With piercing accuracy William ongreve depicted the shallow, brittle world of "society" where the right artifice in manners, fashion and conversation-and money-eased the passage to success. Through sparkling, witty dialogue and brilliant characterisation-Lady Plyant, Valentine, Lady Touchwood, Mirabell and Millamant-Congreve exposed the follies and vanities of that world, and suggested that behind the glinting mirror lay something more brutal.

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