author
Susanna Centlivre
1666–1723
A lively English playwright, poet, and actress, she became one of the best-known women writing for the early 18th-century stage. Her comedies, especially The Busy Body and The Wonder, kept audiences entertained long after her lifetime.
3 Audiobooks
The Busie Body
by Susanna Centlivre
The Perjur'd Husband; or, The Adventures of Venice. A Tragedy
by Susanna Centlivre
The Stolen Heiress; or, The Salamanca Doctor Outplotted. A Comedy
by Susanna Centlivre
About the author
Born Susanna Freeman and later also known as Susanna Carroll, she is generally identified as having been baptized in 1669 and died in London in 1723. Details of her early life are often described as uncertain or mixed with later legend, but her career on the English stage is much clearer.
She wrote popular comedies that helped make her one of the standout female dramatists of her era. Alongside writing, she also worked as an actress, and her plays were admired for their pace, wit, and strong theatrical sense.
Her best-known works include The Busy Body and The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret. Although she is less widely read today than some of her contemporaries, she remains an important figure in the history of women’s writing and Restoration and early 18th-century theater.