Arcadia
by Tom Stoppard
2020-12-29 17:07:32
âIt is a defect of Godâs humor that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.ââTom Stoppard, Arcadia In a large country house in Derbyshire in April 1809 sits Lady Thomasina Coverly, aged thirteen, an...
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âIt is a defect of Godâs humor that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.ââTom Stoppard, Arcadia In a large country house in Derbyshire in April 1809 sits Lady Thomasina Coverly, aged thirteen, and her tutor, Septimus Hodge. Through the window may be seen some of the âfive hundred acres inclusive of lakeâ where Capability Brownâs idealized landscape is about to give way to the Gothic style: âeverything but vampires,â as the garden historian Hannah Jarvis remarks to Bernard Nightingale when they stand in the same room 180 years later. Bernard has arrived to uncover the scandal which is said to have taken place when Lord Byron stayed at Sidley Park. Tom Stoppardâs masterful play takes us back and forth between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in lifeââthe attraction,â as Hannah says, âwhich Newton left out.â
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