Five Plays

By Ben Jonson

Book Overview

This fully annotated and modernized collection of plays--including Every Man in his Humour, Sejanus, Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair--represents the full range and complexity of Jonson's art as a playwright.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019955577X
• ISBN13: 9780199555772
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.0" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Meet Ben Jonson

FYI, the plays included in this edition are Every Man in his Humour, Sejanus, Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair. While Jonson's language is not as accessible as Shakespeare's, his plays are by no means a waste of time. No one had a sharper ear for the ways in which people in society delude themselves and others. Sejanus is rough going for anyone who isn't an ancient-Roman history buff, but the comedies offer wicked portraits of con artists, hustlers, wannabes, posers, and manglers of language. This edition doesn't offer a lot of help to readers unfamiliar with 17th-century English, but it's a good basic version of these plays, some of which aren't easy to find in cheap editions.