J. B. Priestley, The Time Plays

Peter Christopher Grosvenor (Pacific Lutheran University)
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J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) established his reputation as a leading playwright in the 1930s. Three of his plays from that decade –

Dangerous Corner

(1932),

Time and the Conways

(1937), and

I Have Been Here Before

(1937) – he designated as “time plays”. Each of them reflects Priestley’s fascination with the unorthodox theories of time that emerged in the inter-war period, and each explores this mystical theme in the realist style.

Priestley described himself as “a Time-haunted man” and believed that time was “the particular riddle that the Sphinx has set for this age of ours” (Priestley, Man and Time, p. 12; Priestley, Midnight on the Desert, p. 245). His enduring preoccupation with this riddle can be explained in terms of broad intellectual and cultural developments, and

2200 words

Citation: Grosvenor, Peter Christopher. "The Time Plays". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 November 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35066, accessed 28 March 2024.]

35066 The Time Plays 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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