The School for Scandal

First performed in 1777, this comedy of manners is set in fashionable London, where Lady Sneerwell's circle lives by gossip. Sir Peter Teazle has married a young country wife who is learning scandal. The brothers Joseph and Charles Surface, one a hypocrite and one a spendthrift, compete for Maria and for their uncle Sir Oliver's fortune. A screen scene and a picture-sale test who is sincere. The play is a satire of reputation and sentiment, not a documentary of any real salon.

Bound in full red cloth with a silhouette in gold by Beaton. White dust-jacket printed in red and black. Two variant dust-jackets, one with text on the back flap, the other blank on the back flap.