Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight"
    A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight"
    A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight"
    Ebook43 pages33 minutes

    A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight"

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 3, 2016
    ISBN9781535825559
    A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight"

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight"

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      ‘The Humans’ Review: Stephen Karam’s Hit Play About An Unsettling Thanksgiving Comes To Showtime, Starring Amy Schumer And A Table Full Of Real Humans

      Nov 24, 2021

      ‘The Humans’ Review: Stephen Karam’s Hit Play About An Unsettling Thanksgiving Comes To Showtime, Starring Amy Schumer And A Table Full Of Real Humans
      2 min read

    • Article

      Polly Stenham

      Jun 4, 2016

      Polly Stenham
      1 min read

    • Article

      Refugees

      Mar 1, 2019

      Refugees
      12 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Note

      Jul 25, 2019

      IF THE FIERCE WOMAN IN A BROCADE JACKET ON OUR cover is unfamiliar to you, allow us to correct that. Playwright Adrienne Kennedy is an American original as distinctive as any artist who’s ever walked among us. Born in 1931, she began writing her lyri

      2 min read

    • Article

      Grief And The Unspeakable

      Jun 24, 2018

      Grief And The Unspeakable
      10 min read

    • Article

      Samuel D. Hunter The High Tragedy Place

      Apr 27, 2020

      In Samuel D. Hunter’s Greater Clements, Maggie and Joe, a mother and son who run an Idaho mining museum, face its imminent closure as their small town goes through the process of unincorporating. When an old flame of Maggie’s turns up, her chance for

      8 min read

    • Article

      “Where Did You Laugh?”

      Dec 14, 2019

      “Where Did You Laugh?”
      4 min read

    • Article

      'Slings & Arrows' Made Shakespeare Must-see TV. The Prequel Sounds Just As Delightful

      Nov 6, 2019

      If there's no business like show business, and there is no playwright like Shakespeare, then it stands to reason - and is, in fact, a fact - that there's no series like "Slings & Arrows," a gorgeous Canadian import from the first decade of this centu

      7 min read

    • Article

      The 10 Best Shows

      Dec 19, 2016

      The 10 Best Shows
      3 min read

    • Article

      We Laughed–until We Cried

      Feb 5, 2020

      We Laughed–until We Cried
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tender

      Sep 1, 2022

      I spend late morning weeping with the news: a black bear with burnt paws is euthanized along the latest wildfire's newest edge. It was crawling on its forearms, seeking a place to rest. I Google more; reports leak out: the bear had bedded down behind

      1 min read

    • Article

      Norwegian Wood

      Jul 25, 2019

      HENRIK IBSEN: THE MAN AND THE MASK By Ivo de Figueiredo, translated by Robert Ferguson. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 2019. 704 pp., $40 cloth. HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND HENRIK IBSEN? Theatrically, he was the Master Builder himself, setting the

      7 min read

    • Article

      Cathedrals Made of Bricks

      Nov 25, 2019

      Cathedrals Made of Bricks
      6 min read

    • Article

      Small Is Beautiful

      Sep 25, 2019

      Small Is Beautiful
      10 min read

    • Article

      Qui Nguyen Finds a Home in Orange County

      Apr 2, 2019

      As a playwright, I’m a little bit ADD artistically,” says Qui Nguyen. “I get bored really quickly. I put things in there that are kind of wild, just to keep myself entertained.” Nguyen’s breakthrough play, Vietgone, illustrates exactly what he’s talk

      5 min read

    • Article

      My 21st-century Touchstone Play: Theatre Stars Share The Shows That Shook Them To The Core

      Feb 19, 2021

      Here at the Evening Standard, we recently tried to pull together the 21st-century’s greatest plays (read our list and see if you agree). But what about those plays that impact us more personally, that seem to speak to us directly and leave us getting

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight"

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Robert Sherwood's "Idiot's Delight" - Gale

      3

      Idiot’s Delight

      Robert E. Sherwood

      1936

      Introduction

      Robert E. Sherwood’s Idiot’s Delight takes place at a resort in the Italian Alps at an undetermined time, soon before the start of World War II. In the play, passengers on a train bound for Switzerland are prevented from leaving the country because war is going to break out. Tensions are high, as nobody, including the local authorities, knows which country or countries will attack which. The interesting characters who are detained at the hotel include a German doctor who is close to finding a cure for cancer; a British couple on their honeymoon; a French Communist who is returning from an international labor conference; a mysterious Russian countess and her companion, an arms merchant who has inside knowledge about when the fighting will begin; and a company of American showgirls, led by a manager who is a seasoned show business professional and confidence man.

      The situation described in the play is fictional—Sherwood describes World War II starting with Italian planes bombing Paris, though in fact the war did not begin until three years after the play was produced, with Germany’s invasion of Poland. Still, the situation that he concocted for this play puts audiences right into the difficult situation in Europe in the thirties, when war really was expected at any moment. The play also includes performances of singing and dancing and a plot line about long-lost lovers reuniting at the final moments of their lives. Sherwood won his first Pulitzer Prize for drama for Idiot’s Delight in 1936.

      Author Biography

      Robert Emmet Sherwood was born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1896. His writing career began early, when at age seven he edited a magazine called Children’s Life. His mother was an artist and illustrator, and she encouraged his writing throughout his whole life.

      After graduating from Milton Academy in Massachusetts in 1914, Sherwood entered Harvard, where he became editor of the internationally famous humor magazine Harvard Lampoon. His college career was cut short when he went to fight in World War I with the Canadian Black Watch. His service in the war was to have a lasting effect on Sherwood’s writing: most of his plays, like Idiot’s Delight, reflect a sense of the horrors of warfare and its devastating effects on community.

      Returning from Europe in 1919, Sherwood secured a job as drama critic for Vanity Fair magazine. There, he became associated with some of the greatest humorists of his time, who met regularly for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. The famed Algonquin Round Table group included, along with Sherwood, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, and Heywood Broun. In 1924, he became

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1