Richard Corballis
Stoppard - The Mystery and the Clockwork

The terms ‘mystery’ and ‘clockwork’ are to be found scattered throughout Stoppard’s own writings and the concepts are encapsulated in Act II of Jumpers when George complains (unjustifiably as it turns out) that Archie’s disciple McFee ‘never put himself at risk by finding mystery in the clockwork’. From the interplay of these conflicting forces Richard Corballis constructs a hypothesis - in a manner both deliberately provocative and illuminating - to unlock the underlying structure and ideas of Stoppard’s work.

Richard Corballis analyses each of Stoppard’s published works — including his radio and television drama, and his only novel Lord Malquist and Mr Moon — and guides us through the linguistic contortions, the tableaux and set pieces, the plays-within-the-plays and the whole dazzling range of puzzles and conundrums.