“The Real Thing” : Essays on Tom Stoppard in Celebration of his 75th Birthday

With A Writing Career Spanning Over Half A Century And Encompassing Media As Diverse As Conferences, Radio, Journalism, Fiction, Theatre, Film, And Television, Tom Stoppard Is Probably The Most Prolific And Significant Living British Dramatist. The Critical Essays In This Volume Celebrating Stoppard’s 75th Birthday Address Many Facets Of Stoppard’s Work, Both The Well-known, Such As Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead And Shakespeare In Love, As Well As The Relatively Critically Neglected, Including His Novel Lord Malquist And Mr. Moon And His Short Stories, “the Story,” “life, Times: Fragments,” And “reunion.” The Essays Presented Here Analyze Plays Such As Arcadia, The Invention Of Love, The Real Thing, And Jumpers, Stoppard’s Film Adaptation Of J. G. Ballard’s Empire Of The Sun, His Television Adaptation Of Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End, And His Stage Adaptations Of Chekhov’s Plays Ivanov, The Seagull, And The Cherry Orchard, As Well As His Own Theatrical Trilogy On Russian History, The Coast Of Utopia (voyage, Shipwreck, And Salvage). Also Included Is An Interview With Tom Stoppard On The 16 November 1982 Debut Of His Play The Real Thing At Strand Theatre, London, And A Detailed Account Of The Stoppard Holdings In The Harry Ransom Center At The University Of Texas At Austin. From His Fascination With Shakespeare And Other Historical Figures (and Time Periods) To His Exploration Of The Connection Between Poetic Creativity And Scholarship To His Predilection For Word Play, Verbal Ambiguity And Use Of Anachronism, Stoppard’s Work Is At Once Insightful And Wry, Thought-provoking And Entertaining, Earnest And Facetious. The Critical Essays In This Volume Hope To Do Justice To The Brilliant Complexity That Is Tom Stoppard’s Body Of Work. Introduction -- The Real Thing: Tom Stoppard Interview With Brian Firth / Introduced By William Baker -- Chekhov's Stoppard / Ira Nadel -- Tom Stoppard: A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man / John Fleming -- Stoppard's Arcadia: This Is Not Science; This Is Story-telling / John V. Knapp -- The Illusion Of Proprietorship: Tom Stoppard's Parade's End / Steven Price -- Reading (and Writing) The Ethics Of Authorship: Shakespeare In Love As Postmodern Metanarrative / Todd F. Davis And Kenneth Womack -- Tom Stoppard, A. E. Housman, And The Classics / Alistair Macaulay -- Stoppard's Shakespeare: Collaboration And Revision / Michael Dean -- Insecurity, Frustration And Disgust In Tom Stoppard's Fiction / Tim Hendrickson -- The Inauthentic Translations In The Invention Of Love / Melina Probst -- Lost And Found: The Search For Truth In Arcadia / Amanda Smothers -- Who Rules The Empire? / Scott Stalcup -- Confrontations With Mortality: Keats, Nightingales, And Prelapsarian Garden Symbols In Stoppard's Arcadia / John Sieker Edited By William Baker And Amanda Smothers. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 278-286) And Index.