Books by Penny (University of Sydney) Gay

Where did Shakespearean comedy come from? Where did it arrive? What makes it still relevant today? This comprehensive survey addresses these and many other questions, providing readers with a map of Shakespeare's comic styles, showing how he built on comedic conventions as he enriched the possibilities of the genre.

Jane Austen was fascinated by theatre from her childhood. Penny Gay describes for the first time the rich theatrical context of Austen's writing, and the intersections between her novels and contemporary drama, relating Austen's mature novels to the various genres of eighteenth-century drama.