“This original study will no doubt draw attention to St. John Hankin’s work, which may in turn receive further scrutiny from scholars, students, and theatre practitioners.”

Michel Pharand, Queen's University

This book proposes a vibrant intertextual dialogue between St. John Hankin’s manners comedies and what are considered Bernard Shaw’s “minor” Edwardian comedies and, after the war, some of his most experimental “extravagant” plays. Engaging thematic topics ranging from philanthropy and parenting to marital alliances and comic endings, their dramaturgy was truly in conversation over form and content as they re-purposed one another in a vital wrangling to direct the creative evolution of modern British comedy.