The Second Mrs Tanqueray

Arthur Wing Pinero, J.P. Wearing

• Publisher: Broadview Press
• Year: 2007
• eBook ISBN: 9781460401644
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

The Second Mrs. Tanqueray was the theatrical sensation of the London stage in 1893. It established Pinero as the leading English dramatist of serious social issues, and created a star out of Mrs. Patrick Campbell in the title role. The play recounts the marriage of a "woman with a past" and how it fails because of the double standard of morality applied unequally and hypocritically by Victorian society to men and women.

This Broadview edition includes a thoroughly revised text based on the author's manuscript, the prompt copy for the first production, and the published first edition; it also incorporates pertinent stage directions from the first production. The critical introduction examines all facets of the play and its production, and the appendices make accessible a wide variety of hard-to-find contemporary contextual materials related to the play.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Arthur Wing Pinero: A Brief Chronology
• A Note on the Text
• The Second Mrs. Tanqueray: A Play in Four Acts
• Appendix A: Pinero on Drama
• Appendix B: The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, The Golden Butterfly, and the Albany
• Appendix C: Social Background
• Appendix D: Contemporary Reactions to The Second Mrs. Tanqueray
• Appendix E: Dramatic Techniques
• Select Bibliography