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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