Well-Made Play
The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre
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1996
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© The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
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Well-Made Play, English version of
une pièce bien faite, a label applied in early 19th-century France, at first in a complimentary sense, to plays written by dramatists skilled above all in putting together a plot. It soon took on a pejorative meaning, and came to be used ironically of all plays in which the action develops artificially, according to the strict laws of logic and not to the unpredictable demands of human nature; and in which the plot, to which the characters are completely subordinated, is conceived in terms of exposition, knot, and denouement, with a series of contrived climaxes to create suspense. It is commonly used in France of the works of
Scribe and
Sardou, and in Britain of such playwrights as
Robertson,
Jones,
Pinero,
Coward, and
Rattigan. The well-made play was the chief target of
Zola and other proponents of
naturalism in France, and of Shaw's hostile criticism of productions in London from 1895 to 1898.
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M. F. K. Fisher's delicious tales of France
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 3/12/1991; ; 700+ words
; ...FRANCE The Years in Dijon By M. F. K. Fisher Prentice Hall, 128 pages...When she writes of food, M. F. K. Fisher invariably thinks of people...an afterword, we learn that M. F. K. Fisher and her two daughters spent...
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M.F.K. Fisher's Sensual Realm; The Writer at 80, Still Holding Forth on Food and Much Else
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 7/26/1988; ; 700+ words
; Here is a way to conceive a first encounter with M.F.K. Fisher, since it did happen once, and might as easily have...the phrase John Updike once used, when writing about M.F.K. Fisher; Julia Child calls her a "monument...
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A full serving for aficionados of M.F.K. Fisher.(DAILY DATEBOOK)(Book Review)
Newspaper article from: San Francisco Chronicle; 11/16/2004; ; 700+ words
; ...David Kipen Poet of the Appetites The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher By Joan Reardon NORTH POINT PRESS; 509 PAGES; $27...to frustrate it, but Joan Reardon's nourishing new M.F.K. Fisher biography actually rewards it. To be specific...
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 "Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)")
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Paperbacks; Three books nourish appreciation of food writer M.F. K. Fisher Her life was marked by marvelous meals, fascinating friends and keen observations.(ENTERTAINMENT)(Review)
Newspaper article from: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN); 11/22/1998; ; 700+ words
; M.F.K. Fisher died six years ago, leaving behind some of the most influential writing...American. Three new paperbacks add to her legacy. "A Welcoming Life: The M.F.K. Fisher Scrapbook," compiled and annotated by Dominique Gioia...
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M.F.K. Fisher's Feeding Ground; For this renowned gastronome, the French port of Marseille went with everything.
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 12/13/1998; ; 700+ words
; ...Alive. Young. At ease. With these words, the writer M.F.K. Fisher described Marseille, and herself while in France's...apero (there must always be an aperitif stop, in true M.F.K. style, and although her favorite was a vermouth...
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Tasty Torrent of Letters From M.F.K. Fisher / Food writer had a `physically urgent' need to communicate in words.(Review)
Newspaper article from: San Francisco Chronicle; 12/21/1997; ; 700+ words
; M.F.K. FISHER A Life in Letters Selected and compiled by Norah K. Barr, Marsha Moran and Patrick Moran...studies, and thus began renowned food writer M.F.K. Fisher's ill-fated first marriage...
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Appreciation; The World Was Her Oyster; Author M.F.K. Fisher's Delectable Life
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 6/24/1992; ; 700+ words
; ...well-meaning people suggested that I should write like M.F.K. Fisher. Would that I could. After all, this extraordinary...different. I wished not just to write, but to live like M.F.K. Fisher. She knew much more than how to write...
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M. F. K. Fisher, a Life in Letters: Correspondence, 1929-1991.
Magazine article from: American Scholar; 3/22/1998; ; 700+ words
; Selected by Norah K. Barr, Marsha Moran, and Patrick...are alcoholics or Benzedrine boys," M. F. K. Fisher wrote at the age of forty. The wry...another. Powell saved every letter M. F. K wrote to him. (We don't...
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The Poetics of M. F. K. Fisher.
Magazine article from: Style; 9/22/2003; ; 700+ words
; M. F. K. Fisher once said, "I do not consider myself...topics other than food. How do we reconcile Fisher's self-perception with her reputation...Lopate suggests that we consider food to be Fisher's defining metaphor. He writes, "Certainly...
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The world was her oyster For M.F.K. Fisher, food was a metaphor for life
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 6/28/1992; ; 700+ words
; ...writer. I imagined Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher eating oysters when she died last week...because, after all, she was American. M. F. K. Fisher was America's greatest food...Some of my best meals have been at M. F. K. Fisher's "table.") With...
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M. F. K. Fisher
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
M. F. K. Fisher (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher), 1908-92, American culinary writer...and Last House (1995). Bibliography: See her letters ed. by N. K. Barr, M. Moran, and P. Moran (1997); autobiographical writings ed. by...
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Fisher, M. F. K.
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Food and Culture
FISHER, M. F. K. FISHER, M. F. K. Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (1908 – 1992) wrote twenty-three books and hundreds of articles in which cuisine was virtually always her metaphor of choice. Many of her works included recipes...
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Fisher, M(ary) F(rances) K(ennedy)
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to American Literature
Fisher, M[ary] F[rances] K[ennedy] (1908–92), a Californian by birth and long‐time residence, wrote about a far larger world...
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Technological Progress, Skill Bias
Encyclopedia entry from: International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
...can be written as y=f(x,t). Technological...1956) and Robert M. Solow (1957...production function, y = f(x, t) . Totally...x3B1; , where K is capital, L is labor...great detail by Irving Fisher (1922) and serve...been named, after Fisher, as Fisher ’...
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Bergman, Ingmar
Dictionary entry from: International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers
...Married 1) Else Fisher, 1943 (divorced 1945...Ellen Lundstr ö m, 1945 (divorced 1950...1951, one son; 4) K ä bi Laretei...xE5; v å r k ä rlek ( It...sc) 1948 Musik i m ö rker ( Music...co-sc) 1949 F ä ngelse...
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