Volpone and The Alchemist (Dover Thrift Editions

The shopping product is a collection of two comedies by the great Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson, Much-studied and frequently performed plays that satirize the greed, mendacity, gullibility, and pretension of seventeenth-century London society.

Both plays are filled with colorful characters, ingenious plotting, biting wit, and sharp insight into human nature.

In Volpone (1605), a crafty rich man attempts to augment his wealth by feigning a mortal illness, while in The Alchemist (1610) a butler and prostitute join forces with a swindler claiming to possess the philosopher's stone.

Both plays offer sparkling examples of their author's novel approach to satire and his distinctive blend of savagery, humor, moralism, and a powerful sense of the absurd.

This shopping product is a must-read for anyone interested in literature, history, or simply enjoying a good laugh at the expense of humanity's foibles.