The Custom of the Country (Globe Quartos) [Paperback]

John Fletcher (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 087830102X | ISBN-13: 978-0878301027 | Publication Date: June 21, 1999

Once famed for its obscenity, this vigorous and enjoyable play traces the fortunes of two brothers shipwrecked in a foreign land. By turns poignant and risque, sentimental and satiraical, its beautifully crafted plot embodies the collaborative art of its authors. It was given a staged reading in 1998 as part of the Globe Education's on-going program to record with professional casts all non-Shakespearean plays of the English Renaissance.

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (June 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087830102X
• ISBN-13: 978-0878301027
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,658,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A great read and splendid prose, October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Custom of the Country (Globe Quartos) (Paperback)

A "potboiler" (c.f. Wharton's phrase about the masterpieces of literature) that is disguised only by occasional, powerful strokes. Undine is one of the great heroines--and one you can believe in. But its "potboiler" origin manifests itself in the rather "cheap" suicide of Ralph (perhaps I am sore because I love him). More importantly, the shifting-perspective narration, which could have made this a great novel, instead exposes a lack of unity (when for instance Ralph is erased, and so with him a good half of the novel's characters--never to return. Ah, but I dwell...). Too many of the players, therefor, seem like tools. Here is a lightweight James plus Howells, and perhaps prefigures Fitzgerald. Still, a great read and splendid prose.