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Design for Living

By Noël Coward
Series: Modern Classics
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Set in 1930s bohemian Paris and high society Manhattan, Design for Living tells the story of a passionate love triangle involving Gilda, a spirited interior designer, and two lovers—playwright Leo and artist Otto. Their unconventional relationship tests the limits of devotion and societal expectations as they navigate the complexities of love and friendship.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This stylish and scandalous comedy is ideal for readers interested in themes of bisexuality, celebrity culture, self-obsession, and classic 20th-century drama. Fans of Noël Coward or provocative, boundary-pushing plays will find it particularly engaging.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

"Its fusion of passion and mischief remains striking and there is something undeniably heady about its celebration of a kind of sexual liberation that looks a lot like flippancy" - Evening Standard

From 1930s bohemian Paris to the dizzying heights of Manhattan society, a tempestuous love triangle unravels between a vivacious interior designer, Gilda, playwright Leo and artist Otto—three people unashamedly and passionately in love with each other. But can such a lavish love affair survive the real world?

Exploring themes of bisexuality, celebrity, success and self-obsession, Design for Living is a stylish and scandalous comedy, often revered as Coward's most controversial and risqué work.

This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Coward's death and features a new introduction by Oliver Soden.

Series: Modern Classics

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781350353671

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 June 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Methuen Drama

Contributors:

  • Introduction by Oliver Soden

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 12.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 167g

Pages: 144

Collections

Arts & Culture Gifts for adults Non-Fiction Noël Coward Series: Modern Classics

About the Author

Noël Coward was born in 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex. He made his name as a playwright with The Vortex (1924), in which he also appeared. His numerous other successful plays included Fallen Angels (1925), Hay Fever (1925), Private Lives (1933), Design for Living (1933) and Blithe Spirit (1941). During the war he wrote screenplays such as Brief Encounter (1944) and In Which We Serve (1942). In the fifties he began a new career as a cabaret entertainer. He published volumes of verse and a novel (Pomp and Circumstance, 1960), two volumes of autobiography and four volumes of short stories: To Step Aside (1939), Star Quality (1951), Pretty Polly Barlow (1964) and Bon Voyage (1967). He was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica.

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    Coward's wit and precision as a modern dramatist is nowhere better exemplified than in this classic modern play from 1930. Private Lives tells the story of Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne (originally played by Gertrude Lawrence and Noël Coward), who were recently divorced from one another five years previously. They arrive coincidentally at the same French hotel, honeymooning with their...
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