J. B. Priestley, The Time Plays

Peter Christopher Grosvenor (Pacific Lutheran University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1932 - 1937

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Drama

Resources

J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) established his reputation as a leading playwright in the 1930s. Three of his plays from that decade – Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), and I Have Been Here Before (1937) – he designated as “time plays”. Each of them reflects Priestley’s fascination with the unorthodox theories of time that emerged in the inter-war period, and each explores this mystical theme in the realist style.

Priestley described himself as “a Time-haunted man” and believed that time was “the particular riddle that the Sphinx has set for this age of ours” (Priestley, Man and Time, p. 12; Priestley, Midnight on the Desert, p. 245). His enduring preoccupation …

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2200 words

Citation: Grosvenor, Peter Christopher. "The Time Plays". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 November 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35066, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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