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Thomas Otway
1652–1685
A gifted tragedian of the Restoration stage, he wrote with unusual emotional force and is still remembered for The Orphan and Venice Preserv'd. His short, difficult life has become almost as famous as the intensity of his plays.
4 Audiobooks
Venice Preserved: A Tragedy in Five Acts
by Thomas Otway
The Orphan; Or, The Unhappy Marriage. A Tragedy, in Five Acts
by Thomas Otway
Venice Preserved: A Tragedy
by Thomas Otway
Thomas Otway
by Thomas Otway
About the author
Born in Sussex in 1652, Thomas Otway studied at Winchester College and Christ Church, Oxford, but he left without taking a degree and turned toward the London stage. After a brief and unsuccessful attempt at acting, he found his real strength in writing drama.
Otway became one of the best-known tragic playwrights of late 17th-century England. His reputation rests especially on The Orphan and Venice Preserv'd, plays admired for their emotional pressure, strong theatrical sense, and sympathy for characters caught in love, loyalty, and betrayal.
His life was marked by financial trouble and disappointment, and he died young in 1685. Even so, his work held an important place in Restoration theater, and he remains one of the period's most memorable writers of tragedy.