Noël Coward Ordine dei libri (cronologico)

Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925. A cross between high farce and a comedy of manners, the play is set in an English country house in the 1920s, and deals with the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish behaviour when they each invite a guest to spend the weekend. The self-centred behaviour of the hosts finally drives their guests to flee while the Blisses are so engaged in a family row that they do not notice their guests' furtive departure.

Hořká komedie Noëla Cowarda se odehrává o jednom červnovém víkendu v letním sídle manželů Blissových. Bývalá herečka Judith Blissová a její manžel, spisovatel David, tu tráví léto se svými dvěma dospělými dětmi - dcerou Sorel a synem Simonem. Každý z nich si nezávisle na sobě pozve na víkend hosta. Od okamžiku, kdy vyjde najevo, že jejich host nebude v domě tím jediným, hádky mezi sebestřednými členy rodiny převáží nad obyčejnou slušností, takže hosty přehlížejí, nebo si je jízlivě dobírají. Cowardovi se podařilo vytvořit atmosféru trapného dusna, které odlehčuje brilantním dialogem. Všichni Blissovi se chovají nevyzrále a nedospěle. S velkou intenzitou a rychlostí podléhají neexistujícím citům a ve svém uzavřeném světě vedle sebe žijí bez opravdového zájmu jeden o druhého. Za vším pozérstvím se však skrývá obyčejné a lidsky pochopitelné zoufalství z nenaplněnosti vlastního osudu.

Volume Four of Noel Coward's plays contains a selection of Coward's plays from the thirties and forties which includes Blithe Spirit, a comedy that centres around the spirit medium Madame Arcati. The play that mocks sudden death was produced at precisely the moment when bombs were bringing it to Britain: "I shall ever be grateful, for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write Blithe Spirit in five days during one of the darkest years of the war." The play was for years the longest-running comedy in the history of British theatre.Present Laughter follows the life of Garry Essendine, a world-weary, middle-aged projection of the dilettante, debonair persona - self-obsessed and dressing-gowned who struts through the play like an educated peacock. It is a comedy about the 'theatricals' that Noel best knew and loved, and was originally a star vehicle for himself. It is the closest to an autobiographical play that Coward ever wrote.This Happy Breed is a saga of a lower middle-class family; and three shorter pieces fromTonight at 8.30- is a farce set in the South of France, and serves as an oblique tribute to Frederick Lonsdale; The Astonished Heart is about the decay of a psychiatrist's mind through personal sexual obsession. Red Peppers, which closes the volume, was a cynical tribute to the lost music halls of the First World War.

No one in the twentieth century used language with the same precision and wit as Noël Coward. In his plays, his verse, his song lyrics, stories and in everyday life, he chose his words to uniquely stylish and truthful effect. This affectionate portrait of Coward's life includes not only his best-loved witticisms and lyrics, but also excerpts from private papers and hidden gems from unpublished material. Barry Day Delves into the whole range of Coward's talents, as well as his thoughts on a wide variety of subjects - including the theatre, England, the Arts, religion, love and death - all the while giving insights into the man himself.

"This 1925 comedy of manners that's funny yet also unorthodox and unsettling... a celebration of abnormality and at the same time a disquieting study of both the pleasures and the pains of not being able to restrain oneself." - Evening Standard When four guests, all invited by different members of the Bliss family, arrive for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead, they're expecting a idyllic retreat. But this peaceful promise is quickly trounced when the self-absorbed eccentricities of the Blisses are trained on the guests, who leave the country mansion humiliated and embarrassed. First produced in 1925, Hay Fever is a technical masterpiece, seamlessly combining high farce with a comedy of manners, and delivering Coward his first major commercial success. This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 125th anniversary of Coward's birth and features a new introduction by Michael Billington.

Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne, divorced from one another five years previously, arrive coincidentally at the same French hotel. They are both honeymooning with their respective new spouses, but find that the old bond between them cannot be swept aside. schovat popis

Bound in publisher's original gold cloth printed with design and housed in a matching paper-covered slipcase. Selected by Michael Cox. Illustrated by Helen Smithson. Preface by Grahm Payn and Sheridan Morley. Published by arrangement with the Estate of Noel Coward and Methuen London.

Together with an introduction and extensive notes by Coward himself, this collection of 276 Noel Coward lyrics is arranged in chronological order and grouped by show

An anthology of the best comic writing in Punch from 1841 to 1991.

These diaries chronicle the last thirty years of the author's life.

The third volume of Coward's plays contains some of his best work from the thirties.

"An honest, even profound reflection on the price of fame, with some genuine sexual frisson and an undercurrent of pathos." - The Hollywood Reporter At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs - his line of harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated but playing closer to home is not. Just before he escapes on tour to Africa the full extent of his misdemeanours is discovered... and all hell breaks loose. Noël Coward's Present Laughter premiered in the early years of the Second World War just as such privileged lives were threatened with fundamental social change, and remains one of the playwright's most enduring hits. This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Russell Jackson.

"I will ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write 'Blithe Spirit' in five days during one of the darkest years of the war." -Noel Coward. Written in 1941, 'Blithe Spirit' remained the longest-running comedy in British Theatre for three decades. Plotted around the central role of one of Coward's best loved characters, a spirit medium Madame Arcati (originally performed by Margaret Rutherford) Coward's play is an escapist comedy about a man whose two previous wives return to haunt him.

Daß der Bühnenautor Noël Coward, bei dem Generationen junger Dramatiker in England und Amerika in die Lehre gingen, auch ein brillanter Romancier war, beweist sein hier vorliegender erster Roman. Samolo, eine imaginäre Insel im Pazifik, erwartet den Besuch von Königin Elizabeth und Prinz Philip. Noch bevor die hohen Gäste den Fuß an Land gesetzt haben, beginnt unter den Bewohnern der Insel, Eingeborenen wie Briten, der Kampf um gesellschaftlichen Erfolg. Ein turbulenter Jahrmarkt der Eitelkeiten hebt an, bei dem die bildhübsche, die Männer an sich fesselnde Herzogin von Fowey alle anderen aussticht. Eine freche Satire auf die «gute Gesellschaft» Englands voller Übermut, Herz, Witz und Charme.