White Devil - Softcover

Webster, John

3.59

2,021 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0713627883 ISBN 13: 9780713627886

Publisher: Talman Co*out Of Business

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An acute reader of contemporary drama and a consummate parodist,
Webster achieves in his plays a density of allusion that often produces
moments of brilliant psychological insight and theatrical ingenuity.
Working with the established conventions of revenge tragedy, the
malcontent youngster and dark sexual intrigue, he created in The White
Devil (1612) an exciting, if dramatically flawed, version of a recent
Italian scandal involving the Montalto, Orsini and de' Medici families.
The introduction to this edition disentangles the various plotlines,
illuminates Webster's interest in women as an exploited group with
innate heroic potential and shows how he dissects the misogynist
rhetoric of his male characters.

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About the Author:

John Webster is Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Aberdeen. He is the editor of the International Journal of Systematic Theology.

Review:

Tragedy in five acts by John Webster, performed and published as The White Divel in 1612. Based on historical events that occurred in Italy during the 1580s, this dark Jacobean drama is considered one of the finest of the period. The White Devil centers on the love affair between the Duke of Brachiano and Vittoria Corombona, two of the play's many unscrupulous characters. Despite her role as a vicious heroine, Vittoria elicits sympathy in her attempt to endure a deeply corrupt society. In The White Devil both evil and good characters are drawn into schemes involving political intrigue, adulterous desire, and bloody revenge. Criticized for its plot construction, the play is noted for its characterizations and use of dramatic tension and physical horror. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

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