About this title: Volphone's reverential prayer to his heaps of gold launches the sharpest, funniest play about money and morals in the 17th century - a play still wickedly relevant on the same topics four centuries later. Ben Jonson's comedy depicts selfishness thinly veiled by sanctimonious speeches, lust and possessiveness poorly disguised as love and marriage, and cynical legalism passing itself off as pure justice, alongside snobbery, class warfare and greed. The wily protagonists keep a dozen conventional plots spinning in the minds of their dupes, and when their amazing juggling act finally unravels, ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven
Date Published: 1962
Description: Fine Like New, Unread, not previously owned. May show signs of wear including remainder marks or stickers on book or cover. ix, 231 p. 21 cm. read more
Description: Very Good. 039390010X 1961 ed. This book is free of markings except a tiny bit of writing inside the cover, which shows only minor shelf wear. Your book will be carefully protected for transit in sturdy, weather-resistant packaging. We are prompt, efficient, communicative. read more
Edition: Soft-cover, glued binding
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven (CT)
Date Published: 1962
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Soft-cover, slight shelf-, edge-, wear, spine NOT creased, NO stains, tears, writing, in tight book. ix, text 231 pp, 21 cm. The Yale Ben Jonson.. Bibliography: p. 231. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven
Date Published: 1962
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Soft-cover, w/cover-, edge-, wear, some cover-creasing. Covers, pp, all lightly 'tanned'. NO stains, tears, writing, in tight book. Soft-cover, ix, text 231, pp, 21 cm. The Yale Ben Jonson.. Bibliography: p. 231. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780486280493ISBN:0486280497
Description: New. No DJ Issued. New. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 122 p. Dover Thrift Editions. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780486280493ISBN:0486280497
Description: Very Good. No DJ Issued. Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 128 p. Dover Thrift Editions. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780393900101ISBN:039390010X
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Talman Co*out Of Business
ISBN-13:9780713630442ISBN:0713630442
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780719051821ISBN:0719051827
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. trade pb, 15a1, minor shelf/edge wear, Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 192 p. Revels Student Editions. Audience: General/trade. read more
I find that I prefer reading certain playwrights than actually seeing them performed live. Shakespeare is the obvious one, though I know it's an unpopular opinion. I'm not overly familar with Will's direct contemporary, Ben Jonson, but I'm hoping that Volpone is the exact opposite; a play that is a delight to watch, but slightly tedious to read. I mean, it's ostensibly a comedy - and there are scenes that I can definitely imagine being funny if they were performed by a talented troupe, but there's no real laugh to be had from actually reading it. The Mosca/Volpone relationship had echoes of Iago/Othello...actually, I feel guilty bringing up Shakespeare yet again in this short review. It's unfair to Jonson, as they were two totally disparate authors with not a whole lot in common apart, but I guess that's the nature of the beast.
I do find the whole theory of humours really fascinating, and it's something that Jonson has spilt a lot of ink over. I'd be interested to see this play in a theatre - if it's ever really performed, which I'm not sure it is."
"Volpone had some funny parts, but as a whole it wasn't that interesting to me. I was disappointed because I thought Ben Jonson would be more like Shakespeare. Only after talking to people in my class did I realize that Shakespeare's plays are more about deep characters and Jonson's plays are more about action. There was certainly enough action, but I've spoiled about Shakespeare and I wanted more depth."
"Not the greatest play. I found it really hard to follow at times as well. It was kind of interesting how instead of simply using names for characters he chose names that actually had a deeper meaning which related to the play. It was kind of boring to me."
"The review of Ben Jonson's Volpone, or the Fox, is the review of death. I've started it three times and deleted it three times and, frankly, I just want to get it over with. The result: super short incoherent review. Here goes:
Funny scenes. Manipulation of minor characters by title character and his servant Mosca featured in the first act were hilarious. Dramatic irony throughout. Deception and manipulation played both humorous and thematic roles.
Characters were entertaining, yet seemed a little flat. Use of stock characters, such as the sly servant, which didn't bother me much, but seemed to contrast with Shakespeare, who I believed in such characters as Twelfth Night's Feste redefined and developed stock characters rather than simply using already established forms.
I haven't decided if I liked the ending. It followed from the plot, yet I think it would have been more entertaining if there was a sort of "winner," which Jonson's end didn't seem to allow for. I'd nominate Mosca, as Jonson was playing with for a while. But I guess in the Renaissance, the slave or servant couldn't really win. Woulda been hilarious though.
As with most of the plays I've read, I acknowledge that this would be much better performed than read in dim lighting late at night after doing an eight page paper. Either because of the conditions I read it or because of its nature (or both), Volpone, or the Fox was as difficult to read as it was to review, but I'm glad that I read it if not just to have read the works of a Renaissance playwright who's not Shakespeare."
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