Here is a marvelous collection of plays from the English Renaissance
period, offering prime examples of the "domestic drama" genre that first
appeared around 1590. These four pioneering works, set in
near-contemporary England and concerned with issues of marriage and
crime rather than war and power, focus on the lives of ordinary people,
instead of kings and queens and politicians. Arden dramatizes a
notorious murder case of forty years earlier, in which a wealthy husband
was killed by his wife and her lover. In A Woman Killed with Kindness,
a wife is caught by her husband in bed with his best friend. The Witch
of Edmonton combines a true-life story of witchcraft with a fictitious
tale of bigamy and wife-murder, and The English Traveller deals with
the unexpected changes people find when they return home after a lengthy
absence. Part of the Oxford English Drama series, this edition has
modern-spelling, critical introductions, wide-ranging notes, a
chronology of the plays, and
appendices that address the question: who wrote Arden of Faversham and
when did Thomas Heywood write The English Traveller.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the
globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to
scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other
valuable features, including expert introductions by leading
authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date
bibliographies for further study, and much more.
