With piercing accuracy William ongreve depicted the shallow, brittle world of 'society' where the right artifice in manners, fashion and conversation--and money--eased the passage to success. Through sparkling, witty dialogue and brilliant characterisation--Lady Plyant, Valentine, Lady Touchwood, Mirabell and Millamant--Congreve exposed the follies and vanities of that world, and suggested that behind the glinting mirror lay something more brutal...