About this title: Tom Stoppard's new play is centered around A.E.Housman, poet and Classics scholar, whose most famous poem was A Shropshire Lad. This new play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 1997, directed by Richard Eyre.
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Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780571192717ISBN:0571192718
Description: Acceptable. Book may have underlining, highlighting, or notes throughout. Well used. Still readable but not for the collector. All orders processed within 2 business days. Ships from Foxboro MA. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Grove Press
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780802135810ISBN:0802135811
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First Paperback Edition
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Grove Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780802135810ISBN:0802135811
Description: Very Good. Paperback. Softcover glossy program booklet with stapled binding published May, 2001 by Playbill, Inc. Light-to-average wear to covers. Text clean and unmarked; pages bright; binding tight. 66 pages; color and black-and-white photos; advertisements. Language: English. Directed by Jack O'Brien. Starring Daniel Davis, Neal Dodson, Richard Easton, Robert Sean Leonard, Mireille Enos, David Harbour, Paul Hecht, Brian Hutchison, Byron Jennings, Andrew McGinn, Peter McRobbie, Matthew Floyd ... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: FABER AND FABER Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780571192717ISBN:0571192718
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 96 pages. (96 pages) tom stoppard's new play is centered around a.e. housman, poet and classics scholar, whose most famous poem was a shropshire lad. this new play premiered at the royal national theatre in 1997, directed by richard eyre. (Paperback) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: S. French
Date Published: 1999
Description: New. ~BRAND NEW~I HAVE THOUSANDS OF PLAYS AND MUSICALS IN MY LISTINGS~**Check out my other listings: BOOKS, CDS, DVDS, VIDEOS, GAMES**Fast Delivery*** read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Grove Press
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780802135810ISBN:0802135811
Description: Good. Used Condition-GOOD can be a well cared for Book that is in great condition to a Book that may show some signs of wear. GOOD Books sometimes are permanently marked; have some spine or page creases; exibit signs of aging or an ExLibrary copy. ** Sometimes grease pencil or permanent marking on cover. May contain limited notes and or highlighting. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** SHIPS FROM USA-Domestic Delivery takes 5-14 days ** read more
"Seeing as I have spent almost the last decade of my life toiling in the trenches of a dying Classics department, this work was bound to have a particular and personal appeal for me. But beyond that The Invention of Love is a most eloquent rumination on the psychic tension that arises from inspiration and intellect, art and scholarship and the sublimation of desire - all set against the backdrop of a repressed Victorian England on the cusp of the modern age. I might also add that Stoppard writes with a learning and nuance that is rarely encountered in this day and age."
"The second Stoppard play that I've read that obsesses on the nature of man's quest for knowledge, examines the motives of the industries (if you want to call them that) of people who are paid to do it, and tries to make the audience answer, really, what the benefit is of knowing obscure bits of knowledge that have little to no impact on how you balance your checkbook or design a house.
I do think that Arcadia stated the issue more simply and beautifully and poignantly, from the brief elegance of, "Its the wanting to know that makes us matter," to Septimus' glorious evocation of the continuous march of humankind, showing how nothing is ever really lost.
But The Invention of Love has its own way of looking at the matter, woven into a story that has its own deep sadness and inevitable comedy, and it has a new obsession that couldn't be stated in a more lovely, Shakespearean-esque way. The Invention of Love centers on classical scholars and poets of the classical style, set in Oxford and a Greek religious afterlife, in the midst of Aesthetes and the practical, disinterseted immortals, amongst endlessly repeating memories and intervals of new discovery. It is absolutely obsessed with language. Characters endlessly correct each other on proper and likely readings and misinterpretations of various Latin and Greek phrases, and insist on getting the words right. "The words, what were the words?" This whole play is like Hamlet repeating "Words, words, words," over and over again, sometimes as a song, sometimes as an intensely insane rant. Stoppard explores the idea, an idea that he dismissed in Arcadia, that the individual way that knowledge is discovered and expressed matters- not merely the idea and application of the idea itself. The personal stamp of the person who brings it to public knowledge matters. Who we acknowledge as the inventor matters. Arcadia made the case that as long as we are passionate in what we want and need to know, it does not matter much the way that we personally find to search for our truths, whether they be trivial, personal, or earth shaking, and that knowledge lost will be found again if humanity needs it, when it needs it. Invention of Love is a bit more indulgent of the idea that individual discoveries, and by extension, individual people at specific times matter. Its a bit more of a nostaglic love letter to scholars than Arcadia was- although it certainly pokes fun at the pompous and ridiculousness of most of them.
That certainly isn't all this play is about, of course. It is also, as the title would suggest, about forms of love, especially those considered not quite "right" at the time, about friendship, the Aesthetic movement within the Victorian morality of the age. I responded to Stoppard's version of A.E. Housman and his unrequited love of an athlete named Moses Jackson. It is gently and not so gently heartbreaking to watch his feelings grow throughout the play and the ultimate culmination that Housman reaches at the end. Oh also, for those fans of Oscar Wilde, he's talked about for a good bit of the piece, but doesn't make a cameo appearance until the end, so you'll have to stick around after intermission to get a glimpse of him.
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