The School for Scandal

Richard Brinsley Butler SheridanProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.6

Word count: 171K words
Chapters: 18

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 School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley SheridanAuthor: Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 1, 1999

Editor's review

The School for Scandal is Sheridan's signature comedy, using witty dialogue and a stage full of characters to satirize the gossip, hypocrisy, and scheming of fashionable London society. The plot turns on the spread of rumor and the manipulation of reputation, advancing through misunderstanding, eavesdropping, and concealment of identity; its comedy comes from verbal wit rather than exaggerated action. The Project Gutenberg edition provides the English text, ideal for encountering the dialogue style of eighteenth-century British drama directly. Its value lies in being both a play for the stage and a satirical text on social manners: readers can see how gossip is manufactured, circulated, and harms the innocent, and can also appreciate Sheridan's double mockery of sentimentality and hypocrisy. When reading, pay attention to how relationships are set up and how scenes shift; the humor often lies in the subtext of the dialogue. For readers interested in dramatic literature and satirical comedy, this is a well-proportioned, clearly structured original text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in British comedy and dramatic literature
Students and teachers studying eighteenth-century English literature
Readers who enjoy verbal wit and satire
Theater enthusiasts who need the original English play text

Not a good fit for

Readers unaccustomed to play format and stage directions
Readers expecting the continuous narrative of a novel
Beginners with little experience reading English dialogue

Reading tips

First make a character relationship chart, then enter the dialogue, to avoid confusion from the large cast.
Read act by act, and after each act review the main conflicts and misunderstandings.
Try reading aloud in roles to appreciate the rhythm and satire in Sheridan's dialogue.
Watch how gossip is manufactured and circulated, and treat it as a thread running through the play.

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 a play or a novel?

This is a play script, with act divisions, character dialogue, and stage directions; it is not a novel. When reading, follow the scene changes to understand how the plot advances; dialogue is the main vehicle.

Is the original English hard to read?

The dialogue is in eighteenth-century English, with sentence patterns and vocabulary at some distance from modern English, but overall it is fairly colloquial. It is best to first understand the character relationships, then read act by act, using context to judge unfamiliar expressions.

Is it suitable for classroom use?

It is suitable as a supplementary text for British drama or satirical literature. The play is clearly structured and moderate in length, and excerpts can be selected for classroom reading aloud and discussion, though teachers should supply background on the period and character relationships.

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

Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan Author · Irish · 1751–1816

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) was an Irish-born playwright, orator and Whig politician, born in Dublin. His masterpiece The School for Scandal (1777) is regarded as one of the finest comedies of manners in the English language. He also wrote The Rivals, The Critic, St. Patrick's Day and The Duenna, and long managed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Six of his works are held here, including comedies, an opera and a one-act farce; they centre on gossip, marriage and witty dialogue among the upper classes, with playful language and ingenious plots that have deeply influenced later English comedy. Public information on his life is limited, so this note relies only on the facts held here.