I took 2 days over reading this play for various reasons - it has not been a smooth start to the week. There was a post outlining why, but I've decided to remove it - dwelling on things going wrong is unhelpful. So, on with the review.
I do struggle a little bit with Congreve's work, the language isn't quite as familiar as Shakespeare and there are certain turns of phrase which are still in use today but with different meanings, which I find trip me up and slow me down a little bit. From a view of the evolution of language that's interesting, but it requires a little more concentration and thought to understand what's being said.
There's a thread in this story where one of the men tries to convince one of the girls that lies and misdirection (about feelings) should form part of any courtship - exactly the attitude I dislike in stories like The Importance of Being Earnest - again, interesting to see how far back that attitude stretches. That said the women, through most of the play, seem to be rather more intelligent than they're given credit for by their respective suitors and have their own agendas.
I think I may need to come back to this one at a later date. The difficulties I have had with my first readings of each of Congreve's plays so far has meant most of what I take away from those first readings is a sense of frustration and not enough of an impression of the story itself.
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