Look Back in Pleasure: Noël Coward Revisited ed. by Joel Kaplan and Sheila Stowell (review)

508 REVIEWS that Wilde "once again I...J depicts a world that is populated by concerned mothers and devoid ofcompassionate fathers" (106); but, again, the perception needs contextualization in relation to other plays and ideas of the time, rather than simply Wilde's own feelings and experiences. Although its thoroughness commends it to the student of Wilde's life and works, the simplicity of the book's method is a serious limitation. The invocation in its subtitle of "maternal presence" might imply a theory of maternal-filial relationships, grounded in psychology (if not psychoimalysis), or an engagement with Wilde's troubled sexual identity, but this is not the case: Freud does not figure in the index. One might also expect some study of the discourses of maternity and sexuality current in the 18805 and 18905, if only as exemplified in responses to Wilde's work and personality, but this also is absent. It is not a pleasurable task to indicate so many of a scholarly work's limitations, but readers need to be aware both of what is and of what is not delivered by it. Even Horan's title, The Importance of Being Paradoxical, is more striking than useful. That Lady Wilde enjoyed paradox merely places her . alongside other influences on her son's thinking. It is shown (quite reasonably) that Wilde shared many of his mother's enthusiasms, including her ideal of the poet as public figure, her views on women in society, and her interest in folk and fairy tales, and that he was impressed by her eccentric but fonnidable personality. The biographical conclusion reached, however, seems unSUTprising and simplistic: "Wilde's trailblazing affinnation of his right to be a homosexual artist was partly due to Speranza because she encouraged her son to take pride in his individuality" (t24). That "partly" subsumes - and ignores - whole volumes of analysis of the other factors involved. JOEL KAPLAN and SHEILA STOWELL, cds. Look Back in Pleasure: Noel Coward Revisited. London: Methuen, 2000. Pp. xviii + 238. $29.95 (Hb). Reviewed by Brian Parker, Trinity College, University ofToronto For those of us who remember NOfH Coward mainly as an amusing cabaret perfonner with an exaggeratedly upper-class manner (beautifully self-parodied in the movie Our Man in Havana), it is salutary to be reminded of just how thoroughly he dominated English theatre and smart society for nearly three decades, from the angry young rebel of the 1920S through the bittersweet satirist of sexual and social mores in the 19305 to the fervent, stoically "masculine" patriot and crony of Lord Louis Mountbatten during World War II. His stock fell precipitously in the t950S with the advent of the Royal Court's vogue for working-class realism, but though new plays such as Nude with a Violin were panned, there was a revival of interest in his ear1ier comedy in the t960s, which Coward himself hailed sardonically as "Dad's Renaissance" (3). Now, at the centenary of his birth, there seems to be something of a Reviews 509 "Granddad's Renaissance," mostly across the United Kingdom, of course, but with echoes also in the United States and Canada. This renewed interest has resulted in fifteen revivals of Coward's plays on stage in 1999 alone, including some texts rarely produced as well as reinterpretations of old favourites; a BBC trilogy about his life (1998); radio productions of six plays from his anthology Tonight at 8:30; an album of his songs recorded by current pop stars; a new edition of his works from Methuen; and at least three statues - in New York, Jamaica (to which he retreated after World War II to escape the Labour government and taxes), and, pre-eminently, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, this last unveiled by his old friend Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Of more strictly academic importance was the establishment of the Noel Coward Conference and Study Centre at the University of Birmingham, where his library, papers, and theatrical memorabilia are now on permanent loan. To celebrate the opening of this centre, a two-day symposium was held that brought together a distinguished group of scholars, critics, directors, and actors .- many of them involved in current productions - to...