If seventeenth- and eighteenth-century comedy differ in that the former is about sex (and adultery actually happens) while the latter is about love (and adultery is merely threatened), then Congreve - writing at the turn of the century - occupies a phase of transition. Mirabell is no saint, but he d[...]

Large Format for easy reading. Written in 1700, an unequalled masterpiece of English comedy and one of the most intellectually accomplished.[...]