The Belle's Stratagem

Cowley, Hannah, 1743-1809Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 138K words
Chapters: 14

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.The Belle's Stratagem by Hannah CowleyAuthor: Cowley, Hannah, 1743-1809,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 8, 2014

Editor's review

This is a comedy by the eighteenth-century British playwright Hannah Cowley, released as a public-domain e-book through Project Gutenberg. The play itself is one of the representative texts of eighteenth-century British comedy of manners, built around courtship and scheming, with witty dialogue and character setups typical of the comedy of the time. For readers studying eighteenth-century British drama, women's writing, or the comic tradition from the Restoration onward, it is worthwhile primary material; general readers can also enjoy it as light reading for understanding the social customs and stage tastes of the period. Note that this is an original English play and a public-domain electronic reprint, with Project Gutenberg's copyright notice before the text; readers should go directly to the play text. It suits use in literature courses, drama studies, or English reading practice, but is not recommended as beginner-level English reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature specialists studying eighteenth-century British drama and the comic tradition
English literature enthusiasts interested in early women playwrights and their works
Teachers and students needing public-domain English plays for courses or staging
Intermediate to advanced learners wishing to practice English reading with original plays

Not a good fit for

Beginner readers with weak English needing Chinese notes or guides
Researchers expecting full scholarly collation, detailed notes, and background study
Readers who only want light modern novels and are unfamiliar with classical play formats

Reading tips

Read the character list and scene descriptions before the play to clarify relationships before entering the dialogue.
Read act by act, reviewing plot development and changes in characters' schemes after each act.
Use a dictionary or annotated edition for eighteenth-century colloquialisms and allusions.
For staging, read the whole play first, then mark character tone and stage directions.

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 play, a comedy by the eighteenth-century British playwright Hannah Cowley. Reading focuses on character dialogue and stage directions; its format differs from a novel, and the plot should be followed by act and scene.

Should I read the Gutenberg notice at the front?

That is Project Gutenberg's copyright and project notice, explaining the e-book's source and terms of use; it is unrelated to the play's content. For actual reading, skip it and start from the play text.

Can I understand it with average English?

The play uses eighteenth-century English, including colloquial expressions and allusions of the time, which poses some difficulty for non-native readers. Intermediate to advanced English reading ability is recommended, along with a dictionary or notes, reading progressively.

Comments

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About the author

Cowley, Hannah, 1743-1809 Author · British · 1743–1809

Hannah Cowley (1743–1809) was a British playwright and poet who was active on the London stage with her comedy The Belle's Stratagem. Her plays drew largely on the marriage and social life of fashionable British society, with brisk plots and witty dialogue in which female cleverness and scheming often drive the action; she thus earned a place in the late eighteenth-century London theatre. Besides The Belle's Stratagem, the collection also holds her five-act comedy A Bold Stroke for a Husband, likewise centred on marriage and domestic manoeuvring, showing her continuing interest in relations between the sexes and the theme of marriage. Public information about the details of her life is limited; her work circulated chiefly through stage performance and exercised some influence on the later tradition of British comedy.