Blithe Spirit

by Noël Coward, Arianne Johnson Quinn (Introduction)

Overview

In this favorite Coward comedy, a casual evening among witty friends is transformed by a seance during which the host's deceased wife returns to wreak havoc on his new marriage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350353497
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/29/2023
Series:	Modern Classics
Pages:	152
Sales rank:	750,832
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

Noël Coward was born in 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex. He made his name as a playwright with The Vortex (1924), in which he also appeared. His numerous other successful plays included Fallen Angels (1925), Hay Fever (1925), Private Lives (1933), Design for Living (1933) and Blithe Spirit (1941). During the war he wrote screenplays such as Brief Encounter (1944) and In Which We Serve (1942). In the fifties he began a new career as a cabaret entertainer. He published volumes of verse and a novel (Pomp and Circumstance, 1960), two volumes of autobiography and four volumes of short stories: To Step Aside (1939), Star Quality (1951), Pretty Polly Barlow (1964) and Bon Voyage (1967). He was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica.

Editorial Reviews

"A minor comic masterpiece of the lighter sort"-Professor Allardyce Nicoll

From the Publisher

Each actor in this audiobook offers full-bodied characterizations, while appropriate sound effects and period music add dimension to Coward's improbable farce. Charles Condomine, a writer, and his second wife, Ruth, engage the services of a medium to conduct a séance—just for laughs. To their shock and horror, they are unexpectedly visited by Condomine's late first wife, Elvira, who plots to get Charles into the spirit world so they can be together for all eternity. Coward's 1941 comedy features Corin Redgrave as Charles, Kika Markham as Ruth, Joanna Lumley as Elvira, and Thelma Ruby as the outrageous medium, Madam Arcati. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2015 - AudioFile