PINERO, Arthur Wing.
The Second Mrs. Tanqueray. A Play in Four Acts.
The titular character from The Second Mrs Tanqueray, Paula Tanqueray, is a ‘fallen woman’ who, at the beginning of the play appears to have found a kind of redemption, having secured a ‘good’ marriage. As with plays of this sort, the threat of her past catching up with her is ever present. It eventually does (her husband’s daughter’s fiancé turns out to be an old lover of hers); showing how temporary and fragile any security for women such as Paula Tanqueray was. In spite of the unsurprising story arc - it ends in Paula Tanqueray’s suicide - it is remembered as one of the first attempts to represent the “fallen woman” sympathetically and to question the sexual double standard that operated in Victorian society (Fiona Gregory, ‘Mrs. Pat’s Two Bodies: Ghosting and the Landmark Performance’, in Theatre Survey, Volume 57, Issue 2, May 2016, pp.218-231).
Bookseller’s ticket on front pastedown. Light scattered foxing throughout, excepting the tissue guard to the frontispiece, which is more heavy. Very good plus: a tight, bright copy.
