Recommendations
Books Like She Stoops to Conquer
Best books to read after She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
Readers who love She Stoops to Conquer — Goldsmith's brilliant comedy of errors about class, disguise, and the difference between urban affectation and country common sense — will enjoy these works of English comic theatre, eighteenth-century comedy, and the great tradition of laughing comedy that Goldsmith defined.
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Buy on AmazonThe School for Scandal
by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
The companion comedy from four years later — Sheridan's masterpiece of drawing-room wit is to She Stoops to Conquer as wit is to farce; the two plays together define the golden age of eighteenth-century English stage comedy.
- 2
Buy on AmazonThe Rivals
by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Sheridan's first great comedy — Mrs. Malaprop's verbal disasters, Lydia Languish's romantic silliness, and the comic duel are in the same laughing tradition as Goldsmith; The Rivals and She Stoops to Conquer are often paired in production.
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Buy on AmazonThe Vicar of Wakefield
by Oliver Goldsmith
Goldsmith's only novel, the same year as She Stoops to Conquer's first performance — the Primrose family's sentimental comedy of disaster and vindication shows the range of Goldsmith's comic genius; essential for understanding his full vision.
- 4
Buy on AmazonThe Way of the World
by William Congreve
The Restoration comedy masterpiece from which the eighteenth-century comic tradition descends — Congreve's brilliant dialogue and moral comedy are the direct ancestor of both Goldsmith and Sheridan; the greatest English comedy before She Stoops to Conquer.
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Buy on AmazonMuch Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
The Shakespearean comedy closest to Goldsmith's tradition — the wit battles of Beatrice and Benedick, the confusion of identity, and the vindication of virtue are all present; reading Shakespeare alongside Goldsmith shows the long tradition of English laughing comedy.
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Buy on AmazonArms and the Man
by George Bernard Shaw
Shaw's Shavian comedy of romantic delusion and military reality is the Victorian heir to Goldsmith's tradition — the heroine who discovers that her romantic hero is a prosaic man of common sense echoes the comic structure of She Stoops to Conquer.
- 7
Buy on AmazonThe Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
Wilde's masterpiece of comic disguise and mistaken identity is the Victorian high point of the tradition Goldsmith belongs to — the double identity, the country house comedy of manners, and the wit maintained under absurd pressure are all Goldsmith's methods raised to virtuoso pitch.
- 8Buy on Amazon
Three Sisters
by Anton Chekhov
An unexpected companion — Chekhov's comedy of provincial life and the gap between aspiration and reality is the great Russian counterpart to Goldsmith's comedy of country life; both writers find comedy and pathos in the gap between what people wish for and what they get.
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