890,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 18, 2015

Editor's review

This is a one-act farce by the nineteenth-century American writer George M. Baker, a typical piece of light entertainment. The humor is driven by exaggerated characters and misunderstandings, with brisk pacing and witty dialogue; it serves as an accessible sample of nineteenth-century Anglo-American popular theater. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies more in textual availability and ease of study than in the depth of a literary classic. Readers can treat it as a short stage experience: dialogue-heavy and tightly focused in setting, it reads like watching a small performance. If you are interested in early American drama, the farce genre, or Victorian-era humor, this little volume offers a concrete and lively entry point. While reading, note the stock character types and the way stage directions are written; these details reveal performance conventions of the time more than the plot itself does. Because it is short, it also works well as casual reading or recitation material for theater enthusiasts.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century Anglo-American popular theater
Hobbyists who need a short play script for reading aloud or performance
Students who want an easy introduction to the early American farce genre

Not a good fit for

Serious literary readers expecting profound themes or complex characterization
Readers who dislike play-script format and prefer narrative prose only

Reading tips

Read through once for the plot, then read aloud by role to feel the comic rhythm of the dialogue.
Pay attention to stage directions while reading and imagine the staging and character blocking.
Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century American theater history for comparison.

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 this book a novel or a play?

It is a farce script written in dramatic dialogue and stage directions rather than a narrative novel. You read it by following scenes and character lines; in form it is closer to a performance text.

Can I read it if my English is not good?

The original is in English. It is not long, but the dialogue is dense and includes period slang and colloquial expressions. Readers with limited English may need a dictionary or a parallel translation to fully appreciate the humor.

Is it suitable for classroom use?

It can serve as short material for an introduction to drama or for reading-aloud practice, especially for discussing stock characters and comic techniques. Teachers should supply background notes, however, to help students understand the nineteenth-century comic context.

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About the author

Baker, George M. (George Melville), 1832-1890 Author

George Melville Baker (1832–1890) was an American playwright best known for his one-act farces and short stage pieces. Public information about his life and nationality is limited, and surviving accounts focus mainly on his plays themselves. The eighteen works held here lean toward light, humorous stage sketches: Gentlemen of the Jury, Poison, and A Mysterious Disappearance are all labeled farces, relying on misunderstanding, coincidence, and exaggerated characters for comic effect, and are suited to amateur companies and home performance. He also wrote three-act melodrama such as Nevada or, The Lost Mine, along with seasonal and children's pieces like Summer Days and The Merry Christmas of the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe. His work balances entertainment with practical stageability, in plain language and compact structure, and is representative of nineteenth-century American popular drama publishing.