The Man of Mode (New Mermaids)

Verbal brilliance, urbane sophistication and sexual conquest are the measures of success for the fashionable set who watched themselves being represented on the Restoration stage. Yet idealisation and satire, as this edition of Etherege's masterpiece shows, are flip sides of the same coin, and the play betrays deep anxieties about ridicule and social failure. Any London beau would emulate Dorimant, the unconscionable rake who loves 'em and leaves 'em, but he would also secretly fear that he in fact resembled Sir Fopling Flutter, the model of all Restoration fops, in his vanity and affectation. The women fare no better, being offered for identification Dorimant's discarded mistress Loveit, scheming for revenge, or the beautiful but hard-headed Harriet, who dares Dorimant to woo her in the country, for 'I know all beyond Hyde Park is a desert to you and that no gallantry can draw you farther'.

This edition highlights the very varied critical interpretations to which this rich but episodic comedy has been subject, and makes a case for it as a psychologically astute and brilliantly executed comedy of courtship rituals.
Detailed commentary notes are included alongside the play text for easy reference. There is also a list of further reading suggestions to aid research.
New Mermaids is a series of over 50 classic plays with an active programme of new editions.