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Title: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard ISBN: 0571169341 Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.66
Rating: 4
Summary: It's about the second law of thermodynamics
Comment: Stoppard again weaves philosophy, science, history and literature into a drama. Although the play is really about the second law of thermodynamics (which says that the universe is gradually becoming more, not less, diffuse and chaotic), we get a merry dose of literature (Byron). There is an oblique nod to Lady Ada Lovelace, Byron's daughter, who worked with mathematician Charles Babbage in developing the theory of the programmable computer. That nod is manifest as the budding genius Thomasina, who works out theromodynamics and chaos theory (in the early 19th Century!) as the landscape gardeners outside gradually follow romanticism and turn her mother's manicured garden into a more natural (read chaotic) environment.
The real surprise comes when the the early 19th century scene is invaded by 20th century characters who are trying to piece together exactly what happened here nearly 200 years previously. A doomed enterprise, Thomasina could have told them. The Second Law of Thermodynamics says you cannot recapture the past.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful and important dramatic work.
Comment: I've been trying to get away from the sort of highbrow self-referential philosophical literature that one thinks of when they hear the name Stoppard, but after reading Arcadia I found that this reputation proved to be only half the story.
Don't get me wrong-- Arcadia is an intellectual work of drama. It can be read and analyzed for symbolism and layering and all the fun that one typically associates with "Great Literature". Stoppard demands elementary knowledge of thermodynamics (entropy), modern mathematics (iterations and chaos theory), gardening history (Classic/Romantic), and literary history (Byron, Romanticism, etc.) There is tons of symbolism and contrast and notions about human nature. But despite all the intellectual games and word play, Arcadia manages to retain a profound sense of humanness.
The characters are vibrant and full of desire. They are not merely facades through which Stoppard can show off his literary prowess. Arcadia is simply a wonderful story. In the end, one cares about the characters and this is what redeems the play from mere intellectual showmanship. The plot moves and weaves and twists and if you can follow it, the play is truly rewarding.
My only misgiving is that I never got to see Arcadia in production. The last scene incorporates two different time periods on the same stage as they couples dance side by side in almost mirror image. I would have loved to see it done on stage and I'm eagerly awaiting an Arcadia revival.
Rating: 4
Summary: Wry commentary on human nature
Comment: One of my classes this semester is a playwriting course, so I turned to Stoppard to give me some inspiration and guidance in the process of creation. I've not seen much Stoppard performed--only Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Rough Crossing--but I liked both of those very much. A classmate recommended this play, and it was in my AlexLit recommendation list as well.
After reading it, I am not surprised. The basic plot is similar in many ways to A.S. Byatt's Possession, which I waxed effusive about way back in Installment 7. In 1809 in a country house in Derbyshire, Septimus Hodge is tutoring a young woman named Thomasina. In the modern day, some of Hodge's letters and effects are being studied by some academics, one of whom is determined that Lord Byron was present and is responsible for two scurrilous reviews in the Picadilly Review. The academic, of course, hopes to make his career on this.
Stoppard and Byatt part ways, though, in the meaning that they attach to the machinations of academics trying to discover the "truth" of the past. Byatt's entire book was a study of the word "possess," and what it meant both for her fictious poets and the modern day literary detectives. Stoppard, however, is exploring a difference in temperament between the times, but how sex is and has always been a disruptive force. It's a wry commentary on human nature.
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Title: Copenhagen by Michael Frayn ISBN: 0385720793 Publisher: Anchor Books Pub. Date: 08 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, Henry Popkin ISBN: 0802132758 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: May, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard ISBN: 0802135811 Publisher: Grove/Atlantic Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard ISBN: 0571125298 Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Proof: A Play by David Auburn ISBN: 0571199976 Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: March, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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