Literary Connections: Victorian drama page

Victorian drama

This is one of a series of pages on Victorian literature; use the links in the menu on the left to navigate to the other pages on general materials, poetry and prose.

The AQA course, AS Level English Literature A, requires the study of one post-1990 text; such texts are indicated here.

AQA drama texts for Unit 2

A Woman of No Importance: Oscar Wilde

See also the Oscar Wilde Page

A Doll's House: Henrik Ibsen (edited by Watts, Penguin)

A S Byatt looks at Ibsen's tragic heroine in The Guardian: Blaming Nora.

Arcadia: Tom Stoppard ^{post 1990}

Links are provided to the editions specified by AQA; other texts will be linked as time permits, though appropriate alternative editions should be suitable. Use the search box on the left to search for any texts not linked here.

Wider reading in drama

Anonymous: Maria Marten, or Murder in the Red Barn 1840
J M Barrie: The Admirable Crichton 1902
Dion Boucicault: The Streets of London 1864
Terry Eagleton: Saint Oscar 1989
Brian Friel: The Home Place 2005 ^{post 1990}
Patrick Hamilton: Gaslight 1939
David Hare: The Judas Kiss 1998 ^{post 1990}
Arthur Wing Pinero: The Second Mrs Tanqueray 1893
Harold Pinter: The French Lieutenant's Woman (screenplay) 1981
George Bernard Shaw: Mrs Warren's Profession 1894 - available in Plays Unpleasant along with Widowers' Houses and The Philanderer
George Bernard Shaw: Arms and the Man 1898 - available in Plays Pleasant along with Candida, The Man of Destiny and You Never Can Tell
Tom Stoppard: The Invention of Love 1997 ^{post 1990}
Tom Taylor: The Ticket-of-Leave Man 1863
Oscar Wilde: Lady Windermere's Fan 1892 (New Mermaids edition linked here)
Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband 1895 (Dover Thrift edition linked here)
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest 1895 (Penguin Popular Classics linked here).
In addition, one-volume editions of these plays are also available:

The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan, Salome, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband (Oxford World's Classics)
The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan, Salome, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, A Florentine Tragedy (Penguin Classics)

If you are teaching or studying the AQA course it is essential to refer to the AQA specification to ensure that you are reading the right texts and meeting all the requirements!

Drama in translation

Anton Chekhov: Uncle Vanya 1897
Nikolai Gogol: The Government Inspector 1836
Henrik Ibsen: An Enemy of the People 1882
August Strindberg: Miss Julie 1888

Useful websites

See the weblinks on the introductory page for general links for Victorian literature.

The People Play theatre history site is unfortunately not currently available. The collections have moved to the V&A's Theatre Collections and there are some resources on their site.

Finding drama texts online

See the usual sources of online texts listed on the literature links page, in particular:

Project Gutenberg
Bibliomania has The Doll's House online.
The Oscar Wilde page has links to online copies of his works.
The Victorian Web provides links to texts for many authors.