Blithe Spirit

Noël Coward

mai 2023 · Bloomsbury Publishing

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'Some of [Coward's] most sparkling dialogue ever ... This play is about something substantial - the way past relationships come back to haunt us - but it's the gossamer-like nature of the piece, its sheer levity of spirit, that makes it such an enduring achievement' - The Telegraph

When socialite and novelist Charles Condomine attends a séance hosted by eccentric medium Madame Arcati, he's only hoping to gather material for his next book: he never expected to be haunted by his temperamental ex-wife, Elvira. Can Charles keep this willful spirit at bay, or will his new marriage to his second wife, Ruth, come to an untimely demise?

With unforgettable characters, witty dialogue and farcical situations, Blithe Spirit ran for decades on the West End, becoming one of the most well-known plays in the British canon.

This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 125th anniversary of Coward's birth and features a new introduction by Arianne Johnson Quinn.

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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.