Three Hours after Marriage

Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 162K words
Chapters: 17

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.Three Hours after Marriage by John Arbuthnot, John Gay, and Alexander PopeAuthor: Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 8, 2011

Editor's review

This three-act play, written collaboratively by three eighteenth-century figures of English letters—John Arbuthnot, John Gay and Alexander Pope—is a satire in the tradition of comedy of manners after the Restoration. Its value lies not in a convoluted plot but in its biting mockery of the marriage market, the literary circle and social pretension of the time; the dialogue is dense with wit, and the character names and lines are full of period allusions. As a public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, it presents the English original and is suitable for readers interested in eighteenth-century English drama, satirical literature and Pope's circle as a primary text for study or personal reading. There is no need to hurry after the plot; it is better to treat each scene as a social caricature and to note how puns, innuendo and stage business work together, so as to appreciate the cool humor produced by the three collaborators' technique. Because the text is old and annotation depends on external sources, first-time readers should read it alongside background material on literary history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Undergraduate and graduate students studying eighteenth-century English drama and satire
Literature enthusiasts interested in the circles of Pope, Gay and their contemporaries
Professionals needing public-domain English plays as material for translation or adaptation
Readers who enjoy witty dialogue and comedy of manners and are willing to look up background notes

Not a good fit for

General fiction readers looking for tightly plotted, easy-to-read stories
Beginners whose English reading is not yet proficient and who rely on modern plain-language notes
Researchers expecting a full scholarly edition with detailed footnotes

Reading tips

Read a plot summary and character list first before entering the dialogue, so that dense allusions do not interrupt the rhythm.
Keep pen and paper handy to mark puns and innuendo, and look up the eighteenth-century social background afterward.
Read it alongside other Restoration comedies of manners to compare satirical techniques.
For research purposes, record clues about the division of labor among the three authors and edition information for later citation.

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 three-act play written collaboratively by Arbuthnot, Gay and Pope, consisting mainly of dialogue and stage directions rather than narrative fiction. Readers need to follow the entrances and exits of characters and the exchanges of dialogue scene by scene.

Is the English original difficult, and what background is needed?

The text is in eighteenth-century English, with sentence structures and spellings that differ from modern English and dense allusions. Readers with university-level English reading ability who are willing to consult background materials will find it easier to get into; otherwise they may get stuck on puns and innuendo.

Does this electronic edition have notes?

According to the available information, this is a public-domain electronic text released by Project Gutenberg, presented mainly as the original text, and no detailed scholarly annotations are indicated. Readers who need explanations of allusions should consult literary histories and reference works on their own.

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About the author

Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744 Author

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was an English poet, with 11 works held in this collection. His representative works include The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems, An Essay on Criticism, An Essay on Man, Moral Essays and Satires, as well as the multi-volume Poetical Works and Works of Alexander Pope. These works show that he was skilled in the heroic couplet and wrote satire, discursive verse and verse epistles, often dealing with social manners, literary criticism and human morality. Because public information is limited, details of his life and his classification cannot be confirmed in this collection; even so, the recorded works alone indicate his lasting influence on the English poetic tradition, and his polished, epigrammatic language and satirical manner are often quoted and studied by later generations.