Description
By: Langdon Mitchell (1862-1935)
“The New York Idea” by Langdon Mitchell is a thought-provoking play that delves into the intricacies of love, marriage, and social status in New York society. The characters are well-developed and their interactions are both witty and engaging. The dialogue is sharp and quick-paced, drawing the reader further into the drama unfolding on stage. Mitchell’s exploration of the various relationships and dilemmas faced by the characters is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Overall, “The New York Idea” is a captivating read that will leave readers reflecting on the complexities of love and society.
Book Description:
I find it very hard to classify “The New York Idea” under any of the established rubrics. It is rather too extravagant to rank as a comedy; it is much too serious in its purport, too searching in its character-delineation and too thoughtful in its wit, to be treated as a mere farce. Its title—not, perhaps, a very happy one—is explained in this saying of one of the characters: “Marry for whim and leave the rest to the divorce court—that’s the New York idea of marriage.” Like all the plays, from Sardou’s “Divorçons” onward, which deal with a too facile system of divorce, this one shows a discontented woman, who has broken up her home for a caprice, suffering agonies of jealousy when her ex-husband proposes to make use of the freedom she has given him, and returning to him at last with the admission that their divorce was at least “premature.” In this central conception there is nothing particularly original. It is the wealth of humourous invention displayed in the details both of character and situation that renders the play remarkable.
