George Farquhar was the most popular, and perhaps the best playwright of his time. The Irish-born actor and military officer arrived in London before he was twenty, captivated audiences with his lively, good-natured comedy, philandered with the leading actresses and female playwrights, married a widow with children, and wrote, besides the eight plays, many poems, letters, prologues and epilogues, an epic, and a miscellany, before his untimely death in 1707, not yet thirty.

Shirley Strum Kenny has provided the first scholarly edition of the works since Stonehill's in 1730, in a reliable old-spelling text. She has added to the canon materials not printed since the beginning of the eighteenth century, some of which have never before been identified as Farquhar's.

Each play has an introduction describing its sources and composition, theatrical and publication history, influence, and textual problems. The introductions to the non-dramatic works contain similar information, and relate the works to the contemporary events which occasioned them. Questions of authorship for newly-identified works, and possible or doubtful attributions are carefully considered.