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Volpone and the Alchemist by Ben Jonson (Paperback, 2004)

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Title: Volpone and the Alchemist (Dover Thrift Editions) Item Condition: used item in a good condition. Author: Ben Jonson ISBN 10: 0486436306. Publisher: Dover Publications Inc. ISBN 13: 9780486436302.

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Much-studied and frequently performed, these comedies by the great Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson satirise the greed, mendacity, gullibility, and pretension of seventeenth-century London society. Both plays abound in colorful characters, ingenious plotting, biting wit, and sharp insight into human nature. In Volpone (1605), a crafty rich man attempts to augment his wealth by feigning a mortal illness. His wealthy neighbours, spying the opportunity for an inheritance, vie with each other in courting the dying man's favour. The Alchemist (1610) comprises a likewise avaricious cast, headed by a butler and prostitute who join forces with a swindler claiming to possess the philosopher's stone. The trio hosts a parade of eager victims whose hypocrisy and greed place them on a moral footing similar to that of the tricksters. Both plays offer sparkling examples of their author's novel approach to satire and his distinctive blend of savagery, humour, moralism, and a powerful sense of the absurd.