The Invention of Love, by Tom Stoppard (NEW paperback, 1st Grove edition)

Description: It is 1936 and A. E. Housman is being ferried across the river Styx, glad to be dead at last. The river that flows through Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love connects Hades with the Oxford of Housman’s youth: High Victorian morality is under siege from the Aesthetic movement, and an Irish student named Wilde is preparing to burst onto the London scene. On his journey the elder Housman confronts the younger version of himself and his memories of the man he loved his entire life, Moses Jackson -- the handsome athlete who could not return his feelings. "Vintage Stoppard in its intelligence and wit."-Matt Wolf, Variety "Tom Stoppard at his best; manipulative, inquisitive, irresistible . . . a master at work."-Sunday Times (London) "So beautifully constructed that the playwright seems to be discovering his play only one jump ahead of the audience. It has that sense of surprise and wonder."-Vincent Canby, The New York Times "A magical memory play which meanders like an elaborate dream . . . Stoppard has been inspired to write the most emotionally powerful and enthralling play of his career. Never before has he written with such exciting eloquence."-Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard "Some of the finest, most passionate, and most disarmingly brilliant dramatic writing that he has given us."-Alastair Macaulay, The Financial Times Tom Stoppard is the author of such seminal works as Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcadia, The Real Thing, Travesties, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, and The Real Inspector Hound. Review (2013, 5 stars): Stoppard scavenges elegantly from the life of the poet/classicist A.E. Housman and in the process offers powerful insights on how classical scholarship offered an outlet and/or expiation to intelligent men with the misfortune to be born a century too soon (or two thousand years too late) for their sexuality. Almost every line has some clever or moving literary or historical allusion, and Stoppard's historical research is wicked indeed. Intricate, multiple readings required, but made worth it (even if the underlying deep sadness of Housman's shy, prickly life leaves you unmoved) by the wonderful quotations from Housman, Oscar Wilde and others. "Confronted with two manuscripts of equal merit, he is like a donkey between two bundles of hay, and confusedly imagines that if one bundle were removed he would cease to be a donkey." It is pretty much indispensable to know what an "apparatus criticus" is before you start reading, though Housman/Stoppard will then reassure you on why/whether you should want one.

Price: 1.99 USD

Location: Plattsburgh, New York

End Time: 2024-09-17T18:26:01.000Z

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