Our American Cousin
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Literature specialists studying nineteenth-century Anglo-American theater and popular comedy
- Enthusiasts of the Lincoln assassination who want to read primary sources
- Readers interested in early stage representations of Anglo-American cultural differences
- Teachers and students needing an English public-domain script for teaching or translation practice
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking profound, serious historical analysis or biography
- General readers with limited English who expect a Chinese translation
- Contemporary theater fans who want modern pacing and strong plotting
Reading tips
- Learn the basic facts of the Lincoln assassination first, then read the play to appreciate the contrast between history and the stage text.
- Read the dialogue aloud scene by scene, noting dialect spellings and stage directions to recreate the nineteenth-century performance feel.
- Using the theme of Anglo-American cultural differences, note the stereotypes in the Asa figure and the comic techniques.
About the publisher
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
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FAQ
What does this play have to do with Lincoln's assassination?
Is this an English book? Is there a Chinese translation?
What is the play about, and is it worth reading?
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About the author
Tom Taylor (Taylor, Tom, 1817–1880) was a British playwright and editor, best known for his long editorship of Punch magazine and for his dramatic works. His representative plays include Our American Cousin and Masks and Faces or, Before and Behind the Curtain: A Comedy in Two Acts. The former is a comedy often mentioned in the context of the nineteenth-century British stage and is also frequently discussed in connection with the assassination of Lincoln; the latter takes theatrical life as its subject, built around the contrast between the front and back of the stage, and shows his command of dramatic situations and dialogue. Taylor's plays were written largely for contemporary London audiences, with witty language and plots designed for stage effect, earning him a place in mid-Victorian popular drama. Public information is limited, and details of his life and the full range of his work require further study.
