Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 play is a feral little machine about money, inheritance and corruption.

In David Mamet’s adaptation, Edward Voysey discovers that the respectable investment firm he is expected to inherit has for years been stealing from its clients (shocker), with the proceeds underwriting not only the business but the entire family’s comfortable existence. 

Where it steers past trope is exploring what it means to actually confront corruption, when your family is dependent on it. Mamet strips the language back without flattening Granville-Barker’s social architecture, keeping the play’s fascination with fathers and sons, class, reputation, fraud and the strange elasticity of conscience once money is involved. Private versus public wrongdoing exposed. 

Vintage Books, New York, 2005. First Vintage Original edition, first printing. Paperback. Light shelf wear and rubbing to covers, with minor edge wear and a small crease/scuff to lower front cover. Internally clean; binding firm. Very good condition.