Customer Reviews

The Country Wife (Cambridge Literature)

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Far from being a silly comedy, The Country Wife is a work aimed at lashing Seventeenth Century loose morals. We laugh, of course, but through the alluring yet disturbing character of Horner, we perceive that something must be done if Restoration society wants to survive.

Wicherley presents us with unhappy wives and brutal or indifferent husbands who are utlimately fooled by Horner, the man who knows how to exploit the misery produced by mercenary unions. Poor Margery Pinchwife, the heroine of the piece, eventually brings tears in our eyes when we realize that she shall never be free from a violent man that considers marriage a cheaper substitute for keeping a mistress. Margery is the victim of both her husband and her careless lover. She is looking for love, but she keeps on coming across men who are interested in sex only. They can see her body; they can't see her delicate, naif soul.

However, Whycherley (who, we must remember, was the spiritual son of the great moralists Graciàn, Larochefoucault and so on, whose maxims are easily detected in the whole bulk of Wycherley's works) is able to see a way out in the honest, disintrested love between Alithea, Margery's brilliant sister-in-law, and Harcourt, Horner's dashing best friend. (these characters' names symbolize the perfection of their union: her name means "truth", while his name is significantly "Frank".)

This comedy is at its best when performed; however, it is well worth reading, especially if you have a lively imagination. don't miss the notorious "china scene": fifteen minutes of laughter that will make your sides ache.

Be careful: The Country Wife merely "looks" like a stupid, shallow comedy, but it is in fact a deep reflection on society, marriage and, why not?, even the situation of Seventeenth-Century English women.

I recently reread this play for the third time and taught it in a British Literature survey at the University of Texas. Not only do I find it more entertaining and more brilliant with every reading, but I was shocked to find that the vast majority of my students really enjoyed it and preferred Wycherley to Shakespeare. If you want a smart, hilarious, and dark comedy that plumbs the depths of jealousy and sexual possession, this is a must-read play. If you're easily offended or have a hard time following complicated plots and catching bawdy puns, you'll certainly want to avoid it.

The eighteen-year closure of the English stage under the Puritans ended in 1660 with the Restoration of the monarchy. The restored theatre was controversial from the beginning for its sexual content. William Wycherley's comedy, The Country Wife (1675), involves two intertwined plots: 1) Mr. Horner, a noted rake, pretends impotence to gain access more easily to married women and 2) a young, inexperienced wife from a rural area is immediately fascinated by London life, especially its more lewd aspects.

Wycherley's plot is further complicated by another romance, one that is more conventional. Horner's friend, Harcourt, becomes enamored with a young woman engaged to a foppish, self-centered character. This romance is more virtuous, and perhaps functions as a counterbalance to the lewd and bawdy activities centered about Mr. Horner, the ladies of London, and the "inexperienced" country wife.

As social attitudes again became more conservative, The Country Wife gradually lost favor. It disappeared from the stage in 1753, and was not again seen until 1924. It was first produced in the US in 1931. In recent decades The Country Wife has gained considerable popularity, and is now among the best known play from the Restoration period.

Interestingly, women appeared on the English stage (rather than young boys dressed as women) for the first time in the Restoration period. When Mr. Pinchwife disguised his young country wife as a boy, the audience was treated to the scandalous view of a woman in tight fitting breeches. This, in addition to the offstage implied sexual activity, must have made The Country Wife a memorable event.

The Country Wife compares favorably with the best comedies of the next hundred years, including The Man of Mode, The Way of the World, and The School for Scandal. All four plays "are comedies of about men and women who live in London, care for sex and money, and make fools of one another if not of themselves". This quote is from the Norton Critical edition, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy.

The Country Wife is available in a New Mermaids edition as well as in various anthologies such as the Norton edition and the Oxford World Classics edition titled The Country Wife and Other Plays (all by Wycherley).

Many accused THE COUNTRY WIFE of gross obscenity when it debuted in 1675; nonetheless, it remained an audience favorite for more than seventy five years. In 1753, however, bluenose killjoys at last convinced the public that the play was completely unacceptable and successfully banned it from the stage. It was not staged again until 1924--and when it was, the play became an audience favorite all over again.

Author William Wycherley (1640-1715) drew upon sources that included French comedy and Shakespearean structure, but the end result was of his own creation: an outrageously bawdy type of sex farce in which few, if any, of the characters can be described as innocent of evil intent. In THE COUNTRY WIFE, Horner allows society to believe he is impotent, and as such husbands entrust him with their wives. But Horner is anything but impotent, and before long he is bedding a host of bored, foolish, and incredibly horny women--including the young, silly Margery, an ignorant country girl recently wed to an elderly man.

THE COUNTRY WIFE is particularly famous, or infamous, for the so-called "China Scene." Horner claims to have extensive knowledge of the china collected by fashionable ladies, and this provides them with an excuse to visit his rooms to discuss china. And discuss it they do indeed, so much so that the very word "china" becomes funnier with every repetition. But this is far from the only notable moment the play has to offer; from carousing housewives to hysterical husbands, THE COUNTRY WIFE is lewd, lacivious, and almost unbearably funny.

Like many early Restoration plays, THE COUNTRY WIFE has been accused of being "cold," for does not really provide the viewer/reader with a sympathetic hero or heroine, nor does it punish the wrong-doers at the end, a fact which later censors found particularly outrageous. Well, let the killjoys china themselves; this is a play that simply goes on and on, and although it may not be most artful comedy the Restoration produced, it is certainly the most popular. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

TCW is worth your effort, particularly if you enjoy a good laugh

No, I haven't read the book. I saw the play put on by The Shakespeare Theater in Washington. Tessa Auberjonois was an absolute darling in the title role; you couldn't help but feel glad for Margery's odd-but-happy ending.

If Wycherley was no Shakespeare, he did this sort of play better than the Bard. Nothing is quotable, the characters are one dimensional and only the "China" scene got real laughs. But Wycherley did a neat and nasty take on Restoration mores and made it enjoyable, too.

This is BAD. If you have to read this book for a class, I'm sorry. If you are looking for pleasure reading, SAVE YOURSELF! There is still time! This is a half-baked farce with no depth and not enough humor to carry it. BAD.

I have to study this play for my 'A'-levels, and would like to inform readers that this play is NOT worth reading. It is filled to bursting with sexual innuendo and crude, cheap jokes. There are main issues that could be brought out, such as deception, relationships and the function of society, but Wycherley fails to ever reach any firm moral standing on any of these points. The play is ultimately hollow of its concepts and is certainly not worth the effort.